José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Regional Director of ILO, wrote an article about women, unemployment and informality in Latin America.

According to the expert, the participation of women in the labour market in Latin America and the Caribbean has steadily grown over the last few decades, and today, almost half of these women, 126 million, are already part of the labour force. However, gender gaps remain in terms of unemployment, informality and wages.

“Over the past year, with a sharp rise in unemployment and also a decline in the quality of employment with respect to some indicators, it has become evident that this situation affects women to a larger extent. The regional average unemployment rate for women shot up to 9.8% – on the brink of two digits. If projections of slow economic growth for this year prove correct, the average rate could climb above 10% in 2017”, states Salazar-Xirinachs.

Furthermore, the expert says that “the most recent estimates available regarding informality among women indicate that almost half of the female labour force works under these conditions, which generally mean labour instability, low incomes, and a lack of protection and rights.”

In addition, about 70% of women who work do so in the retail trade and services sector, often in precarious conditions, for example, without contracts. Moreover, “17 million women in the region work as domestics. Women make up 90% of domestic workers. In this sector, the levels of informality are still very high, around 70%”, pointed out the expert.

As regards the education levels by gender in the region, 53.7% of female workers have more than ten years of formal education, in contrast to just 40.4% of men. Moreover, 22.8 %of women in the labour force have tertiary education (complete or incomplete), by comparison to 16.2% of men.

“However, this does not prevent the persistence of a significant wage gap. A report by ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) noted that in 2016, according to available data, women earned 83.9 per cent of what men earned in similar jobs. The gap is still wider among men and women with higher educational levels”, claims Salazar-Xirinachs.

The expert said that for the ILO, gender equality is a cross-cutting objective, present in all its activities.This issue is already part of the sustainable development goals set for all countries in the 2030 Agenda.

To continue advancing towards equality in the labour market, it is necessary to resort to a combination of actions aiming at gender equality, including: active employment policies; network and infrastructure for caregiving and new policies for services for child care and care of dependent persons; strategies to promote the division of household responsibilities; improved education and vocational training; incentives for women entrepreneurs; increased social security coverage; and determined action to prevent and combat violence against women, including in the workplace.

“Equality in employment remains one of the most important challenges for achieving a better future for workers in the region”, concluded the Regional Director of ILO.

Source: IPS News