Global Links Create Work for Women, But Equal Pay and Leadership Remain Key

The World Bank study shows that internationally connected firms, through trade and global value chains, tend to employ more women than domestic-only firms, though results vary across regions and sectors. Female leadership strongly boosts inclusivity, but deliberate policies are needed to ensure globalization translates into real gender equality.

The study, undertaken by the World Bank in collaboration with leading research institutes, investigates how globalization reshapes women's participation in labor markets worldwide. Gender inequalities remain stubbornly persistent, with women often confined to lower-paying or informal jobs. Globalization, meanwhile, offers both hope and hazard: while it can generate opportunities for women to enter formal, better-paying positions, it also risks deepening existing divides. To untangle this complexity, the report relies on one of the most extensive firm-level datasets ever assembled, over 33,000 services firms across 104 countries and 34,000 manufacturing firms in 81 countries, examining whether women gain or lose when firms trade, integrate into global value chains, or accept foreign investment.

Measuring Women's Share in Global Firms

To capture the dynamics, the researchers establish two critical indicators: the share of women in permanent, full-time employment, and women's share in total wages. Firms are classified by their global connections as exporters, importers, participants in global value chains (both exporting and importing), or foreign-owned. Data constraints meant that sex-disaggregated wages were not consistently available across countries. To maximize coverage, the study adopted a baseline assumption of equal male and female wage rates, while also running robustness checks with more detailed data where possible. Additional layers of analysis considered firm size, productivity, technological intensity, and even the gender of firm owners and managers, making the study both comprehensive and cautious.

Stark Regional Contrasts

The results are striking and sometimes sobering. In services, women's labor shares vary widely across regions. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, women make up over 58 percent of the workforce in places like Serbia and Belarus, reflecting more equal traditions of labor participation. By contrast, in Middle Eastern and South Asian economies, including Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh, female shares in services firms are under 10 percent. Yet the analysis reveals a broader pattern: internationally engaged firms tend to employ more women. Exporters generally report higher female participation than non-exporters, with a handful of East Asian exceptions. Importers also lean toward more inclusive employment compared with domestically sourced firms, suggesting that exposure to international competition or global standards may push firms to broaden opportunities for women.

Manufacturing and the Global Value Chain Effect

In manufacturing, similar dynamics unfold. Data presented in the appendices reveal that exporters and importers consistently hire a larger share of women compared to firms focused only on domestic markets. Particularly noteworthy is the role of global value chains, where firms engaged in both exporting and importing demonstrate significantly higher female labor shares. This suggests that the pressure to meet international production and sourcing standards may encourage more inclusive practices. However, foreign ownership delivers a less consistent picture. In some contexts, foreign firms employ more women, but in others, especially across Asia and Eastern Europe, domestic firms outperform them. These mixed outcomes point to the importance of local institutional and cultural factors in shaping how globalization interacts with gender.

Leadership, Policy, and the Road Ahead

The regression analyses underscore that the positive effects of globalization on female employment remain even when controlling for firm-level characteristics such as output, productivity, and technology use. More revealing, though, is the impact of leadership. Firms with female owners or top managers employ more women across the board, highlighting how representation at the top fosters inclusivity throughout the workforce. This reinforces the argument that promoting women in leadership is not symbolic but transformative. Still, the authors warn against over-interpretation. The reliance on equal wage assumptions in many cases, the uneven distribution of data across countries, and the difficulties of establishing causal relationships mean that the findings, while robust, are not definitive.

The report closes with a call to action. Globalization is not automatically inclusive, but it can become a force for gender equality if paired with deliberate interventions. Policymakers are urged to strengthen labor protections for women, invest in female education and skills, and encourage firms to integrate women into leadership roles. International linkages, especially trade and global value chain participation, do appear to create avenues for women's employment, but without supportive policies, the benefits risk remaining uneven. Foreign investment, in particular, will only deliver on its inclusive promise if guided by regulations and incentives that make gender equality a priority.