Women’s economic empowerment is essential to achieving inclusive growth and resilient, sustainable development in the APEC region. For more than two decades, APEC has worked to strengthen women’s economic participation, including through efforts to improve access to capital and markets, expand skills and leadership opportunities, and support women’s participation in innovation and the digital economy.

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Services are the largest productive sector in nearly all APEC economies and the largest employer of women across all skill levels. The potential for services to provide new and expanded opportunities for women has grown significantly in recent years with the region’s shift towards “servicification”—a rising share of services in production, investment, trade, and consumption—alongside the digitalisation of services trade. With over 60% of services trade now carried out in digitised form, women and women-led services firms can more readily participate in regional and global markets, creating opportunities for women’s professional advancement and stronger outcomes for gender equality and inclusivity.

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The services sector — particularly digitally delivered, high-skill services — offers growing opportunities for women to access higher-value employment, entrepreneurship pathways, and participation in regional and global markets. At the same time, persistent barriers remain, including unequal access to education and skills development, constrained access to finance, regulatory obstacles, and broader structural constraints that limit women’s entry and advancement.   Should we mention the current economic gender gap in APEC and how many years it will take to reach parity?   And perhaps another fact to underscore how important this work Is to reduce these disparities.

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This webpage brings together APEC resources, research, and event materials on women and trade in services, including outputs from APEC projects led under the APEC Group on Services (GOS) in collaboration with the APEC Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE). It aims to support policy makers and stakeholders across APEC economies to advance practical reforms and cooperation that expand women’s participation in services trade and enable women to benefit more fully from services-led growth.

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To learn more, please navigate through the project site via the buttons below or the boxes on the home page.

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