We women have historically suffered gaps in the world of work, which despite advances, have deepened during the pandemic. Therefore, one of the great challenges for social and economic recovery is to meet women’s labor rights and for the State to ensure that we can generate our own income, achieve autonomy and have employment opportunities with safe working conditions.
The gaps that many women suffer, in Chile and in the rest of Latin America, are challenges that must be addressed, not only at a general level, but also at a subnational level. Therefore, it is necessary not only to address the Chilean reality in general, but the problem must be addressed in a decentralized manner and with a territorial perspective.
First, it should be noted that inequality in female labor participation is a product of the sexual division of labor. Traditionally, women have performed reproductive and care work (without pay), services and commerce, while in areas such as industry, agriculture and financial markets the workforce is made up mostly of men. In 2010, in Chile, men reached an average labor participation of 74.2%, while women reached 46.8%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE, 2021).
During the last decade, women have progressively increased their participation in paid work. Between November 2019 and December 2020, female labor participation reached its maximum value of 53.3%. But this increase was affected by the health crisis and economy produced by Covid-19, in such a way that for the April-June 2020 quarter the participation of women dropped to 41.2%, while men reached 62.7%. Although between November and December 2020, with the advancement of the pandemic, female participation increased to 45.3%, it is clear that there was a setback when compared to the scenario before the health crisis.
Almost a third of women mentioned as the main reason for not participating in the labor market the permanent family situation, that is, the need for domestic work and unpaid care (INE, 2021). The economic and labor impact on women is important because many households are headed by women, so savings quickly run out and the indebtedness of these families grows, according to the Central Bank of Chile (2021).
But in addition to the pandemic, one of the great challenges in the unequal participation of men and women in work is the reconciliation of work and family life. Therefore, labor reactivation policies focused on women must accompany the institutionalization of a care system that makes it possible to put an end to the gaps that come from structural issues. For example, care work has historically been the exclusive responsibility of women, which translates into extreme working hours for women who also have paid work.
However, the reality of women is heterogeneous. Gender gaps vary as other factors deepen this inequality. In the case of La Araucanía, — the poorest region in Chile and where for years there has been a deep conflict between the State and the Mapuche people — there is a multidimensional crisis with 17.4% of poverty and 5.9% of extreme poverty that the places it among the most disadvantaged regions at national level.
The National Socioeconomic Characterization survey (CASEN, 2020) indicates that in this region 61.5% of women were inactive at work and 32% of them indicated that the main reason for not looking for work is domestic chores and taking care of others. A report by the Labor Observatory of La Araucanía (2021) indicates that female labor participation before the pandemic reached 48% and that, due to the health situation, in the last quarters of 2020 this was reduced to 36%. Furthermore, since the crisis began, 42,000 jobs for women have been lost in the region and only 19,000 have been recovered.
In Chile, there are labor insertion policies for women under the responsibility of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, such as the programs “Women Heads of Home in La Araucanía Mujeres jefas de Hogar en La Araucanía”, “4 to 7” or “Mujer Emprende y Buenas Prácticas Laboral”. While these policies can contribute to meeting the challenges of economic and labor reactivation, they are certainly not enough.
Faced with the new context of the pandemic, it is also necessary to redesign policies, review their instruments and distribution of resources with a regional perspective, as well as, it is important that the State recognizes care activities and domestic work. Decisions also need to be made that take into account regional differences and address their specific inequalities.
The employment situation of women has been greatly set back by the pandemic and the impact has been greater for women with structural difficulties who cannot achieve economic autonomy and full labor development. Therefore, the move towards effective co-responsibility, the end of gender stereotypes and the labor security and social protection of those who carry out care work are an urgent step.
Source: Folha
