Women's Lack of Autonomy Hampers Anti-Poverty Efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean

Communication

(10 June 2004) Equal opportunities for men and women in different spheres remains pending in this region, according to the report, Roads Toward Gender Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for presentation at the Ninth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, being held in Mexico City this 10 - 12 June 2004.

The report indicates that almost half of women over 15 years old living in the region have no income of their own, while just 20% of men are in this situation. Moreover, according to ECLAC data from 2002, 36.1% of the region's households are under the poverty line, while 14.6% live in indigence.

When poverty is analysed from a gender perspective, the fundamental importance of women's financial, physical and reproductive autonomy, along with the value and time assigned to their unpaid work, is clear.

The ECLAC report points out that financial autonomy, that is a situation where people have enough income cover their own needs, plays an important role in anti-poverty efforts. Thus, unequal opportunities affecting women's access to paid work also limit their chances of being autonomous in a financial sense. For example, in 2002, the income of women in the labour force stood at 68% of men's. Similarly, women's participation rate was 49.7% that year, while their unemployment was 11.1%. For men, these figures were 81% and 7.7%, respectively.

The fact that a high proportion of female spouses in both poor and non-poor households are dependent on the household head limits their financial independence and decision-making ability. Moreover, this vulnerability becomes worse in the event of widowhood, marital breakdown or the family's collapse," which must be dealt with by applying suitable policies that improve the distribution of wealth, assets, labour opportunities and time", the document points out.

Distribution of Time and Reproductive Rights

According to ECLAC, studies confirm that women invest more time in unremunerated activities than men, which indicates that they have longer work days, which can damage their health or nutrition.

On reproductive rights, women's right to the autonomy of their own bodies should involve access to appropriate sexual and reproductive health care, to reduce maternal mortality and unwanted fertility rates, and prepare women to contribute to family health care, all issues that should be considered in the fight against poverty. The risk of dying due to factors related to childbirth and pregnancy remain high in several Latin American and Caribbean countries, especially Haiti, Bolivia and Peru, where there are more than 200 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, while this figure stands at from 100 to 200 in nine more countries.

According to the report, this inequity is compounded by the dramatic impact of AIDS, which profoundly affects women and is becoming the object of public concern, especially in the Caribbean basin. The latest national estimates (2003) indicate that VIH among pregnant women has reached or is more than 2% in six countries: the Bahamas, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In terms of the limitations women face on their earning power, these primarily reflect inequality in access to, and the distribution, use and control of productive resources, such as labour, land, capital, information, new technologies, natural resources and housing.

Anti-Poverty Policies and Programmes

In the past decade, Latin American countries have focused on social action, following the social policy model that gives priority to investment in human capital and turns the State into a regulatory body that co-exists with active participation from state, private and NGO subsectors, in a more plural and less concentrated manner.

In future, the ECLAC study underlines, it will be necessary to better coordinate economic, social and environmental policies, to balance the principles of universality, solidarity and efficiency. From a gender perspective, this integrated approach should deal with three fundamental challenges: the redistribution of power, income, assets and time.

The Ninth Regional Conference will examine the application of international commitments assumed through the Regional Programme of Action for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean, adopted at the Sixth Regional Conference in 1994 and reaffirmed in 2000 by the Lima Consensus. Likewise, it will decide on the region's contribution to the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, to be held in March 2005. The Conference's work forms part of international commitments regarding women's progress made at world summits held in the 1990s, the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in New York, 2000, and the Platform of Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on women, held in Beijing, China, in 1995.

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