Presentation The economic autonomy of women in a sustainable recovery with equality

The economic autonomy of women in a sustainable recovery with equality Alicia Barcena Executive Secretary of ECLAC 10 February 2021

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC AUTONOMY IN A SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY WITH EQUALITY Towards a care society Multiplier effects of investment in the care economy on the rest of the economy

Employment policies and closing the digital divide Decent work, with rights, is a driver of emancipation, for women’s economic autonomy

Paradigm shift Fiscal, employment and industrial policy with a gender perspective as a cross-cutting approach in all political decisionmaking spaces

COVID-19 EXACERBATING STRUCTURAL CHALLENGES OF GENDER INEQUALITY AND UNDERMINING WOMEN’S AUTONOMY • • • •

Overrepresentation of women in poverty Higher unemployment and redundancy Informal work Financial services access gap and digital gap

• Lower participation in

decision-making about pandemic response

Source: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

• Women concentrated in lowSocioeconomic inequality and poverty

Sexual division of labour

Concentration of power

Patriarchal cultural patterns

skilled sectors hardest hit by the pandemic • Women in the majority in first line of response to the pandemic • Increased burden of care

• Violence perpetuated and exacerbated in lockdowns • Online and cyber violence

THE PANDEMIC NEGATIVELY AFFECTED THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT AND INCOMES IN THE REGION Latin America (17 countries): Participation and unemployment rates and number of people living in poverty, by sex (Percentages and millons)

2019

2020

Participation rate (%)

62.5

57.2

Women

52.0

46.0

Men

73.6

69.0

Unemployment rate (%)

8.1

10.7

Women

9.6

12.0

Men

7.0

9.7

Unemployment rate (%) with same participation rate as in 2019

18.5

Women

22.2

Men

15.3

People living in poverty (millions)

185

231

Women

95

118

Men

90

113

fall in female participation rate

of progress in women’s employment lost million more women fell into poverty

Female unemployment rate Same female participation rate as in 2019

million women living in poverty

LABOUR MARKET SEGMENTATION IN THE REGION: SECTORS WITH LARGE FEMALE WORKFORCE AT GREATER RISK OF JOB LOSSES Latin America and the Caribbean (33 countries): projected decline in GDP for 2020 and distribution of the working population by economic risk and sex, around 2019 (Percentages)

Latin America: GDP -7.7%

The Caribbean: GDP -7.9%

High-risk sectors: • Wholesale and retail trade (22%) • Manufacturing (11%) • Tourism (9%) • Households as employers (11%) • Real estate activities • Administrative and support service activities

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of Household Survey Data Bank (BADEHOG); International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT [online database] https://ilostat.ilo.org/; and ECLAC projections for 2020..

KEY SECTORS FOR FEMALE EMPLOYMENT DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTED BY THE CRISIS Latin America (17 countries): employment characteristics in selected high- and low-risk sectors with large female workforces, weighted averages, around 2019 (Percentages)

Sectors of the care economy that are strategic for a transformative recovery

High-risk sectors characterized by high rates of informality, low pay and low skills

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), on the basis of information from the Household Survey Data Bank (BADEHOG).

WOMEN OVERREPRESENTED IN THE FIRST LINE OF RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC: THE GENDER WAGE GAP PERSISTS Latin America (14 countries): proportions of women in the health-care sector and wage gap between men and women employed in the sector, around 2019 (Percentages)

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), on the basis of information from the Household Survey Data Bank (BADEHOG).

CONTRACTION IN TOURISM DOING CONSIDERABLE HARM IN THE CARIBBEAN: 1 IN 10 WOMEN WERE EMPLOYED IN THIS SECTOR The Caribbean (5 countries): proportions of employment in the tourism sector, by sex, latest year available (Percentages)

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT [online database] https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/.

PAID DOMESTIC WORK: SECTOR HIT HARD BY LOSS OF EMPLOYMENT AND IMPOSSIBILITY OF WORKING REMOTELY Latin America (6 countries): Variation in paid domestic employment, around the second quarter (2020 vs. 2019) (Percentages) Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Mexico

Brazil*

Paraguay*

76% of paid female domestic workers without social security coverage.

July 2020

May-July 2020

May-July 2020

April-June 2020

-44.4%

-45.5%

Domestic employment

-33.2%

Paid domestic work

In households as employers

-46.3%

In households as employers

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of official data sources.

April-June 2020

April-June 2020

-24.7%

-15.5%

Domestic services

Domestic employment

In 2019, 13 million paid domestic workers, of which

91.5% were women.

LOWER-INCOME WOMEN FACE A TWOFOLD OBSTACLE: LACK OF ECONOMIC AUTONOMY AND THE GAP IN INTERNET ACCESS Latin America (11 countries): affordability of fixed and mobile Internet access in the lowest income quintiles and proportion of women without income of their own, around 2019 (Percentages and percentages of household income)

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Regional Broadband Observatory (ORBA), on the basis of information from Household Survey Databank (BADEHOG).

LACK OF CONNECTIVITY IS AN OBSTACLE TO TELEWORK FOR WOMEN IN THE REGION Latin America (6 countries): likelihood of teleworking and reduction of this likelihood because the country’s level of connectivity does not allow people to work from home, by sex, around 2018

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of information from Household Survey Data Bank (BADEHOG), and Dingel and B. Neiman, “How many jobs can be done at home?”, NBER Working Paper, No. 26948, Cambridge, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), 2020.

PROPOSALS FOR A TRANSFORMATIVE RECOVERY WITH GENDER EQUALITY Incorporating the gender perspective into all recovery policies is necessary but insufficient. There is also a need for decisive affirmative action in the fiscal space, in employment, and in the productive, economic and social policies that protect the rights of women achieved in the past decade. This action must prevent setbacks and address gender inequalities in the short, medium and long term.

Fiscal covenant for equality

Inclusive digital transformation

Productive dynamism and female employment

Care economy as an engine of dynamism

Investing in the care economy has multiplier effects in terms of welfare, time and income distribution, labour market participation, economic growth and tax revenues

NEW FISCAL COVENANT THAT PROMOTES GENDER EQUALITY AS A CENTRAL COMPONENT OF A SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY Analysis of the differential effects on men and women of the fiscal measures taken.

Increase in the progressiveness of tax systems and allocation of spending on gender policies during the emergency and in the long term.

In the context of the pandemic, financing of services to support women who are victims of violence, provision of sexual and reproductive health services, provision of public services of paid care.

Promotion of fiscal stimulus measures to protect the income and employment of women, including affirmative actions to give businesses owned by women access to public contracts and procurement.

INCLUSIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Connect 40 million households and provide a basic digital basket, strengthen skills to use these technologies and break down socioeconomic barriers Latin America (11 countries): investment needed to close the digital access gap and proportion of women expected to benefit (Percentages of GDP and percentages of women)

in every women in the region is expected to benefit from the basic digital basket Source: Regional Broadband Observatory (ORBA), on the basis of Household Survey Databank (BADEHOG), World Bank and official data from Internet providers.

REVITALIZING PRODUCTION AND WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT Health-care manufacturing industry Sustainable mobility

Circular economy

Digital economy

Bioeconomy

Women in sectors that are drivers of sustainable growth

Sustainable tourism

Renewable energy

§ Increase women’s participation in these sectors by removing barriers to entry § Retraining strategies for women, prioritizing development of digital skills § Guarantee labour rights of female workers in telework situations § Ensure access to quality financial services and products

PROVIDE AN EMERGENCY BASIC INCOME TO WOMEN WHO HAVE LEFT THE LABOUR FORCE BECAUSE OF COVID-19 Latin America (10 countries): cost of transfers equivalent to one poverty line to women who have left the labour force, for 3 or 6 months (Percentages of GDP)

Women of working age left their jobs because of COVID-19

(in 9 countries of the region)

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of official figures.

THE CARE ECONOMY AS A STRATEGY FOR A TRANSFORMATIVE RECOVERY Prioritize vaccination of the care economy sectors: health, teaching and paid domestic work

Measures to protect and retain paid domestic work

Acknowledging that they are a pillar of care and of the recovery

People employed in the health, teaching and paid domestic work sectors

78% mujeres

Guaranteeing access to unemployment subsidies and emergency cash transfers

Women in paid domestic work

Comprehensive care systems Interlinking time-use, resource, benefit and service policies Fostering co-responsibility of men and women, and of the State, the market and families

Of women in households with children aged under 5 are excluded from the labour force by their care burdens

Children aged under 5

How can the crisis be addressed without exacerbating gender inequality?

Synergies Synergies among the Regional Gender Agenda, the 2030 Agenda and national mitigation and recovery actions

Role of machinery for the advancement of women

Information

Budgets

Pacts

Mainstream gender through machinery for the advancement of women in response and recovery measures

Strengthen gender information systems to identify priority areas for public agendas and resources and to monitor progress and setbacks on gender equality

Guarantee resources for measures and policies that are key for women in the pandemic, with redistributive fiscal policy

Pacts on a pattern of sustainable development with equality, ensuring that care is recognized as a right

TO SUM UP…10 MESSAGES 1. Without any measures, around 118 million women will find themselves living in poverty, 23 million more than in 2019.

2. 56.9% of women in Latin America and 54.3% in the Caribbean were employed in higher risk sectors: services, commerce and tourism.

3. There has been a huge outflow of women from the labour force, reversing 10 years of progress on their labour force participation and income.

4. Paid domestic work is one of the hardest hit sectors, with widespread job losses that surpassed 40% in some countries.

5. Women are on the front line in the pandemic: they represent 73.2% of all people employed in the health sector.

6. Women’s care burden has grown, and even before the pandemic they spent triple the time of men on unpaid care.

7. Investment in the care economy is urgently needed, as it can drive growth and employment and fuel a transition to a care society, to contain the pandemic, support life, and boost social and family well-being.

8. Women’s universal inclusion in use of digital platforms should be guaranteed.

9. A transformative recovery requires a cross-cutting gender perspective in all fiscal, production and social policies and affirmative actions.

10. A new fiscal pact is urgently needed that incorporates gender equality, bolsters income, ensures equal opportunities and guarantees spaces for women to participate in formal labour.

There can be no post-pandemic recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean without gender equality