Women are the most impacted by inequalities in Latin America, says ECLAC.

Fernanda Paixão, Brazil of Fact - On this March 8th, International Women's Day, the organized and daily struggles in Latin America reflect the challenges deepened by the Covid-19 pandemic. Still the most unequal region in the world, Latin America was impacted by an increase of 81 to 86 million people living in extreme poverty between 2020 and 2021, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 

The scenario points to a significant worsening of the living conditions of women and historically vulnerable groups, affected by the cross-cutting problems of class, gender, and race. In the case of women and sexual diversities, the data reveal setbacks of more than a decade in terms of access to paid work, the overload in the sexual division of labor, and cases of violence. 

To gain a deeper understanding of the context in which we arrive at this March 8th in Latin America, Brasil de Fato spoke with researchers specializing in different areas of gender issues. 

Redomestication 

Looking at inequality in Latin America is a way to understand the region, according to Nadya Guimarães, a full professor of Sociology of Work at the University of São Paulo (USP). “Inequality is at the origin of the constitution of our societies. Not without reason, all statistics show embarrassingly high levels of inequality in Latin America,” she says. 

"The recent situation is tragic, with economic recession coupled with a health and political crisis that, in several countries, has significantly increased inequality. The issue is back on the agenda in a difficult way, because it shows that we have taken steps backward in this regard." 

The Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) will address the issue of inequality in the region at this year's conference, which will take place between June 7th and 10th at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and will be broadcast on YouTube. The issue of gender will be one of the 34 themes addressed at the event, the most important social science conference in the region, and will feature leading researchers in the field. 

Nadya will be one of the speakers and will assess the advances in studies on gender and work, with the dialogue established between different lines of study that, at some point, intersect: the aging of the population, the change in family patterns, the presence of women in the labor market, and the care of the elderly, still predominantly the responsibility of women. 

“Studies on care have created a link between these various lines of study and have allowed us to think about the theme of gender and work from a new perspective, which allows us to integrate all these elements,” she explains, pointing to one of these cross-sectional analyses: 

“There is a shrinking of care work opportunities because domestic care now competes with these women's presence in the labor market. There are countries where women may work 5 to 6 hours a day on domestic tasks, while men work 40 minutes. This division occurs even when women work outside the home. If they are not Black, it's even worse. The working hours of Black women are proportionally longer than those of white women.” 

Studies have shown that, during the first phase of the pandemic, women suffered a greater burden in relation to care work. For example, in Argentina, 54% of women reported this scenario. In Colombia, while women dedicated about 7 hours to unpaid work, with the pandemic they began to dedicate an extra hour. In Chile, women added two hours a day and, in Uruguay, an hour and a half more.

Costa Rican sociologist Montserrat Sagot will also be a speaker at this year's CLACSO. A professor at the University of Costa Rica, Sagot works on the issue of violence against women and girls, and observes how gender inequality has been accentuated in many ways during the pandemic. 

“We arrived at a March 8th where a large number of women across the continent were expelled from their jobs, returning home in a process of redomestication,” she points out. “Women had to cover many obligations that the States failed to assume during the pandemic, for example, the education of children and, in many cases, the care of sick people. They also lost their jobs en masse, and according to analysis by feminist economists, many of these jobs are not recovered, or are recovered under poor conditions.” 

According to ECLAC, the countries with the highest rates of women's time dedicated to unpaid work, mostly in the private sector, are Mexico, with 42,6 hours per week, Argentina, with 42,4 hours, followed by Chile, with 42,1 hours per week. 

Social comorbidities 

This scenario points to another facet of gender inequality: access to education and the very production of knowledge on topics involving gender issues – which, therefore, allows us to understand the social context and demand and develop solutions, such as public policies. Historian and PhD in Education Janja Araújo, from the Department of Gender and Feminist Studies at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), combines activism in social and institutional movements, seeking the successful retention of young Black people in academia. 

“I would say that the field of gender studies today is constituted with enormous vigor in the sense of pointing out not only criticisms of the production of knowledge guided by the ideals of modernity, but above all in the dismantling of a universal subject,” she says, highlighting that this factor is accompanied by affirmative action, in the case of Brazil. “It also allows for some changes in the way knowledge is thought about today in this field.” 

“These studies point to challenges, achievements, but above all, intragender asymmetries. A classic example, widely denounced, is domestic violence that culminates in femicide. There is a reduction in violence among white women and a more than doubled increase among black women,” she points out. “Thus, we see how issues such as poverty and racism affect the production and maintenance of lives, based on permanent comorbidities: these are social comorbidities that are naturalized in the eyes of society.” 

In this sense, the fight for the right to abortion – a recent achievement for Colombia in the region – represents a turning point, which also constitutes a problem that especially affects poor and racialized women.

It is estimated that approximately 5 to 10 women lose their lives each year in the region due to clandestine abortions. Regarding the situation of different LGBTIQ+ communities, there are enormous limitations in access to rights such as decent work or housing. As for same-sex marriage, progress is uneven: in Latin America it is only recognized in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico (21 Mexican states), Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Uruguay. 

This is the struggle that Montserrat Sagot identifies as "the final frontier," since it not only confronts but also invites reactionary voices as part of the process of gaining recognition, in this case, legislative recognition. 

“As the most unequal region, the division between the populations of the countries deeply complicates the bonds of solidarity and increases all forms of violence, particularly against women,” observes Sagot. “Without structural changes that diminish the marks of history related to colonialism, racism, and imperialism, it will be difficult to reduce the rates of violence against women and other historically excluded groups.”

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