Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

79
Figure II.7
LATIN AMERICA (SIMPLE AVERAGE FOR 15 COUNTRIES): HOURS WORKED PER WEEK BY THE
EMPLOYED FEMALE POPULATION AGED 15 AND OVER, BY OCCUPATION, AROUND 2005
(Percentages)
60
50
55
57
40
30
38 39
34
42
20
10
0
Other employed Domestic service Live-in domestic service
Urban
Rural
Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of special tabulations of household
surveys from the countries concerned.
It might be thought that one income (the male spouse’s) would be enough to maintain the
household and that women would “not need” to take on paid work, but an analysis by poverty status
reveals a different picture. Women in urban areas whose main occupation is unpaid housework are overrepresented
in indigent households. The female population in indigent households is 12% of the total
population aged 15 and over, but women who are housewives and live in indigence represent 17% 40 (see
figure II.8).
The information available for 2005 shows that while the urban female population in poor
households is 21% of the total, almost a third of all domestic service workers aged 15 and over in urban
areas live in such households, while 76% of women working for pay in other occupations belong to nonpoor
households (see figure II.8). The intra-gender pay gap is prominent again here, since in Latin
America domestic service workers earn the equivalent of 40% of what women in other occupations earn
(see figure II.9) and average earnings from domestic service are approximately 1.5 poverty lines, while
earnings from other occupations are 3.7 poverty lines. This divide is found regardless of the actual level
of pay for domestic service: Chile is the country where domestic service workers earn most on average,
but it is also the country with the largest gap between earnings from this and other occupations. Gender
inequality, a characteristic feature of our societies, reinforces other inequalities and fragments social
solidarity, since women who appear to be well off in terms of earnings or stable employment are usually
not well placed when compared with their male peers.
40
Regionwide estimate for urban areas based on a simple average for 15 countries.