Corina Rodríguez Enriquez, member of DAWN´s Executive Committe, together with Nicole Bidegain Ponte and Veronica Grondona, authored this research as part of DAWN’s thematic work on the Political Economy of Globalisation (PEG).

The paper was presented in London in April 2016, at the Research Workshop on Corruption and the Role of Tax Havens, organized by Tax Justice Network and the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs, City University. It was later published in December 2016 by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and DAWN.

This paper explores some of the links between tax justice and gender justice at the global level. It highlights two channels in which illicit financial flows and gender justice are connected.

Tax evasion and avoidance have the following effects: undermine the possibility to close the financing gap for gender equality and women’s rights;
have negative impacts on vertical equity and the progressiveness of tax systems that disproportionately affect women.

The paper goes on to focus on the role of financial secrecy jurisdictions and global networks of facilitations in enabling the illicit financial flows resulting from trafficking in women.

The paper presents a review of existing literature and evidence, and provides new insights from more in-depth qualitative research for the case of Argentina. It argues that confronting and dismantling the global enablers and secrecy jurisdictions will be beneficial not only for transparency and global equality but also to achieve greater gender equality and to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of women and girls.