Fair Trade and Gender Issues: How is it Possible to Enhance Women’s Empowerment in East Africa’s Coffee Sector

The aim of this thesis is to explore the benefits that fair trade has regarding women's empowerment in the coffee sector in the East African region. The first chapter is going to be focused on the wider discourse of fair trade. Starting from its definition and then moving to its history and the international context in which it has been developing, the legal aspects enforced, the benefits it has on marginalised Global South communities, the impacts that fair trade has on the communities taken into consideration in this work, ending the chapter with the critics that scholars moved towards this topic. The focus of the second chapter will be on gender equality and the women’s empowerment movement. Again, the chapter will start with an introduction to the topic, with its actors and the historical context. Then the focus will shift towards the international community’s commitment and the involvement of Sustainable Development Goal 5. In the third chapter, I will explore how fair trade can be used, in a sustainable way, in order to enhance the empowerment of women living in traditional societies. I will focus my work on exploring the links between the implementation and use of a different market than the one imposed by neoliberalism and the empowerment of women, who are largely marginalised around the world but account for around 70% of agricultural labour, especially in East African countries. I made the choice of highlighting the coffee market reality, as it is among the most commercialised commodities worldwide.