When Big Business Ducks Taxes, Women Pick Up the Tab

By Magdalena Sepúlveda, ICRICT commissioner, and director of the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)

The world talks about gender gaps, but rarely about what sustains them: a global tax system built to favour those who have the most. When multinationals and the super-rich are allowed to avoid accountability, this burden falls elsewhere — often on women.

On International Women’s Day 2026, it is time to name the moment for what it is: a period of setbacks, but also of open resistance.

The dismantling of multilateralism, the defunding of its institutions, and the unprecedented cutbacks in development aid programs have led to significant setbacks. The resulting uncertainty is enabling inequality to grow without any counterbalancing measures.

When discussing inequality, we must also address gender injustice. Women, particularly in the Global South, face a disproportionate burden from unjust tax systems and austerity policies. When funding for childcare or public services is cut, it is mostly women who shoulder these tasks, absorbing costs that States cease to cover, thus deepening the unfair social organization of care.

Recent reports reveal an unacceptable reality: the gender pay gap persists across all regions of the world, despite decades of demands and international commitments. Women continue to earn only 61% of what men earn per hour worked—a figure that, by itself, reveals a deeply unequal economic structure. But the picture becomes even more troubling when unpaid work is included—those invisible tasks that sustain our societies and for which women are overwhelmingly responsible. In that case, their effective income plummets to a shocking 32%. These data not only describe inequality but also highlight a structural injustice that demands a genuine will for transformation.

Despite the progress we can celebrate, we cannot afford complacency. The World Bank's Global Findex shows important progress: today, 73% of women in low- and middle-income economies have a financial account, 36% save formally, and 58% make or receive digital payments. These are signs of change, but they are insufficient as 700 million women remain completely excluded from the financial system, deprived of the basic tools to build economic resilience and exercise real autonomy.

And just last month, another World Bank report—Women, Business and the Law—made it clear again: the legal and economic exclusion of women is not a technical failure, but a political decision that deliberately hinders development. The report shows that in most countries, laws meant to guarantee economic equality are not fully implemented, limiting women's access to employment, credit, entrepreneurship, and real opportunities for progress. This lack of implementation reduces female participation in the economy and holds back the productivity and growth of our societies.

That is why we must say it bluntly: this is not an administrative problem, but a matter of power. Who has access to resources, rights, and opportunities, and who is systematically left behind by legal systems that are not enforced and by economic structures that benefit from their exclusion. As long as millions of women remain outside the financial system and beyond the real reach of the laws that should protect them, there will be no gender justice, no inclusive development, and no strong economies.

This incomplete legal structure converges with another equally corrosive dynamic: the deliberate loss of tax revenue in the digital economy. Digital platforms operate in Global South markets, generate multi-million-dollar profits through streaming, online advertising, and e-commerce, yet they do so without a significant physical presence and without paying taxes where they create value, exploiting legal loopholes to shift their profits to low- or no-tax jurisdictions.

The result is clear: countries lose crucial revenue while multinational corporations use sophisticated structures to evade their tax obligations, leaving States without the resources to fund health, education, care, and social protection. The 2025 Tax Justice Network report finds that the world loses $492 billion each year due to global tax abuse by multinationals and the wealthy—a loss that particularly hits low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, when a multinational avoids paying taxes, someone bears that cost, almost always a woman left without a public daycare centre, without a subsidy, without free hours.

Despite the difficult times we are going through—marked by wars and multiple crises stemming from rising inequality, wealth concentration, the deterioration of social protection systems, democratic backsliding, and the erosion of human rights—resistance and social mobilization have not been slow to emerge. The speed and magnitude of the setbacks in the rules-based international order have, paradoxically, acted as catalysts: the greater the pressure, the stronger the response.

One of the fronts where this response is expressed most clearly is tax justice. Governments, coalitions, international organizations, and civil society organizations agree that without tax justice—and without gender justice—it is impossible to sustain the stability of the global economy.

More and more voices are demanding fair taxation of the most powerful. Despite several ultra-wealthy individuals influencing major media to promote the idea that taxing them would be harmful,  public evidence points in the opposite direction. Even The Wall Street Journal has acknowledged that the low taxes paid by billionaires constitute a problem for the economy.

Furthermore, a recent study by the London School of Economics reveals that the low effective tax rates paid by the super-rich are not only unfair but also erode support among citizens for middle-class taxation.

It is now widely recognized that tax policies can either reinforce inequalities or help dismantle them. In a recent report from the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), of which I am a part, we made it clear that the international tax architecture, biased in favour of the most powerful countries and corporations, perpetuates structural inequalities that especially affect women and girls. Reforming it is, therefore, also an act of gender justice.

For this reason, the negotiation of a United Nations Tax Convention is today the most relevant multilateral space for debating these fundamental issues. It is not surprising that the process faces pressure and resistance from those who fear losing privileges. According to specialists, the Convention—which should be adopted in 2027—must include provisions to correct gender imbalances and strengthen global tax equity.

The constellation of social and academic organizations working for tax justice has presented concrete proposals to advance negotiations. If these proposals are on the right track, the eventual entry into force of the UN Tax Convention would mark a historic milestone.

But for tax justice to be real, this instrument must be complemented by a global minimum tax of at least 25% on multinationals, a coordinated tax on the ultra-wealthy equivalent to 2% of their wealth—as proposed by French economist Gabriel Zucman—and a Global Asset Registry (GAR) to identify ultimate beneficiaries and curb evasion and illicit financial flows.

Beyond the UN, resistance to tax abuse and the push for gender equality are also emerging in other forums. Women's economic empowerment was included in the final message of the recent African Union Summit in Addis Ababa.

In the United States—despite having withdrawn from UN tax negotiations and cut funding to various multilateral agencies—signs of change are also evident, including in the open tax debate in California, where a referendum is being promoted to establish an extraordinary 5% tax on residents with wealth exceeding $1 billion. This reflects that the social consensus on the need for greater contribution from the ultra-wealthy is expanding day by day.

Likewise, the high-level conference "In Defense of Democracy", held in Santiago, Chile, in 2025, and the expected creation of an Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Inequality add new layers to an increasingly robust architecture of resistance.

Adequately taxing multinationals and the super-rich, and combating international tax evasion and illicit financial flows, are indispensable to funding care systems, social protection, and public services that sustain real equality between women and men. Without resources, women's rights remain an empty promise. Demanding tax justice is not a technical matter: it is a claim to women's right to a dignified, free, and full life.

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