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XV INTER-AMERICAN CONFERENCE OEA/Ser.K/XII.15.1
OF MINISTERS OF LABOR TRABAJO/INF.4/07
September 11-13, 2007 12 September 2007
Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago Original: English
Remarks of Hon. Jacqui Quinn-Leandro,
Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Labour, Public Administration and Empowerment
and
President of the Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM)
(Power Pont presentation)
EMBEDDING GENDER INTO THE LABOUR PROCESS
Introduction:
I stand before you today in a unique position, for in addition to being Antigua and Barbuda’s first elected female Minister for Labour and Gender Affairs, I am also the President of the Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM). This double perspective affords me a very significant vantage point as it embodies the juxtaposition of Gender and Labour at this XV Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour (IACML). Consequently, it is with deep honour and great pleasure that I wish to address you on how best we can address building the capacities of the labour ministries to effectively mainstream gender into their policies and programmes, within the framework of achieving decent work for all in Latin America and the Caribbean - in accordance with the mandates and agreements of the IACML.
At the outset, it would be remiss of me not to herald the untiring work of the Permanent Secretariats of CIM and the IACML for their unfailing commitment to this initiative. I remember my meeting with Director Franscisco Pilotti, of the OAS Department of Social Development and Employment earlier this year and being much encouraged by his enthusiasm for the work ahead. I would also like to highlight the commitment of the ILO, whose experts on this topic have played an integral role in the conceptualization of the study and have worked jointly with the OAS and the CIM in advancing this initiative. I anticipate a plethora of robust interventions in support of the trajectory of this topic on gender and labour.
Background:
The Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour has strongly affirmed and integrated the decent work concept into its Declarations, Plans of Action and Ministerial Agendas, having fully embraced the importance of decent work as a core development objective. In fact, it was at the XII IACML in 2001, that the Ministers of Labour fully embraced the view that that development - like democracy - cannot be attained if there is any eclipsing or marginalizing of the experiences and the input of women. Therefore, it became critical that attention be paid to the ongoing pervasiveness of discrimination against women in the field of work.
The new gender thrust at the hemispheric level had emanated at the OAS General Assembly in 2000, where the Member States of the OAS had assumed the commitment of integrating a gender perspective in their public policies, strategies, and projects; as a means of achieving the full and equal participation of women and men in all aspects of social development, politics, and culture. This commitment was expressed in the gender policy document: The Inter-American Program on the Promotion of the Human Rights of Women and Gender Equity and Equality (IAP) . The CIM was given the responsibility with monitoring the IAP and coordinating and evaluating the actions to be taken to implement it. This lent a new vibrancy to gaining visibility for addressing gender concerns and mainstreaming the gender perspective into the work of the OAS. The IAP recommended that the Governments and the OAS General Secretariat systematically incorporate a gender perspective in the agendas of ministerial-level meetings.
During the Third Summit of the Americas, further momentum was achieved when the IAP and the commitment that it represents, was endorsed by the democratically elected Heads of State and Governments of the Hemisphere.
In order to promote implementation of this mandate in the area of labour, the CIM presented recommendations on integrating a gender perspective into the XI IACML. However, embedding a gender perspective into the IACML process began to realise real progress by the XII IACML, which adopted the recommendations of the CIM and the mandates of the Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas in regards to Gender Equality and Labour and Employment.
This specific IACML made the commitment to integrate a gender perspective into the development and implementation of all labour policies; to promote work-life balance, to protect the rights of women workers, and to take action to remove structural and legal barriers, as well as stereotypical attitudes to gender equality at work, to address gender bias in recruitment, working conditions, occupational segregation and harassment, discrimination in social protection benefits, women’s occupational health and safety and unequal opportunities and pay.
We have to appreciate the progress that has evolved from the synergies of the CIM and the IACML over the ensuing years. CIM’s position was that there was a critical need to ensuring that a gender perspective is integrated as a cross-cutting and permanent issue in both the Plans of Action and the Declarations to mainstream as a solid measure in realizing advances in gender equality and equity.
Out of this fruitful collaboration has come a very significant document - The Strategic Guidelines of the XV IACML for Advancing Gender Equality and Non-discrimination within a Decent Work Framework.
Justification of the Study and its Strategic Guidelines:
The purpose of the study, and its strategic guidelines, is to help build the capacities of Ministries of Labor to successfully mainstream gender into their policies and programs aimed at achieving decent work for all in Latin America and the Caribbean, in accordance with the mandates and agreements of the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor (IACML).
MAIN FINDINGS
The Feminization of Poverty: The feminization of poverty presents an alarming statistic which has to be taken into account as we examine any nexus on gender and labour. Moreover, the feminization of poverty represents a serious impediment to any effort towards economic growth or full development. Globally, women constitute 60-70% of the poor and this growing phenomenon of female poverty is replicated in the hemisphere. In the Americas, the feminization of poverty is highest among rural women, disabled women, indigenous women and women of Afro-descent. Of particular significance is that within the CARICOM sub-region, women make up 50.4% of the entire population (figures for the 2000 Census quoted in: Women and Men in the Caribbean, CARICOM Secretariat, 2007).
Among economically inactive women, it has been noted that female poverty is concentrated at the two ends of the age spectrum. According to a 2006 ILO Study, young women between 15-29 years of age – especially young mothers - constitute an astounding 75% of the 22 million young people who neither study nor work. Notably, the feminization of poverty is exacerbated by later life where women outnumber and outlive men and represent a growing poverty demographic. This has implications for women’s status and the quality of life and for access to resources in advancing age with regard to the provision of social services and social protection.
The time has come to address the seeming invisibility of elderly women and poverty. Most social security systems existing in the region are linked to the labour market, which reproduces for elderly women the same inequalities that they had to face in the sphere of work. Due to their lower level of entry into the labour market and higher participation in the informal sector, women are a minority among pensioners and invariably their pensions have been reduced by hiatus in labour participation associated with maternity and family care and by wage gaps with respect to men.
Compounding this is the fact that a significant percentage of women in the hemisphere are increasingly assuming sole headship of homes and are opting for informal consensual unions as an alternative to legal marital unions. This has implications for inheritance and legal rights as well as having access to certain resources of their significant partners. In Latin America, 31% of households headed by women live below the poverty line compared to 15.5% of household headed by men (Grieco, 2002). The numbers and relative proportion of women reporting that they have never been married; are divorced, widowed (and not remarried) or legally separated has implications for women’s access to resources. It is argued that households headed by women have a lower standard of living than those headed by men. Yet, studies have shown that the income earned by women yields higher health and social benefits than that earned by men because women tend to invest their resources in the health, education and well-being of their families.
To maximize the benefits of this, the increasing feminization of poverty has to be seriously addressed, assessed and redressed as it correlates to an increase in the number of female-headed homes, especially those female intergenerational family structures comprising children and dependents. A joint study by the World Bank and the IDB has revealed that by doubling women’s participation in the workforce among low-income groups in 2003 in Chile, the poverty level would be reduced by 2% and extreme poverty by more than 12%.
The Situation for Women in Employment: Women, on the whole have limited access to productive resources such as work, land, capital, information, new technologies, natural resources and housing – which hinder their capacity to earn decent incomes. One central impediment to women trying to enter into the economic world is the problematic of their dual roles as workers and caretakers. Along with gender segregation in employment and gender-based discrimination which still persists in the workplace, there are the perennial challenges of balancing work and family life – especially for single parents with young children or dependents. Therefore it is critical to find effective reconciliation of work and family life responsibilities for men and women, through measures such as available, affordable and accessible child care facilities to cover the full range of 0-6 yrs. There is also need for flexible working hours, tele-commuting, job-sharing and arrangements including parental leave and support in returning to work.
Another related matter which has serious implications for women, is the need to quantify the social and economic contribution of unpaid work (domestic, productive and reproductive labour) performed primarily by women and to promote its inclusion in national accounts. In 2003, an ECLAC study observed that the division of labour by sex assigned domestic tasks of a reproductive and care-giving nature almost exclusively to women. This double-burden role that women bear can be overwhelming and overburdening and leads to a paucity in time for women to engage in training and recreational activities. Moreover, it circumscribes women’s options for joining the labour force, in obtaining more diversified work and earning and/or supplementing their income. Importantly, it hamstrings women’s ability to take part in political activity – especially at the decision-making level.
Additionally, to redress gender imbalances it is an imperative that women workers be considered for specific programmers and training in non-traditional areas and occupations; especially into cutting edge sectors of the economy including new technologies; to dismantle the structural and cultural barriers to female empowerment. Further, provision needs to be made for training programmes for self-employed workers, seasonal workers and those engaged in micro-enterprise.
An area which requires particular attention is that of domestic service, where women constitute a top-heavy 90%. This particular service is an important one for women, since it allows for greater entry into the workforce of other women who would have had to presumably assume the necessary reproductive functions covered by hired help. However, domestic service is associated with a precarious form of employment with low wage levels, unclearly defined hours of work, an absence of labour contracts, low/no social security and high levels of segregation.
Women’s Participation in the Labour Market: Despite the fact that females tend to outperform males in the educational arena, especially in the Caribbean sub-region, there is still the fact that girls have high school drop outs rates primarily due to pregnancy and also to parental demand for their reproductive and productive services - especially in poorer and rural sectors of the society. The situation for young women with regard to employment is stark and must be given urgent attention, since young women have the most difficult times in finding jobs and anecdotal evidence points to them resorting to transactional sex to support and supplement their households. The unemployment rate of young women is twice the total female unemployment rate and three times the total male unemployment rate.
Similarly, unemployment among women is out of proportion to their relative number. According to a 2006 ILO study during the 90s, unemployment rates among women were 30% higher than among men in Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, Chile has one of the lowest labour participation rates among low income women in Latin America.
Having said this, though, there has been an increase in the entry of women into the labour force in the last three decades. In 1970, according to an ILO study the participation rate was 23%, however by 2006, the female labour market mushroomed to 52%, so that now women dominate the labour force numerically. While this is to be commended, it has not resulted in a serious closing of the gender-based wage differentials. In the ILO Decent Work Hemispheric Agenda: 2006-2015, it was stated that the women’s increasing entry into the labour market and the new opportunity created by this increase have not been accompanied by equal pay for work of equal value, or by a reduction in occupational gender segregation. Further, a 2003 IDB study revealed that in 12 out of 16 countries of the hemisphere, that women were more likely to earn poverty wages.
Therefore, greater participation in the labour force for women had not actually translated into greater access by women to Decent Work. Women are over-represented in the informal and low-productivity sectors where according to ILO’s 2006 Labour Overview of Latin America; 51.4% of economically active women worked in the informal sector. Female employment is concentrated in two sectors, namely the trade and the service industry. These two sectors employ 75% of urban employed women in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Violence Against Women: The high prevalence of widespread physical, psychological and sexual violence against women both in the private and public sphere – throughout the hemisphere - has to be urgently and comprehensively addressed within the framework of decent work. The issue is a serious one, since violence against women has an adverse impact on women’s entry into the workforce; their ability to sustain employment and also to function as productive workers. This often invisible, under-reported and under-addressed scourge increases women’s vulnerability and insecurity and impacts their autonomy and availability – even in their productive roles. It is imperative that this critical issue be taken into account when examining the connectivity between gender and labour, since it also generates exorbitant costs for the state.