Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

More documents

Recommendations

Info

105 Box II.12 EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL SERVICES FOR OLDER PEOPLE One categorization of social services divides these into two types: social care and health care. Social care consists of emotional and practical support, while health care is provided by trained personnel under the supervision of health professionals and consists of highly specialized activities. Among the advantages of services of this type are that they alleviate the emotional and financial burden of care often borne by women and that they help people to carry on living dignified lives and grow old in their homes. CATEGORIZATION OF HOME CARE PROGRAMMES FOR OLDER PEOPLE Type of service Volunteer home care services Paid home care services Home nursing services Home medical services Case management services Description Form part of home care programmes with limited financial and professional resources. Volunteers play a crucial role in maintaining the quality of life of older people by providing them with social care and friendship Include personal care, domestic tasks, clothes washing, household administration, shopping, preparation or home distribution of food, and companionship Provide short-term nursing care, often for a particular purpose such as the treatment of bed sores Provide medical treatment to very frail elderly people on low incomes. This is an expensive service, however, and the supply of doctors for home care is usually limited Include a diagnosis of the elderly person’s needs and coordination of a network of services (both formal and informal) to provide a basic care and support package Source: HelpAge International, “La creciente necesidad de atención en el hogar”, Revista Horizontes, No. 58. In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the social services law of 2005 mandates the creation of home care programmes for older people to provide them with health, recreation, companionship and meals services. In Costa Rica, Law No. 7935 of 1999 is designed to help older people remain in their families and communities and provide social assistance in the event of unemployment, disablement or loss of their means of subsistence. In the Dominican Republic, Law No. 352-98 of 1998 establishes as a fundamental right that older people should be able to lead a dignified life alongside their families in an environment that fully meets their diverse needs. In El Salvador, the 2002 law on comprehensive care for older adults establishes that the family will have primary responsibility for caring for older people and that the State will be obliged to provide support through the relevant agencies; in the absence of family, however, the appropriate State institution will provide them with care. In Brazil, Law No. 10741 of 2003 stipulates that care for older people should be provided by their own families in preference to old people’s homes, except in cases of need, and introduces new ways of enforcing this right (Huenchuan and Morlachetti, 2006). All the countries give the family a fundamental role in the provision of care and guarantee the right of older people to remain in their homes. It is notable, however, that these laws do not create specific protection mechanisms and guarantees for women providing care and that, once again, they refer to the family in general terms without making any gender distinction whatsoever. The main gaps identified are as follows: (i) there is no mention of the economic rights of women providing care (it is assumed that care will be provided free of charge and that it is part of the network of filial reciprocity); (ii) there is no protection for the right to social security of women providing care and no compensatory measures are established to mitigate the effects of the interruptions to paid employment that arise when women are
106 occupied in providing these services; and (iii) there is no protection for the right to health of female caregivers. As has been well documented, caregiving is a task that involves major physical and mental health risks, and women who provide care are not covered by health provision commensurate with their needs and the limited time they have to look after themselves. Approaching gender equality from the perspective of unpaid care work allows the world of work to be analysed from a standpoint that is usually ignored in economic and social analysis. This analytical perspective transcends the dichotomy between the public and private spheres, which leads to a focus on unpaid activities and assigns caregiving a subsidiary, complementary and natural role based on the prevailing gender order. This document has shown all the dimensions that affect gender equality, such as employment, unpaid work, social security and, most importantly, the essential and unrecorded contribution of work in the private sphere, which is a vital pillar of development. Although the dichotomy between the public sphere and the private one (the non-business family realm) has a very long history, it is only in the last few decades that the situation has begun to become critical because women have been entering the labour market in large numbers, have little choice but to remain there, and wish to develop their autonomy on the basis of financial independence, something that has also been driven by demographic changes, particularly their control over their fertility and reproductive life, their educational attainments and the growing demand for participation in democratic life, as discussed in the first part of this document. This change in analytical perspective makes it possible to focus on women’s contributions rather than on what is lacking to them, and reveals the non-monetary subsidy they provide over time in the form of unpaid care for children, the sick, older people and other family members. Not only that, but the excessive burden of work to which most women are subject yields earnings from employment that are essential for overcoming poverty and achieving well-being, but that result in situations which are extremely distressing for poor women who have to relinquish the care of their own loved ones to work in other households or leave their own countries. This represents a sort of informal social insurance that makes up for the lack of universal, solidarity-based public policies. The introduction to this document argued that the women of the twenty-first century were facing up to the challenge of equality by winning their freedoms. The analysis presented in this second chapter reveals the public policy challenges that need to be addressed if the conquest of civil and political rights is to be accompanied by the conquest of economic and social rights in the private and public spheres.
Page 2 and 3:
LC/L.2738(CRM.10/3) August 2007 The
Page 4 and 5:
1 FOREWORD The Economic Commission
Page 6 and 7:
3 INTRODUCTION The women of Latin A
Page 8:
5 essentially not on biological fac
Page 11 and 12:
8 Convention, but the process has b
Page 13 and 14:
10 among development, security and
Page 15 and 16:
12 Another sphere of democratic deb
Page 17 and 18:
14 to articulate their efforts in i
Page 19 and 20:
16 boundaries between human, reprod
Page 21 and 22:
18 relatively less powerful, new gl
Page 23 and 24:
20 universalist school’s argument
Page 25 and 26:
22 democratic movements, gradually
Page 27 and 28:
24 Table I.2 LATIN AMERICA (20 COUN
Page 29 and 30:
26 In many countries, a new collect
Page 31 and 32:
28 In Costa Rica the quota issue be
Page 33 and 34:
30 Table I.3 LATIN AMERICA AND THE
Page 35 and 36:
32 The differences between the resu
Page 37 and 38:
34 Figure I.4 LATIN AMERICA AND THE
Page 39 and 40:
36 Figure I.6 CARIBBEAN (11 COUNTRI
Page 41 and 42:
38 Figure I.9 CARIBBEAN (9 COUNTRIE
Page 43 and 44:
40 Women’s entry to parliament ca
Page 45 and 46:
42 Figure I.10 LATIN AMERICA AND TH
Page 47 and 48:
44 Figure I.12 THE CARIBBEAN (10 CO
Page 49 and 50:
46 Figure I.14 LATIN AMERICA (15 CO
Page 51 and 52:
48 Table I.6 LATIN AMERICA AND THE
Page 53 and 54:
50 was from 9% to 1.3%, Jamaica (fr
Page 55 and 56:
52 agencies at the highest level an
Page 58 and 59: 55 II. WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO TH
Page 60 and 61: 57 more concerned with the ethic of
Page 62 and 63: 59 Box II.1 THE WORK OF CARE IN SOC
Page 64 and 65: 61 of care on women mounts up. This
Page 66 and 67: 63 conditions of employment of work
Page 68 and 69: 65 social security and social benef
Page 70 and 71: 67 disincentive to their recruitmen
Page 72 and 73: 69 seeks to reform the constitution
Page 74 and 75: 71 Box II.4 REGULATION OF EMPLOYMEN
Page 76 and 77: 73 those in rural areas (42.1%), wh
Page 78 and 79: 75 sex and activity (see figure II.
Page 80 and 81: 77 Figure II.4 LATIN AMERICA (SIMPL
Page 82 and 83: 79 Figure II.7 LATIN AMERICA (SIMPL
Page 84 and 85: 81 Box II.6 HAITI. DOMESTIC WORKERS
Page 86 and 87: 83 It is interesting to characteriz
Page 88 and 89: 85 care to the “productive” adu
Page 90 and 91: 87 Box II. 7 (concluded) To sum up,
Page 92 and 93: 89 are also inaccurate, which widen
Page 94 and 95: 91 Some progress has been made sinc
Page 96 and 97: 93 Figure II.15 AVERAGE HOURS SPENT
Page 98 and 99: 95 Country Costa Rica El Salvador G
Page 100 and 101: 97 domestic life is shared between
Page 102 and 103: 99 employee for family reasons. The
Page 104 and 105: 101 In the private sphere, there ha
Page 106 and 107: 103 Table II.4 SEVEN SELECTED CITIE
Page 110 and 111: 107 III. TOWARDS A RESEARCH AND POL
Page 112 and 113: 109 (iii) Contribute to the mainten
Page 114 and 115: 111 Appendix TECHNICAL NOTES The st
Page 116 and 117: 113 Household survey information al
Page 118 and 119: 115 sub-module “home maintenance
Page 120 and 121: 118 _____ (2003), "Políticas para
Page 122 and 123: 120 Carrasco, Cristina (2001), “H
Page 124 and 125: 122 _____ (2003b), “Redes de apoy
Page 126 and 127: 124 Huenchuan, Sandra and José Mig
Page 128 and 129: 126 Montaño, Sonia (2007a), “Emp
Page 130 and 131: 128 Rico, María Nieves (2006), “
Page 132: 130 _____ (1979), Convention on the
show all

Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?