GATS and Privatization: Surfacing the Gender Dimensions

Abstract

This article attempts to look into the assumption that the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is nothing but an investments tool that allows giant corporations to exploit markets and human services, prioritizing profit over access to basic services like water. Further, the article shows how this will impact adversely on women's lives especially women in many poor communities, building on its basic assumption that policy instruments like GATS and entities like the World Trade Organization (WTO) operate over a gendered terrain where women are disadvantaged by their particular economic, social and political position in society. Where vulnerabilities are greatest, as with poor community women, so will the impacts of implementing GATS prove harshest.