It's not often that the internal workings of the WTO are discussed in the public sphere, so I'm always interested to read about it when they are. Inter Press Service reports on the the success of women (or lack thereof) at moving up in the ranks of the WTO:
This week's election of the chairpersons of the main World Trade Organisation (WTO) bodies for 2007 went largely unnoticed, as part of the global body's routine procedures. But one aspect stood out: none of the appointed chairs are women.
Indeed, in its 12-year history, the WTO has not had a strong tradition of placing women in important positions. On the contrary, it is accused of inheriting the attitude of its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which functioned as an exclusive old boy's club for a small group of powerful members.
However, a slight shift had been seen in recent years, especially with the appointment of a woman in 2005, Kenyan ambassador Amina Mohamed, as chair of the General Council, the WTO's highest-level decision-making body in Geneva.
A new trend seemed to be taking shape around that time, when current WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy designated businesswoman and diplomat Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza from Rwanda as one of his four deputy director-generals.
But everything returned to zero this year as women disappeared from leadership positions in the global trade organisation's main bodies.
In 2006, only one woman, Colombian representative Claudia Uribe, had been named to chair one of these bodies, in this case the Trade Policy Review Body. But she was not reelected Wednesday.
WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell defended the WTO's record, while acknowledging that more needs to be done:
The dearth of women in top-level positions raises doubts as to whether the gender dimension is an issue in the WTO. Keith Rockwell, director of the WTO Information and Media Relations Division, told IPS that "You are right. I don't see a woman here."
"In terms of what may be discussed in the consultations over the chair, the answer (with regard to gender) is I don't know," he said. With respect to "gender issues generally speaking I think what they would try to do is to be sure the best person would be put in charge of any particular negotiation," he added.
Rockwell cited the cases of Mohamed and Rugwabiza, although he admitted that "There have not been enough women in senior positions in this organisation -- and in others as well, I may add. But that is something I think that members are aware of."
Women abound lower down on the hierarchy. There is a relative balance among the 630 professional, technical and administrative staff of the WTO secretariat.
Rockwell even noted that "there are more women than men in the WTO, by a rather significant margin," although he acknowledged that among senior managers, "there are much fewer women than men."
However, "we have a woman as chief of staff to the director general, Arancha González. She has great authority," he added.
The spokesman said that in the secretariat "there is a strong effort to ensure that women are given every opportunity to move up the ladder."
He mentioned the cases of two women, Anabel González and Carmen Luz Guarda, who head the agriculture and market access divisions, respectively, in the WTO secretariat, "two groups that are right now front-centre in terms of negotiations."
For the past five years, the WTO has been bogged down in the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks, launched in November 2001 in the Qatari capital, whose biggest obstacles are precisely agriculture and market access for industrial goods and services.
In summary, Rockwell said "So progress has been made. It is enough? No."
One senior female WTO delegate had a different take:
Uribe, the former head of the Colombian mission to the WTO, took a different view, saying she was perhaps not the best person to ask about the issue because "I'm not enthusiastic about the defence of minorities; what I am in favour of are abilities and skills."
"I come from a country where women really do have opportunities," she told IPS. "That's why I can speak in such an open and uninhibited manner."
"In my country, if a woman or a man has the ability, they move up the ladder. I'm an example of that. My success is solely based on my professional performance. I am not the daughter of influential figures or politicians, but I have had the best opportunities anyway," she said.
Uribe pointed out that in Geneva there are few female members of missions to the WTO. "So how could strict proportionality be achieved if there are so few of us?" she asked.
"I know there are two female negotiators from African countries who were consulted in the process of naming new chairpersons. But the few women on the missions are very busy or are not interested in those responsibilities," said Uribe.