Women Constructing a Fair Global Economy Project Women and their children make up more than 70% of the world's poorest people, and are disproportionately poor in part because social and cultural discrimination means that women do not receive as much education, technological training, credit or land as men. NAFTA had devastating consequences for most workers in the hemisphere, and has pushed the majority of low-income women in both the US and Mexico deeper into poverty. Although women have perhaps the largest stake in the outcome of trade negotiations, trade negotiators consistently ignore women's needs. The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a proposed trade agreement which would extend the NAFTA disaster to the rest of the hemisphere, is likely to increase gender gaps and poverty for many women in the Americas. Women have an important roll to play in the struggle for a just and sustainable economy. Low income women of color in the US and Mexico are taking a leading role in this struggle, but are often isolated from each other in their work. The Women Constructing a Fair Global Economy program brings together women in the US and Mexico to learn from each other and to strategize around how to create a fair global economy. The program includes delegations of women to Mexico and national speaking tour through the US with representatives from various Mexican indigenous women's fair trade cooperatives. The tours educate women in the US about the struggle of indigenous women in Mexico confronting corporate centered globalization and to provide an opportunity for exchange between women working on similar issues in the US. These exchanges will provide opportunities to strategize around important bi-national concerns such as the FTAA, "privatization", which gives control of essential services like health and education to corporations, and new corporate rights granted under NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. The delegations to Mexico visit the state of Chiapas and the Mexican border with the goal of educating women from the US about the effects of corporate centered blobalization on women in Mexico and provide time form women to strategize with partners in Mexico around alternatives. Scholarships are provided for young women of color under the age of 30 as part of our commitment to build a multi-racial, multi-cultural movement.
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