Women in International Economic Negotiations

Women are increasingly participating in international politics, by obtaining leadership roles and holding executive offices, as well as becoming more visible in various foreign affairs positions. Although political science and critical feminist scholarship have provided great insights into women’s political mobilization, attitudes, and rights, we know less about the role of women in shaping outcomes in the global economy. This project aims to begin breaching this gap on the impact of women in outcomes in international economic negotiations by addressing the broader question: what is the impact of increasing influence of women negotiators on international economic agreements? While long-standing assumptions about the more peaceful, cooperative, and empathetic nature of women might imply positive outcomes for international economic cooperation led by them, it is also possible that women need to fight gender stereotypes by adopting hawkish negotiation styles. Furthermore, while it has been found that women may be more risk averse, less likely to bluff, less likely to backdown from ultimatums, and more sceptical towards economic globalization, we know little about how increasing involvement of women in negotiations might influence outcomes in the world economy. The project derives hypotheses from existing political science, sociology and psychology literatures to investigate possibly unique negotiations styles of women negotiations, as well as their impact on international economic agreements.