Catherine Tinsley, Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
Catherine Tinsley, Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
Evaluating the Economic, Psycho-Social, and Health Impacts for Women in a Targeted Global Value Chain Intervention
Evaluating the Economic, Psycho-Social, and Health Impacts for Women in a Targeted Global Value Chain Intervention
27 Sep 201611:45 AM – 1:00 PM
Open to public
Location:
Baker Library | Bloomberg Center 101
Organizer:
We evaluate the effects of a global value chain (GVC) intervention in Masoro, Rwanda, where Kate Spade & Company (KS&Co.) has engaged a local cooperative, called ADC, to assemble handbags for the global market. A GVC is a set of coordinated economic activities – typically orchestrated by a “lead firm” – that brings a product from conception to consumer. On the one hand, the KS&Co. initiative might be applauded for providing stable employment as well as targeted life skills support to an employee population of 151, 98% of whom are women. An economic lens suggests that GVC-related activities boost income at the level of both the country and the worker, and that exporting builds skills in a local population that foster development.
On the other hand, , critics often charge that GVC-related employment may be exploitive, and that the benefits from GVC involvement are funneled away from disadvantaged members of society. Moreover, recent research explicitly evaluates the effects of GVC engagement on women, and finds conflicting results. The KS&Co. initiative is noteworthy, in part, because it targets women, giving them a source of stable income. Yet in a society where men have higher status than women and strong gender roles exist, it is unclear whether this intervention will have unintended negative repercussions. Critics contend that under these conditions these types of interventions burden women with additional responsibilities, without any change in their social status. “Rather than development working for women, women are working for development.”1
Using a survey methodology with members of the community as a control group, we demonstrate positive effects of ADC employment on material well-being, as well as perceptual health and psycho-social well-being. We also find evidence of gender role movement without any evidence of any de-stabilizing effects. Interestingly, the results also show that perceived improvements in health and psycho-social well-being are only partly explained by improvements in material well-being. Thus, this particular GVC intervention seems to have broad positive impacts upon worker’s lives, beyond simply economic empowerment.