Moreover, women often are not promoted within these industries and remain at the bottom of the pay scale. In addition, women often earn less than men do for comparable work. Under the FTAA rules, there would be no repercussions should an employer decide to segregate women into certain positions and offer them lower wages then men. Furthermore, any attempts by women to rectify their situations would probably fail because these efforts would conflict with the FTAA rules on employment requirements. In addition, strategies that have been used in developing countries to promote women into management and senior management positions could be challenged as discriminatory and would be prohibited.
Women are nearly absent from management positions in many countries throughout the developing world.
In the absence of such programs, many women may be segregated in low-level positions that do not enable them to fully use their skills and abilities. This requirement means that a country could not require any conditions such as use of local materials, technology transfers, or local hiring quotas to ensure that the country was benefiting from the foreign investment. These links between the export sector and domestic producers led to the creation of new industries. This strategy helped to increase women and men's wages and led to government surpluses to fund health, education, and social programs for women and their families. This could be barred under FTAA rules since it would place a competitive handicap on foreign banks that choose to operate in low-income neighborhoods.