Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

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73 those in rural areas (42.1%), where it is more difficult to delegate reproductive work and where support systems are much thinner on the ground. 37 The sexual division of labour has persisted and combined with changes in the world of employment such that the traditional form of work organization, whereby women take most responsibility in the family even when they work outside the home, has become unsustainable. The resulting conflicts generally have to be solved privately and are a source of major tensions in the absence of State action and public policies. Upon examination, it transpires that in over half of all cases where women aged 20 to 24 do not seek outside employment, the main reason is that they are performing unpaid work —housework— in their homes. In fact, more women from this age group are in this position than are in the education system (30.1% as against 15.9%), whereas when men are economically inactive it is because they are studying or for some other reason (ECLAC, 2007a). Box II.5 GIRLS IN DOMESTIC SERVICE: OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND Child labour has been a fact of life in our societies at different periods in history, but a new awareness of its negative effects on children’s welfare arose in the early 1990s. This recognition has been reflected in international instruments designed to protect children from any type of work that might interfere with their development. As part of this effort, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has laid down a set of objective criteria for quantifying the scale of child labour and defined concepts such as: light work that does not affect children’s health or personal development, child labour, and worst forms of child labour. The criteria used for this classification are the number of hours spent on these activities and the extent to which children’s health or physical safety is imperilled. These definitions treat only “economic” activities (paid or unpaid) as work, so that most studies of child labour concentrate exclusively on analysing the causes and consequences of activities carried out for the market or for private consumption. There is no consideration of domestic work as something negative or harmful for children’s development and health, irrespective of the number of hours spent on it, the amount of energy it demands or how much time it leaves children for educational or recreational activities appropriate to their age. The result is that no information is available on unpaid child domestic labour. The low profile of this work means that public policies to address child labour leave out a large percentage of girls, upon whom most of these tasks devolve. According to information compiled by the Chilean Child Labour Survey in 2003, 67% of economically active children were boys, while 85% of minors spending over 20 hours a week on housework were girls (Silva, 2006). Information from the Brazilian Household Survey for 2001, 2002 and 2003 shows that when housework is considered, more girls than boys are working and studying at the same time, irrespective of socio-economic level. In Bolivia, data for 2001 likewise indicate that when housework is included in the definition of child labour, girls in a given age group who work are systematically less educated than those who do not (Zapata, Contreras and Kruger, 2007). The information available in Bolivia also shows that girls under 14 spend over 20 hours a week carrying wood or water and the same number of hours washing and ironing clothes, activities that are liable to have an adverse effect on health in the short or medium term. Source: D. Zapata, “Trabajo, educación y salud de las niñas en América Latina y el Caribe: indicadores elaborados en el marco de la plataforma de Beijing”, Mujer y desarrollo series, No. 82 (LC/L.2708-P), Santiago, Chile, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), April 2007; D. Zapata, “Counting invisible workers: girls in domestic activities within their homes” (EGM/DVGC/2006/EP.9), document presented at the Expert Group Meeting on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and Violence against the Girl Child, Florence, Italy, September 2006. 37 Covers women aged 15 and over devoted exclusively to unpaid domestic work.
74 All women, whether or not they are employed in the labour market, spend a large part of their time on domestic work. Only time-use surveys can fully capture this phenomenon; nonetheless, the information available from household surveys does provide some clues by identifying people’s main occupation (see figure II.2). The first thing that emerges is that women have the main responsibility for domestic work, be it paid (domestic service, in which 6% of urban women work) or unpaid (housework, which is the main occupation of 43.6% of rural women) (see table 5 in the statistical annex). 38 It is interesting to note that the average age of women in domestic service is 32, although there are large variations between countries, as the average is below 30 in Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru and over 40 in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay (see table 7 in the statistical annex). Considering that the analysis centres on women aged 15 and over, the information suggests that in the former group of countries women begin this type of work at an early age, implying that they have less opportunity to study and that domestic service features prominently among the restricted employment options open to them. Women are generally educated for caregiving, and their education is discontinued so that they can continue to provide this service. Figure II.2 LATIN AMERICA (SIMPLE AVERAGE FOR 15 COUNTRIES, URBAN AREAS AND 12 COUNTRIES, RURAL AREAS): COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION AGED 15 AND OVER BY SEX AND OCCUPATION, AROUND 2005 (Percentages) 100% 28.2 80% 39.0 52.3 53.3 50.3 49.3 60% 93.1 98.1 89.3 99.1 40% 20% 61.0 47.7 46.7 71.8 49.7 50.7 0% 6.9 Domestic service 2.0 Other Housework Rest of employed population Total 10.7 Domestic service 1.1 Other Housework Rest of employed population Total Urban Rural Male Female Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of special tabulations of household surveys from the countries concerned. From the information in the following section it transpires that women’s unequal access to the labour market does not make them a homogeneous group, as we see when we analyse the population by 38 Information from the question about occupational status in the countries’ household surveys.
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LC/L.2738(CRM.10/3) August 2007 The
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1 FOREWORD The Economic Commission
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3 INTRODUCTION The women of Latin A
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5 essentially not on biological fac
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8 Convention, but the process has b
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10 among development, security and
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12 Another sphere of democratic deb
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14 to articulate their efforts in i
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16 boundaries between human, reprod
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18 relatively less powerful, new gl
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20 universalist school’s argument
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Page 27 and 28: 24 Table I.2 LATIN AMERICA (20 COUN
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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 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 108 and 109: 105 Box II.12 EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL SE
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
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124 Huenchuan, Sandra and José Mig
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126 Montaño, Sonia (2007a), “Emp
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128 Rico, María Nieves (2006), “
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130 _____ (1979), Convention on the
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