By: The World Bank
March 5, 2021
Working women in Latin America and the Caribbean have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared to men. This underscores the need for countries in the region to adopt measures to prevent a widening gender gap in the labor market, a gap that persists despite decades of progress.
The participation of women in the labor market rose from 41% in 1990 to 53% in 2019, a significant upward trend that is likely to be reversed in the current context, according to a new report from the World Bank.
“Women are more likely than men to find themselves in a more fragile professional situation, because they have jobs in the informal sector, because they are in charge of tasks that require more face-to-face interactions. with less opportunity for remote work, such as commerce, personal care or tourism, ”said Ximena Del Carpio, World Bank managerial officer for the Poverty and Equity practice group for the region Latin America and the Caribbean. “In times of crisis, these working women are much more vulnerable to changes in the labor market. “
According to the policy brief The Gender Impacts of COVID-19 on Labor Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean , prepared at the start of the pandemic by the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab (LACGIL), Women were 44% more likely than men to lose their jobs temporarily or permanently (with respective rates of 56% for women versus 39% for men).
This gap remained virtually unchanged at around 15% once the temporarily unemployed began to return to their jobs. The report points out, however, that permanent job loss affects one in five women.
Not all countries have been equally affected. At the onset of the health crisis, Honduras and Costa Rica had the highest gender gaps – women being 25% more likely than men to be unemployed. Bolivia and Peru, for their part, showed the smallest differences at the regional level, with a respective difference of 10% and 11%.
The report states that 56% of job losses during the crisis were mainly concentrated in trade, personal services, education, as well as hotels and restaurants, namely four of the five sectors with high employment intensity. female workforce, employing 60% of working women before the pandemic. This suggests a growing gap in the labor market, with potential effects on the empowerment of women, an exacerbation of imbalances within households as well as an increase in domestic violence.
Between May and August 2020, the study conducted three rounds of telephone surveys in 13 countries in the region, collecting 13,152 observations. The surveys focused, among other things, on the employment situation of men and women during the pandemic and on changes in household income and their access to services. Based on the results obtained, the report offers recommendations for public policies to reverse the negative effects of the pandemic on women’s participation in the labor market and to ensure an inclusive recovery.
The immediate responses of public policies should integrate the gender perspective and create the conditions and incentive mechanisms necessary for the employment of women. They should also include programs to help women most affected by the crisis as well as those who do not have access to social protection coverage. In addition, they should support independent activities, promote training and placement programs and provide incentive mechanisms for the formalization of working women.
Link to the report: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35191
Link to the general dashboard: https://www.worldbank.org/en/data/interactive/2020/11/11/covid-19-high-frequency-monitoring-dashboard