Women's Empowerment and Participation

The U.S. Fair Trade market provides women from Bolivia to Papua New Guinea with funds for life-saving health programs, micro-credit, income diversification opportunities, leadership training, and more. Fair Trade cooperative members have fewer cases of domestic violence than in the community at-large, due to an improved quality of life and greater personal empowerment, many coop members say. One Honduran cooperative even views spousal abuse as grounds for dismissal.

In contrast to the norm in many rural areas of the world, Fair Trade cooperatives encourage women's active participation; women occupy leadership positions in many Fair Trade cooperatives. The general manager and 40% of the members of PRODECOOP in Nicaragua are women. At the SOPPEXCCA coffee cooperative in Nicaragua, women came together to form the cooperative "Las Hermanas," ("The Sisters"), through which women farmers sell their coffee directly to U.S. buyers. Peru's COCLA cooperative supports women's leadership training, and sponsored the first local march for International Women's Day.

"I used to be shy. I was ashamed to speak in public. Now because of leadership and self-esteem training I'm a leader in my coop and train other women."

"Thanks to CEPCO, we have woken up. We realize that as women, we can do more than stay home and have children."

"If it had not been for Fair Trade and the opportunities that SOPPEXCCA has provided for women, I never would have had the opportunity to participate in cupping competitions, and I never would have known that my coffee is among the best in Nicaragua."

"I am happy to state that Fair Trade has given priorities to women's needs. The sewing machines and gas cookers issued to the beneficiaries at a low interest is appreciable. I personally have benefited by earning an additional income from the sewing machine provided to me."

"With Fair Trade we've been able to create a women's committee that does training and education in self esteem, preventative health care, as well as raising small animals like chicken and guinea pig so the women can increase their income when the money from coffee runs out. There's a lot of machismo in our society. This way the women have their own source of income."