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...
Around 2012, approximately 30 million young Latin Americans between the ages of 15 and 29 were excluded
from the dual axis of social inclusion provided by the education system and the labour market (22% of the total).
That situation also involved a strong gender dimension: 73.5% of those young people were women (ECLAC, 2014a).
That exclusion, however, does not signify a lack of interest in incorporating into society: the difficulties
encountered in remaining in the education system or in finding a job are compounded by a significant proportion
of young people —women, in particular— who perform unpaid domestic work: that is the situation of 70% of the
young women neither studying nor in paid work, compared to 11% of men in the same age group and situation. If
this is combined with other temporary reasons for inactivity (young people waiting for a job or for school to begin)
and with those affected by a disability of some kind (slightly over 1%), only approximately 3.3% of young people
make up the “hard core” of exclusion (ECLAC, 2015e). The remaining 17% of young people neither performing paid
work nor studying constitute a group that should be given the opportunities they need both to finish their education
and continue developing their skills and to enter the job market and construct, in better conditions, strategies to
reconcile their studies, work and personal and family lives (ECLAC, 2015c).
Box I.4
Young people not in education or employment, in Brazil:
gender and racial inequalities
In 2013, 6.5 million young people aged between 15 and 24
(19.6% of the total) were neither studying nor occupied in the
labour market.
This situation is strongly marked by the gender dimension:
one out of every four young women are in that situation, a
proportion that is almost double the rate seen among young
men. This is primarily due to the fact that a large proportion
of young women perform a heavy burden of unpaid work
(domestic and care work) in their own homes: in other words,
the differences in the figures reflect the relationships and
gender stereotypes that assign such responsibilities to women
and by the absence of care systems and policies to facilitate
the reconciliation of study, work and the family. As a result,
despite their higher levels of education, young women report
higher rates of unemployment and inactivity and lower rates
of labour market participation.
Brazil: proportion of young people aged 15-24 not in education or employed in the labour market,
by sex and colour of skin, 2004-2013
30
25
29.0 29.3 29.2
29.8
25.9 26.1 25.9 26.0
27.7 28.1
24.5 24.8
29.0 28.9
29.6
25.5 25.5 25.7
20
15
10
20.5 20.9 20.9 21.1
18.7 18.7 18.8 18.8
16.7 16.3 16.5 16.3
11.4 11.5 11.7 11.8 11.5
10.3 9.9 10.3 10.5
9.8
19.9 20.3
17.9
18.4
15.4
16.0
12.1
10.8
21.0 21.1
19.0 18.9
16.7
16.0
12.7 12.5
11.8
10.6
21.9
19.6
16.6
13.6
12.1
5
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013
White men
Total men
Total women
White
Total both sexes
Black
Black women
Source: Brazilian Geographical and Statistical Institute (IBGE), National household survey (PNAD), various years.
Racial factors are also an important element in this situation:
the proportion of young Afro-descendants who are in neither
education nor paid work (21.9%) is 5.3 percentage points higher
than that of young whites (13.6%). In the case of Afro-descendent
women, where gender and racial inequalities intersect, the
figure is an even more telling 29.6%: thus, almost one out of
every three young Afro-descendent women in Brazil are in that
situation. These figures showcase the difficulties encountered
by young women, particularly Afro-descendants, in reconciling
work with studies and family life.
In addition, an analysis of youth unemployment rates confirms
the continued existence of major gender and racial disparities: in
spite of the sharper reduction among young women (from 23.3%
to 18.7%) than among young men (from 14.2% to 12.3%) over
the same period (2004-2013), the unemployment rate remained
considerably higher among women than among men; similarly, the
unemployment rate among young Afro-descendants (16.4%) was
higher than that of young whites (13.3%), while the rate among
young Afro-descendent women (21.6%) was 10 percentage points
higher than that of young white males (11.4%).
Chapter I
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