Women work at the heart of global value chains, making the textiles we wear, growing the food we eat, and also bearing the unfair burden of informal caregiving for the rest of the labor force. Their overrepresentation in supply chains comes with disproportionate risks. Some, such as sexual harassment, are overtly gendered. Others, like dangerous and degrading working conditions, impact women more due to their strong presence in the labor force, and are made worse by factors such as climate change and health emergencies. To the supplier, these challenges result in decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover—as well as serious and costly reputational damage and legal and compliance risks. Our lack of knowledge on the millions of women working in supply chains, means such gendered risks tend to remain in the background of supply chain management systems and business risk perspectives. This panel considers how some of the world’s leading companies are addressing the critical and gendered challenges to global supply chains. What are the best practices, and outcomes of addressing gender in supply chains particularly in agriculture but with implications across industries and contexts - as well as the negative effects to every level of the value chain of not doing so?

CARE is a 2023 Concordia Annual Summit Lead Programming Partner.