Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

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The increase in the older adult population and the gradual rise in life expectancy have aroused
interest in the workings of care systems and the role of women in providing unpaid care services, but
there is not yet full public backing for social services to support the social reproduction of the older adult
population, which means that the family and, to a lesser extent, the market act as the main absorption
mechanism for risks associated with old age. This is a particularly sensitive issue in the region’s
countries, since the ageing process is more recent than in the developed countries and has been more
rapid, while socio-economic conditions have not allowed them to introduce public measures on the scale
required to cover the assistance needs of a growing older adult population.
In several countries, only a minority receive formal social protection in old age. These are older
people with retirement pensions who exercise their economic rights fairly effectively, although their
incomes are not always enough to provide them with financial security. The rest of the elderly population,
most of whom are women, rural inhabitants and indigenous people or migrants, do not have easy access
to institutional mechanisms that would fully meet their care needs. This is because access to noncontributory
pensions is limited, the coverage of public health systems is low and poorly matched to
needs, and the social services needed for independent living are unavailable. In practice, these groups
depend almost exclusively for their survival on whatever care they may receive from relatives, and here
women play a fundamental role.
According to ECLAC/CELADE (2003a), one major driver of future growth in the proportion of
older people in the population is the shift in mortality patterns during the 1930-1990 period, owing to the
decline in mortality associated with infectious diseases in the first 10 years of life. The cohorts reaching
the age of 60 between 2000 and 2020 will experience the benefits of medical technology introduced in the
period following the Second World War. Consequently, their “survival” gains owe more to the successful
reduction of exposure to infectious diseases, better treatments and shorter recovery times than to
improvements in living standards (Palloni, DeVos and Peláez, 2002).
The likelihood is that in Latin America and the Caribbean these generations will be in worse
health in the future than older people in developed countries (ECLAC/CELADE, 2003a). The corollary to
this is that the demand for care is expected to increase over the next 50 years, at a time when secondary
ageing (the increase in the number of people aged over 80) will be experiencing faster growth than in
recent decades (Huenchuan and Guzmán, 2004). The family is one of the most importance sources of care
in old age. Data from the Health, Well-being and Ageing (SABE) survey show that in 2000 or thereabouts
a large proportion of older people in seven cities of Latin America and the Caribbean were assisted by
their families in carrying out functional and instrumental everyday activities (see table II.4).
The data also show a higher proportion of women experiencing difficulty than men. Studies based
on these data likewise show that women have greater health problems in old age than men. All the health
indicators obtained bear out these results, after controlling for variables such as age or socio-economic
level (Béland and others, 2007). The proportion of people receiving help with functional activities is
twice as high in the Chilean sample (about 52%) as in the Uruguayan one (about 26%). Generally
speaking, a significantly higher proportion of people receive help with instrumental activities than with
functional ones, with figures ranging from just under 70% in Argentina to almost 92% in Brazil. Another
aspect documented by this survey is that most support is provided by people living in the same household,
followed by children living elsewhere (Saad, 2003).