If this article serves any purpose, it is to highlight the opportunities closing the labor force gender gap would bring to the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. These gaps—frequently spoken about—refer to the sexual division of labor; the existent segregation and discrimination practices; the remaining inequalities of opportunities for access to jobs or technical and professional training necessary for employment; or the obvious differences in the quality of job offers for men and women.
It must be said that, in the last two decades, Latin America and the Caribbean have reduced the labor participation gap by almost 10%, outperforming the other regions of the world. Moreover, it is estimated that, in the years to come, the current statistics could improve a little more. At the moment, 75% of men participate in the labor market, while women participation reaches only about 50%. The latter average is above the world average, which is 48.5%.
It is important to remember these differences—referring to the gaps—are not isolated phenomena: they interact with and feed each other. Each gap is a negative cell that acts as an activating factor of the other. If a girl today does not have access she deserves for an adequate technical formation, and has to share the household tasks with her mother, it is likely she will be at a disadvantage to compete for a better paying job position tomorrow.
At the same time, this series of elements is inscribed in the general framework of society, which affects women, men, and families: deep social and economic inequalities that perpetuate in Latin America and the Caribbean; large sectors of society that still live in poverty or extreme poverty conditions; presence of patriarchal cultural role models who, among other things, incite gender violence; overload, for women, of caregiving and household responsibilities, which serve as ceilings that limit their ability to fully enter the labor markets and become even more dynamic factors in the economy. All this serves to state that, despite advances, the tasks ahead are titanic.
Some of the figures provided by the report prepared by Iliana Vaca-Trigo, Opportunities and challenges for the autonomy of women in the future scenario of work, which belongs to the Gender Affairs series, published by ECLAC this 2019, can give us some clues about the magnitude, concentration, planning, and responsibility demanded by the realities in progress. Up next are some examples.
A little over 43% of women between the ages of 20 and 59, attribute pregnancies; caring for children, parents, and other family members; and time demands for household maintenance and meal preparation, as factors that prevent them from seeking and keeping paid work. In addition to this complexity, there are opprobrious prohibitions that come from the families themselves, parents or couples—I have even read of prohibitions from children—, to prevent women from entering the labor market. In fieldwork or in reports on families living in conditions of extreme poverty, simply proposing to work is punishable by verbal harassment, physical abuse, and even death.
The day I wrote this article—July 17, 2019—the newspaper ABC España recounted some conclusions of the study “Is there a penalty for maternity? Women and the labor market in Spain, from a family perspective,” which highlights the impact on income for women—and men, to a lesser extent—due to pregnancy. This problem does not exclude Latin America but extends throughout every country.
Truthfully, household work, which is never remunerated, is a big, concrete, and extensive barrier that—literally—impedes bigger participation of women in the labor market. In addition to lacking compensation, it does not have a schedule. In the case of large families, the days extend up to 18 hours a day. Staggeringly, it is said that these people “do not work,” when in fact it is just the opposite. They keep homes organized, functioning, and make it possible for the rest of the family to work or go to school.
Consequently, this negatively reflects on unemployment numbers in Latin America and the Caribbean: while the average for men, in 2017, was 7.6%, it was 10.4% for women.
Men continue to scandalously predominate in some industries. 13.3% of them work in construction, while only 1.6% of women do so. In many countries—Bolivia, Panama, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil—this statistic exceeds 15% for men, according to Vaca-Trigo’s report.
On the other hand, women prevail in commerce at 21.9%, while the percentage of men is lower—17.7%. In four Central American countries, the rate of women in that sector skyrockets: Guatemala (36.1%), El Salvador (30.2%), Nicaragua (29.5%), and in Honduras (28.2%).
Still, the widest gap is in the caregiving industry. This sector includes teaching, health, social assistance, as well as domestic work, which, as we know, is an important source of work for women throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The difference is unequivocal: while 27.7% of women work in this category, men barely make up 5.4% of it. Just like in the previous sector, there are countries where the percentage referred to women is far greater: Argentina (42.8%), Uruguay (38.4%), Brazil (33.7%), Costa Rica (32.6%), and Venezuela (30.5%). In contrast, 8.4% of men are employed in this sector in Chile. I cannot help remembering here that domestic workers must be some of the most affected by low wages, lack of social security and, more generally, by the recurrent precariousness of the conditions in which they provide their service. This would be the time to acknowledge that domestic workers probably suffer the most from low wages, lack of social security, and, in more general terms, the recurrent precariousness of the conditions in which they provide their service.
Other manifestations of inequality, to which I will refer even more summarily, cover all productive sectors. In the case of remuneration, in 2016, the income of women urban workers between 20 and 49 years of age, who work at least 35 hours a week, is equivalent to 83.9% of the men’s average. When it comes to unequal distribution of trades and professions of lower qualification, more than 55% of women are employed as vendors (29.5%) and in unskilled jobs (26%). 51.8% work in sectors of low productivity. Of that total, more than 82% do not contribute to any pension system. Lastly, there is vertical segregation, which explains the phenomenon of low access of women to senior management positions. 19.9% of women occupy the position of general manager in Latin America, while in the Caribbean it is 23.9%.
Closing the gender gap in the labor market would result in three chained effects: household incomes would increase by 3 to 10%, depending on the country; poverty would reduce in a “relevant way;” and indicators of inequality would decrease.
The 2015 McKinsey Global Institute research estimated that completely closing the gender gap in three categories—workforce participation, the number of hours worked, and participation in all economic sectors—could increase the region GDP by 34% in a few years. ECLAC itself, in its document Social Panorama of Latin America 2018, “concluded that in the scenario participation gaps were closed by 2030, there would be an additional GDP growth—due to the greater participation of women—of 7 %.”
Turning risks into opportunities requires macro policies that involve all of society. It is not enough to either define criteria such as inter-sector public policies or establish interdisciplinary projects. The topic of closing the gaps needs to reach debates at home, content in the classroom, training in the workplace, practices in the communities, and campaigns and legislation in the countries. Simultaneity, consistency, true commitment to the objectives and their consequences and action at all levels and areas of public space are needed.
The challenges ahead are significant, as I warned, but they have the incentive that their benefits could change, for good, the course of countries, not only economically but also socially, culturally, and in the parameters of coexistence.
Para español lea El Nacional “Debates latinos: Mujeres, riesgos y oportunidades”