Latin America: participation of women in the labor market increased by 5.7%

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the labor markets of Latin America and the Caribbean had a greater impact on womenand has placed the region in the face of the challenge of facing an unprecedented setback in gender equality at work, highlighted a technical publication of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

It is noteworthy that the regional participation rate of women, which was around 41% in the early 1990s, had risen steadily to 52.3% in 2019 (average of the first three quarters). In 2020, in the same period it fell to 47%, although that year the regional average reached 43%.

In 2021, the participation rate registered an insufficient recovery, as it rose to 49.7%, 2.5% below pre-pandemic levels. The year-on-year variation between 2020 and 2021 reaches a 5.7% recovery.

At the same time, as of the third quarter of 2021, the average unemployment rate for women is 12.4%, the same as in 2020, which is a sign that there has been no improvement, and that it should drop significantly to return to 9.7% of 2019. It is above the general unemployment rate, 10%, and 8.3% of the rate for men.

The ILO analysis says that the measures adopted to address the health emergency, such as the closure of educational and care centers in general, had a negative impact on female labor participation.

To this was added that the sectors of activity where the social isolation measures had the most impact (commerce, restaurants and hotels, and leisure activities, among others) are intensive in female labor.

In turn, the impact was greater in informal employment and in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises where female employment also predominates. Domestic work, in which 91% of employment is female and 72% is informal employment, was affected by considerable job losses.

“The pandemic exacerbated existing structural inequalities. Rural women, heads of households with young children, those with less training and education, indigenous and Afro-descendant women have been more affected. Gender gaps, both in participation and in income, are persistent in women with lower incomes and lower educational levels”, commented the ILO regional specialist in labor economics, Roxana Maurizio.

The ILO study carries out an analysis of labor market policies and measures that have sought to contribute to mitigating the pernicious effects of the pandemic and to recovery, with a specific focus on those that consider a gender perspective.

“Gender equality considerations must be an intrinsic component of the design, elaboration, application and analysis of the results of all programs and strategies, policies, laws and regulations implemented during the pandemic and in the recovery stage” , according to the ILO.

Furthermore, it points out that Sectoral stimulus measures to consolidate the recovery should not be withdrawn early, especially in sectors with a majority proportion of working women. Nor should income transfer measures or aid in kind be withdrawn to guarantee the minimum conditions that allow employment growth to be sustained.

The document adds that Investment in care is fundamental both for the generation of quality employment and for the full insertion of women in the labor market. Strengthening the capacities of women to develop their conditions for employability, and the reconversion and adaptation of capacities to enter the world of the digital economy are key to recovery with a gender perspective.