Gender and cross-border trade networks

Chapter 4 maps the women and men involved in the rice sector of the Niger River valley, between Benin, Niger and Nigeria. Using a relational approach, this analysis shows that women occupy a structurally peripheral position in the network relative to men no matter which measure of centrality is used. There are fewer women in the sector, they have fewer commercial partners, they are less likely to be intermediaries and are much less well-connected to very central actors than their male counterparts. These findings demonstrate the importance of social networks to regional economic development and the social inequalities that they can generate. From a spatial perspective, this study shows that three-quarters of entrepreneurs develop business relationships within their own countries. Only a minority of wholesalers are capable of delivering rice to the large Nigerian consumption markets despite Nigeria’s import restrictions.