Labour participation and economic empowerment: two sides of the same coin?

Women’s labour participation gained great momentum in the 1990s and started slowing down around the middle of the 2000s. This deceleration process, though evidenced in all groups of women, was particularly blatant among vulnerable women. The root cause of such inequality lies in the different ways of meeting care needs, including domestic work. Women with access to higher levels of education and better jobs can typically afford to outsource care services to the market, whereas women with lower incomes bear heavier overall workloads—overall time dedicated to paid and unpaid work— choose jobs which enable them to combine both activities—domestic services, selfemployment etc.—or remain outside the labour market.

The root causes of gender inequalities lie in different types of limitations faced by women. This article analyses the intrinsic and imposed restrictions that women face to economic empowerment and the differences between Latin-American countries. The research was developed for Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua y Uruguay.

Año: 2018
Revista: Policy in Focus Volume 15, Issue nº1. Women at work: addressing the gaps.
Capítulo: Labour participation and economic empowerment: two sides of the same coin?
Autoras: Alma Espino y Soledad Salvador

Labour participation and economic empowerment: two sides of the same coin?