Inclusive social development: The next generation of policies for overcoming poverty and reducing inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Inclusive social development: the next generation of policies for overcoming poverty...
D. The social inequality matrix in Latin America: gender,
racial and ethnic dimensions
In spite of the progress seen in poverty reduction and income inequality, deep disparities continue to exist between
different segments of the population and different geographical areas within the countries. Poverty, extreme poverty
and vulnerability are strongly determined by gender, racial and ethnic factors, and they are also dependent on certain
moments in the life-cycle, such as childhood, youth and old-age. Variations and regional inequalities within the countries
and between rural and urban areas are also highly pronounced. The region still reports major shortcomings in all those
dimensions. Continued progress towards equality therefore requires that we start by recognizing and determining
the social inequality matrix in Latin America and the Caribbean, and that we incorporate those dimensions, as a
structural element, in the design of public policies and in the mechanisms used for their implementation, monitoring
and evaluation.
1. Gender inequality
A broad political consensus exists in the international community regarding the importance of gender equality as a
goal and as a means to attain development and to consolidate fairer and more democratic societies. But although
significant progress has been made in different areas of social development in recent years, inequality between men
and women remains a structural axis of the social inequality matrix in Latin America and the Caribbean.
As has been extensively discussed in the specialized literature, and as ECLAC has stated on different occasions,
gender inequalities arise from a sex-based division of labour that assigns women primary responsibility for the
upkeep of the home and for caring for children and other dependants, which curtails their time and opportunities for
participating in paid work, accessing the job-related benefits of social protection and attaining economic autonomy
(ECLAC, 2005; ECLAC, 2013b). 6 This gives rise to a series of disadvantages faced by women in comparison to men,
including a highly unequal load of unpaid domestic work, higher rates of unemployment and informality, wage
discrimination and inequalities in access to and the use and control of productive resources.
Unpaid domestic work impacts the many manifestations of poverty among women. It prevents many women
from securing access to paid work and obtaining economic autonomy. Those who simultaneously undertake paid
work within the labour market and unpaid work at home must shoulder the heavy burden that this implies and,
consequently, they have less time than men for relaxing, recreation and other significant aspects of life. 7 Women
who dedicate their time to domestic work are also highly vulnerable to poverty, in that they have less certifiable
employment experience and generally lack social security and protection or are not the policy-holders of the related
insurance. The absence of income is exacerbated in the event of separation or widowhood, since their spouses
usually earn the largest portion of the household income. Women without economic autonomy are also more likely
to suffer gender violence.
This heavier work burden does not only affect a large proportion of adult women: surveys examining how time
is used reveal that, from childhood onwards, girls perform more of those tasks than boys, and teenage mothers are
more likely to perform them as their main activity (Milosavljevic and Tacla, 2007). The same applies to women of
productive and reproductive age, since they are the ones who participate the most and, at the same time, dedicate the
most time to tasks of this kind. In addition, many older adult women will never retire from those responsibilities; in old
age, instead of being cared for, they often serve as the care-givers for other dependants, such as their grandchildren,
husbands and other senior citizens who are dependent on them because of illness or increased fragility.
6
According to Gómez (2008), as a result of this sexual division of work, in most societies men have the primary responsibility for paid
work (“productive work”), while the responsibility for unpaid work in the household and community and care work (“reproductive
work”) rests with women. Even though it provides essential support for “productive” work, unpaid work has remained invisible in terms
of its contribution to production and well-being, making it more difficult to access economic resources and social protection for those
responsible for this work—mainly women. (Gómez, 2008)— La economía invisible y las desigualdades de género. La importancia de
medir y valorar el trabajo no remunerado. Washington, D.C.: PAHO, 2008.
7
The notion of total workload refers to the combined burden of the demands of both paid and unpaid work. Thus, a person’s total
workload includes regular employment and overtime at work, together with household work, child care, care of elderly and sick
relatives and work in associations and trade unions. Source: http://www.ilo.org/oshenc/part-v/psychosocial-and-organizational-factors/
factors-intrinsic-to-the-job/item/15-workload.
Chapter I
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