Both the concept and reality of inequality have many facets. These include unequal economic opportunities, social exclusion, and limits on rights to political participation. They also cut across different demographic categories, including race, gender, religion, and even linguistic groups. This volume takes the institutional structures framing gender inequality as its starting point, exploring issues ranging from socio-economic rights under domestic law to the participation of women in international institutions. The topics covered are highly relevant, and the chapters themselves offer valuable insight.
This volume has grown out of recent efforts at the University of Bern, led by Professor Elisa Fornalé at the World Trade Institute (wti), to better integrate an awareness of gender-related issues into what we do. The wti is an institute focused on the rules and political systems governing the global economy. These are important determinants of the institutional mechanisms that drive changes (or lack thereof) in gender inequality. As the wti is a university institute, Professor Fornalé’s efforts have had a direct impact through coursework, periodic seminars on the topic, and better focus in our research programmes. As covid-19 restrictions limited scope for direct personal interaction, these efforts were taken online. While important steps have been taken, more remains to be done
Our collective experience with covid-19 has served to highlight structural drivers of gender inequality, as seen in the distribution of the burden of adjustment to societal and economic shocks. It has also shown that we cannot really separate the economic from the social and political dimensions of response to such events. While some aspects of the interaction between structural inequalities and the systemic shocks caused by covid-19 are examined in this volume, others will require more time to study and deconstruct. In this sense, this volume is a valuable reference, but much more work needs to be done. As covid-19 will not be the last major structural shock (consider for example the possibilities for future climate driven shocks), understanding and addressing such issues will remain important as we move past the current crisis and on to new ones.
Finally, I must say that I am both honoured and humbled to have been asked to write a preface to this volume. It represents hard work on an important set of issues and will provide the reader with valuable lessons and insight. Reading the chapters collected here should be time well spent.
Joseph Francois
Managing Director, World Trade Institute
Professor of Economics, University of Bern