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http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/05/latin-americas-social-policies-have-given-women-a-boost/
Spanish: http://www.ipsnoticias.net/2015/05/politicas-sociales-latinoamericanas-dieron-impulso-a-las-mujeres/
LATIN AMERICA – ADVANCES IN SOCIAL & ECONOMIC
POLICIES, AS FAMILY ALLOWANCES, HAVE BEEN POSITIVE FOR WOMEN
The first day of the “Women and Social Inclusion: From Beijing to Post-2015” global conference, Wednesday May 6, in the Palacio San Martín, the seat of Argentina’s Foreign Ministry. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS
BUENOS
AIRES, May 8 2015 (IPS) - Although they do not
specifically target women, social policies like family allowances and
pensions have improved the lives of women in Latin America, the region that
has made the biggest strides so far this century in terms of gender equality,
although there is still a long way to go.
Luiza Carvalho of Brazil, U.N. Women’s
regional director for the Americas and the Caribbean, said that can be seen in
each report by her agency: “It’s interesting to note that of all of the world’s
regions, Latin America has in fact shown the greatest progress,” Carvalho said
in an interview with IPS during the global conference “Women and Social Inclusion: From Beijing to Post-2015”,
held in the Argentine capital from Wednesday May 6 to Friday May 8.
The
advances made in Latin America, Carvalho said, “were not so much a result of
economic policies; on the contrary, they were the result of social policies,
which although not necessarily specifically aimed at women, ended up benefiting
them a great deal, directly and indirectly.”
Latin America’s successful cash transfer programmes include
Brazil’sBolsa Familia, Argentina’s Universal Child Allowance, Ecuador’s Human Development Bonus
and Mexico’s Prospera.
Another
measure that has had a positive impact were the improvement of the minimum
wage, which did not include a gender perspective but benefited women, who are
disproportionately paid low wages. That bolstered their purchasing
power and as a result their decision-making capacity and “their control over
some domestic matters,” Carvalho said.
The same
was true of initiatives aimed at protecting informal sector workers, and the
creation of non-contributory pensions, among which Carvalho mentioned those of
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico.
As a
result of the various cash transfer programmes, “there is no doubt that extreme
poverty was reduced throughout Latin America,” she said. “With improved buying
power, a higher minimum wage, and the expansion of non-contributory pensions
there was also a significant modification in gender inequality.”
But she
argued that these programmes have a handicap: they put an emphasis on the
responsibility of women as mothers.
“The
conditions set are for women,” she said. “Women have to help children stay in
school, women have to get their children vaccinated. And those conditions do
not reinforce a more responsible role for men in child-rearing.”
“If we want to go beyond these achievements, policies should be
focalised,” said Jessica Faieta, the U.N. Development Programme’s regional director, referring to
what she called “second-generation social policies.”
“These
should be policies directly targeting the inclusion of women in development
gains, which have not reached everyone,” Faieta told IPS.
She said
women – especially rural, indigenous and black women – stood out among the
“excluded groups”.
Faieta
stressed that inclusion of women has a positive impact on poverty eradication.
For her
part, Carvalho described it as a “virtuous circle” of development.
Faieta
said: “It has been proven that including women brings broader returns.
Employing more women and paying them more equal wages has benefits that go
beyond women, to their families.”
“Latin
America understands that clearly. So much that we are seeing the expansion of
these programmes in Africa and their introduction in Asia, which are
replicating Latin America’s positive experiences,” said Carvalho. To shore up
that process, the UNDP and Brazil’s Institute of Applied Economic Research
(IPEA) are currently working on systematising the regional initiatives.
“There is
a very significant possibility of South-South cooperation,” Faieta said.
Prominent
participants at the opening day of the global conference in Buenos Aires
included U.N. Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of South Africa
and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark of New Zealand.
The
meeting organised by the UNDP, U.N. Women and the Argentine government drew
delegates from different regions, to reflect on persistent and new challenges
facing girls and women living in poverty around the world, 20 years after the
Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Among the
challenges seen at a regional level, Carvalho mentioned the still-high maternal
mortality rates, violence against women, and its most serious expression:
femicide or misogynist or gender-related murders.
“Of the 28
countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world, 14 are in our
region,” she pointed out.
She
attributed that phenomenon to “the failure of governments to respond with
prevention measures, an entrenched ‘machista’ culture, a view of women as
property or as part of a man’s private collection, and legal questions that
block women’s access to land or credit.”
“Economic
empowerment of women” is another pending challenge in Latin America, Faieta
said. Despite the advances made in the region, “women still suffer the most
from unemployment. And women are still paid less for the same work,” she pointed
out.
Nevertheless, the report “Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies,
Realizing Rights”, launched Apr. 27 by U.N. Women, reflects the
progress made, stating that between 1990 and 2013, the biggest increase in
women’s participation in the labour market occurred in Latin America.
During
that period, their participation rose from 40 to 54 percent – although it
remained far below men’s participation, which stood at 80 percent.
With
respect to the persistent gender pay gap: the report adds that while women earn
on average 24 percent less than men globally, in Latin America and the
Caribbean the figure is 19 percent.
And in all
Latin American countries that carry out time use surveys, women dedicate two to
five times as much time as men to unremunerated work.
Other
achievements were the political inclusion of women, in the region with the
largest number of female heads of state and government.
Eleven
countries passed laws establishing quotas for women’s political participation;
26.4 percent of lawmakers are women; and on average 22.4 percent of government
ministers are women – the highest proportion of all regions, although still not
high enough for an inclusive democracy, Faieta said.
“It is
clear that conditional cash transfers won’t fix everything,” Carvalho
clarified. “For that reason other policies must also be implemented.”
That
includes specific gender policies as well as macroeconomic, fiscal and monetary
policies.
Carvalho
criticized cuts in social programmes “that affect society as a whole but
especially women because they undermine education and health policies, and others
that increase their domestic burden.”
“Women
depend on a web of social and economic policies…All policies, on the various
levels, influence women and can improve or aggravate gender inequality,” she
said.
“There can
be no gender equality without justice, inclusion, growth and social
development,” said Argentina’s minister of social development, Alicia Kirchner,
during the conference opening ceremony.
Clark, the
UNDP chief, said that in the global Post-2015 development agenda, to be defined
in December, it is essential to guarantee that all policies contain a gender
perspective.