Women's Autonomy in Changing Economic Scenarios
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Women’s autonomy in changing economic scenarios XIV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean Santiago, 27—31 January 2020 Thank you for your interest in this ECLAC publication ECLAC Publications Please register if you would like to receive information on our editorial products and activities. When you register, you may specify your particular areas of interest and you will gain access to our products in other formats. www.cepal.org/en/publications ublicaciones www.cepal.org/apps Foreword Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Alicia Bárcena Executive Secretary Mario Cimoli Deputy Executive Secretary Raúl García-Buchaca Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Programme Analysis Mario Castillo Officer in Charge, Division for Gender Affairs Ricardo Pérez Chief, Publications and Web Services Division This document was prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for the fourteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago, 27–31 January 2020). This document was prepared under the supervision of Mario Castillo, Officer in Charge of the Division for Gender Affairs of ECLAC, and María Lucía Scuro, Social Affairs Officer of the same Division. Iliana Vaca Trigo of that Division was responsible for the overall coordination of the document. The drafting work was carried out by Nicole Bidegain, Diana Rodríguez, María Lucía Scuro and Iliana Vaca Trigo of the Division for Gender Affairs. The following staff members, consultants and interns of the Division provided substantive inputs, statistical processing or valuable comments: Paula Aghon, Francesca Bagala, Amparo Bravo, Lucía Cirmi, Marta Dell’Aquila, Nicolás Grimblatt, Shreya Kumra, Hayley Leulorec, Carolina Miranda, Consuelo Mucientes, Carolina Muñoz, Francisca Orellana, Valentina Pineda, Vivian Souza, Alejandra Valdés, Ana Catalina Valencia, María Elena Valenzuela, Belén Villegas and Tina Vrh. The authors are grateful for the comments and contributions to the different chapters provided by Laís Abramo, Alberto Arenas, Itza Castañeda, Raquel Coello, Carlos de Miguel, Alma Espino, Alicia Frohmann, Lydia Rosa Gény, Vivian Milosavljevic, Esteban Pérez Caldentey, and Corina Rodríguez Enríquez. Special thanks are extended to the specialists and staff members of the Americas and the Caribbean Regional Office of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) for their contributions. The document includes valuable contributions from ministers and senior officials in charge of the mechanisms for the advancement of women in Latin America and the Caribbean, made during the fifty-eighth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago, January 2019), and the preparatory meetings for the fourteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean held with the Caribbean countries (18 June 2019), the Central American countries and Mexico United Nations publication (26 June 2019) and the South American countries (27 June 2019), as well as in the discussions and exchanges within the framework of the LC/CRM.14/3 experts dialogue on economic challenges from a gender perspective, organized by ECLAC and the United Nations Development Programme Distribution: G (UNDP) (Santiago, 10 and 11 June 2019). Copyright © United Nations, 2019 The document was also prepared on the basis of information presented in the national reports submitted by the countries for the comprehensive review process 25 years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the national progress All rights reserved reports on the application of the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Printed at United Nations, Santiago Development Framework by 2030. S.19-00722 This publication should be cited as: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Women’s autonomy in changing economic scenarios (LC/CRM.14/3), Santiago, 2019. Applications for authorization to reproduce this work in whole or in part should be sent to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Publications and Web Services Division, [email protected]. Member States and their governmental institutions may reproduce this work without prior authorization, but are requested to mention the source and to inform ECLAC of such reproduction. 2 Women’s autonomy in changing economic scenarios Foreword Contents Foreword ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Part 1 Gender (in) equality in Latin America and the Caribbean ................................................................................. 13 Chapter I Advances in gender equality and women’s autonomy in Latin America and the Caribbean ...........................15 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 17 A. More than four decades advancing towards gender equality and women’s autonomy ..................................... 18 1. Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: building the Regional Gender Agenda ................................................................................................................... 18 2. Montevideo Strategy: from a commitment to gender equality to transformative public action ............................................................................................................................................. 19 B. Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda................................................................................................. 20 1. Institutional advances to achieve gender equality .................................................................................. 20 2. Advances in economic autonomy ............................................................................................................ 21 3. Advances in physical autonomy............................................................................................................... 22 4. Advances in autonomy in decision-making ............................................................................................. 24 C. Challenges for gender equality and women’s autonomy in the region ............................................................... 26 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter II Regional heterogeneity: intersectionality poses a challenge to gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean ..................................................................................................................... 31 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 33 A. The overall decrease in poverty levels is not reflected among women .............................................................. 34 B. Inequality from childhood to old age: a woman’s life cycle ................................................................................ 36 C. From rural to urban areas: how territory can worsen gender inequality ............................................................. 38 D. Indigenous and Afrodescendent women are overlooked..................................................................................... 40 E. Heterogeneity in machineries for the advancement of women .......................................................................... 44 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................ 45 Part 2 Changing economic scenarios .............................................................................................................................. 47 Chapter III Economic and financial globalization: impact on the economic autonomy of women in Latin America and the Caribbean ..................................................................................................................... 49 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 51 A. International trade and gender equality............................................................................................................... 52 1. Some of the linkages between production structure, export pattern and occupational gender segregation .................................................................................................................................. 52 2. Export promotion initiatives for women-led companies ......................................................................... 56 3. Gender equality and trade agreements: tensions and synergies ............................................................ 59 3 Contents Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) B. Financial systems and women’s economic autonomy ........................................................................................