Women, equity gaps and labour market

Women, equity gaps and labour market. Chile. Full text pdf format (only available in Spanish)

Review

This study has been undertaken within the framework of the Gender, Poverty and Employment Project in Chile (GPE-Chile) implemented by the International Labour Office (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the purpose to investigate around gender gaps related with labour world, which are closely linked to poverty in this country. This work analyses those gender equity gaps prevalent within the scope of mercantile production, which constitutes capable factors to contribute to the persistence of poverty reductions of some segments of women workers.

The Gender, Poverty and Employment Project set up three priority lines of work for Chile: The first one is the production of knowledge. This implied to conduct studies -diagnoses and analyses- or to update them, with the objective to build a common knowledge base that would serve as an input for discussion with constituents and for drawing up policy proposals, as well as for awareness and training activities, oriented to gender mainstreaming in policy-making designed to overcome poverty and create employment.

The book provides samples of the rich diversity of diagnoses, analyses and proposals that emerge when the three central themes are combined. Rather than undertaking an exercise on a very particular reality, as revealed by data, this study investigates gender gaps related with labour world, which are closely related with poverty in this country, condition under which a significant fraction of the Chilean population lives. As pointed out below, the analysis is based on information collected and processed in 2000, providing an excellent starting point and putting forward the challenge to update and compare it with new data to be released by official bodies in the coming months.

The second component of the project is the institutional strengthening aimed to build up abilities to formulate and implement policies on the part of public civil servants and, in particular, of those in charge of implementing poverty-reducing policies with gender dimension at national, regional and local levels. This reinforcement need was made extensive to business sectors, especially those associated to micro and small enterprises, and to trade union sectors, as well as civil society groups, such as non-governmental organizations and others. Such reinforcement efforts were preferentially carried out through training activities and information input in order to raise awareness and deliver gender-sensitive integration tools for the design, implementation and evaluation of policies targeting low-income sectors.

The third and last component of the project consists of technical assistance actions intended to strengthen gender dimension in policies to overcome poverty. Assuming the diversity of initiatives that could be classified in this area and after processing the background of various alternatives, the Social Protection System "Chile Solidario" was selected as the governmental action where activities would be focused, through proposals to incorporate and strengthen gender dimension. Various factors endorse this decision: the centrality of the "Chile Solidario" programme in the government's poverty agenda, the crosscutting character of the working lines being implemented by it, as well as the interest expressed for this type of co-operation.

Regarding the project's contributions in Chile, constituents at the consulting board affirmed the need to get to know the socio-demographic and labour profile of the families living under extreme poverty and, in particular, of the women in this sector. This diagnosis was assisted by a consultant's study commended by the project, whose results are available. Along with the above, the consultant's final report is in the process of being revised. It contains proposals to strengthen gender dimension in the Social Protection System "Chile Solidario", especially concerning job creation aspects, which will be discussed at a regional seminar, an event that will mark the conclusion of the project's first phase.

CHAPTER I: ECONOMIC GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENTI IN CHILE: 1990-2002
A. Expansion years: 1990-1998
B. Deceleration period: 1999-2002

CHAPTER II: GENDER AND LABOUR MARKET EXCLUSION
A. Definition of concepts
B. Labour participation of women and men
C. Unemployment and poverty
D. Duration of unemployment

CHAPTER III: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSION IN THE LABOUR MARKET
A. Occupational marginality
B. Labour force by economic activity and occupational categories
C. Gender discrimination in work incomes
D. Written formalisation of the labour contract
E. Quotations in the private pension system
F. Job stability
G. Kinds of unemployment
H. Formal and non formal employment
I. Poor women and access to labour training

CHAPTER IV: THE BURDEN OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND LACK OF EMPLOYMENT IN POOR HOUSEHOLDS
A. Types of households
B. Socio-demographic and occupational profile
C. Distribution by poverty line and by family head's activity
D. Family heads in terms of poverty, activity and occupational skills
E. Schooling and poverty level

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Exclusion, inequality and vulnerability
B. Recommendations

For more information, contact:
LIBRARY AND PUBLICATIONS SERVICE
ILO/ REGIONAL OFFICE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Las Flores 275, San Isidro
P.O. Box: 14-124, Lima, Peru
E-mail: biblioteca@oit.org.pe
Web site: http://www.oit.org.pe/gpe