More than 50% of the unemployed are women

The female employment situation in Peru drags serious figures. By April of this year, the total number of unemployed in Metropolitan Lima amounted to 414,500 people (a rate of 7.5%), of which more than half —54.6%— were women; that is, 226,400. On the other hand, 45.5% were men (188,100).

So, the rate of female unemployment it was located at 8.7%, which represents a little more than 2.3% in relation to the male.

structural problems

Alejandra Dinegro, sociologist and lead researcher at Fairwork-Oxford, explains that the main factors are the structural gender discrimination that exists in the country and the material living conditions of women in their homes, where they mostly assume responsibilities for caring for the family.

In global terms, monetary poverty affected 27.5% of Peruvians in 2022, according to INEI. Photo: diffusion

This would also cause many to lean towards informal jobs or without guarantees for the greater part “flexibility” that they imply, because many need to stop their activities every day to attend to their family or other needs.

“We need a national care system or a mechanism that provides them with services to be able to leave their children or older adults”, says the specialist. By 2021, 78.8% of Peruvian women were working in the informal sector.

No fair wages or pensions

For the fourth month of the year, the report indicated that of the 5 million 187,900 employed people, more than two million were underemployed. In this context, women are the most affected.

In detail, due to insufficient hours, they occupy 58.1%; that is, more than 262,100 work more or less time of the allowed In relation to income, 57.3%—1 million 1,400—receive reduced wages. Thus, the average monthly salary of Peruvian women is S/1,521.9, while men earn S/2,039.7, 25.4% more (S/518).

The latest data from the technical body for 2021 also shows that only 27.9% of those who work are affiliated with some system. This is an indicator that more than 70% do not have social protection, the right to family and child benefits, maternity, illness or disability benefits, among others. In the case of men, 40.4% have this benefit, 12% more than their female counterparts.

It is also important to mention that access to education is a key indicator in the possibilities of female economic independence. By the year 2021, illiteracy affected 7.6% of Peruvian women aged 15 and over, this is approximately 3 times more than men (2.7%). Added to this are the high rates of violence against women; more than 38,000 cases were attended in the first quarter of 2023.

Insufficient public policies

In order to deal with this problem, the first thing is to recognize that there are gaps in the labor market and that public policies must focus on working on the causes that generate inequality, says the specialist.

Besides, black money indicates that from the State and municipalities must implement temporary employment programstraining and technical support.

keys

Regions. As of 2021, only 6% of women in rural areas were affiliated with a pension system. In cities like Piura, Moquegua and Tacna, women only earned between 54% and 60% of what men earned.

Illiteracy. In Apurímac and Huánuco, almost a fifth cannot read or write. In Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Huancavelica and Cusco, the figure reaches 15.9%.

The word

Alejandra Dinegro, Sociologist and researcher at Fairwork-Oxford

“There is a constant gap. Women are present in the labor market, but 58% of them are in conditions of underemploymentThey work fewer hours and are not paid the legal minimum wage.”

More than a million women earn less than the minimum wage