The gender distribution of workers varies by production sector allowing potential inequalities in the degree to which women and men are vulnerable to wage pressures from international competition through trade. We show that sectors employing more men tend to receive disproportionate trade protection from domestic governments. Comparing across countries and over time, we find that gendered trade protection is a significant driver of the global gender wage gap -- that men earn more in part due to protectionist wage premia. Finally, we analyze the relationship between women's political representation and gendered trade protectionism and find that gendered protectionism inequalities are decreasing with women's share of legislative seats. Our analyses contribute to mounting evidence of the importance of descriptive representation for substantive outcomes while simultaneously improving our understanding of the global gender wage gap and the differential effects that trade liberalization can have across groups, particularly those underrepresented in government.