ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES
Inter-American Council for Integral Development
(CIDI)
XV INTER-AMERICAN CONFERENCE
OF MINISTERS OF LABOR
September 11-13, 2007
Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
OEA/Ser.K/XII.15.1
TRABAJO/INF.4/07
12 September 2007
Original: English
Remarks of Hon. Jacqui Quinn-Leandro,
Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Labour, Public Administration and Empowerment
and
President of the Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM)
(Power Pont presentation)
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EMBEDDING GENDER INTO THE LABOUR PROCESS
Introduction:
I stand before you today in a unique position, for in addition to being Antigua and Barbuda’s first
elected female Minister for Labour and Gender Affairs, I am also the President of the InterAmerican Commission on Women (CIM). This double perspective affords me a very significant
vantage point as it embodies the juxtaposition of Gender and Labour at this XV Inter-American
Conference of Ministers of Labour (IACML). Consequently, it is with deep honour and great
pleasure that I wish to address you on how best we can address building the capacities of the labour
ministries to effectively mainstream gender into their policies and programmes, within the
framework of achieving decent work for all in Latin America and the Caribbean - in accordance with
the mandates and agreements of the IACML.
At the outset, it would be remiss of me not to herald the untiring work of the Permanent Secretariats
of CIM and the IACML for their unfailing commitment to this initiative. I remember my meeting
with Director Franscisco Pilotti, of the OAS Department of Social Development and Employment
earlier this year and being much encouraged by his enthusiasm for the work ahead. I would also like
to highlight the commitment of the ILO, whose experts on this topic have played an integral role in
the conceptualization of the study and have worked jointly with the OAS and the CIM in advancing
this initiative. I anticipate a plethora of robust interventions in support of the trajectory of this topic
on gender and labour.
Background:
The Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour has strongly affirmed and integrated the
decent work concept into its Declarations, Plans of Action and Ministerial Agendas, having fully
embraced the importance of decent work as a core development objective. In fact, it was at the XII
IACML in 2001, that the Ministers of Labour fully embraced the view that that development - like
democracy - cannot be attained if there is any eclipsing or marginalizing of the experiences and the
input of women. Therefore, it became critical that attention be paid to the ongoing pervasiveness of
discrimination against women in the field of work.
The new gender thrust at the hemispheric level had emanated at the OAS General Assembly in 2000,
where the Member States of the OAS had assumed the commitment of integrating a gender
perspective in their public policies, strategies, and projects; as a means of achieving the full and
equal participation of women and men in all aspects of social development, politics, and culture.
This commitment was expressed in the gender policy document: The Inter-American Program on
the Promotion of the Human Rights of Women and Gender Equity and Equality (IAP) . The CIM
was given the responsibility with monitoring the IAP and coordinating and evaluating the actions to
be taken to implement it. This lent a new vibrancy to gaining visibility for addressing gender
concerns and mainstreaming the gender perspective into the work of the OAS. The IAP
recommended that the Governments and the OAS General Secretariat systematically incorporate a
gender perspective in the agendas of ministerial-level meetings.
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During the Third Summit of the Americas, further momentum was achieved when the IAP and the
commitment that it represents, was endorsed by the democratically elected Heads of State and
Governments of the Hemisphere.
In order to promote implementation of this mandate in the area of labour, the CIM presented
recommendations on integrating a gender perspective into the XI IACML. However, embedding a
gender perspective into the IACML process began to realise real progress by the XII IACML, which
adopted the recommendations of the CIM and the mandates of the Plan of Action of the Third
Summit of the Americas in regards to Gender Equality and Labour and Employment.
This specific IACML made the commitment to integrate a gender perspective into the development
and implementation of all labour policies; to promote work-life balance, to protect the rights of
women workers, and to take action to remove structural and legal barriers, as well as stereotypical
attitudes to gender equality at work, to address gender bias in recruitment, working conditions,
occupational segregation and harassment, discrimination in social protection benefits, women’s
occupational health and safety and unequal opportunities and pay.
We have to appreciate the progress that has evolved from the synergies of the CIM and the IACML
over the ensuing years. CIM’s position was that there was a critical need to ensuring that a gender
perspective is integrated as a cross-cutting and permanent issue in both the Plans of Action and the
Declarations to mainstream as a solid measure in realizing advances in gender equality and equity.
Out of this fruitful collaboration has come a very significant document - The Strategic Guidelines of
the XV IACML for Advancing Gender Equality and Non-discrimination within a Decent Work
Framework.
Justification of the Study and its Strategic Guidelines:
The purpose of the study, and its strategic guidelines, is to help build the capacities of Ministries of
Labor to successfully mainstream gender into their policies and programs aimed at achieving decent
work for all in Latin America and the Caribbean, in accordance with the mandates and agreements of
the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor (IACML).
MAIN FINDINGS
The Feminization of Poverty: The feminization of poverty presents an alarming statistic which has
to be taken into account as we examine any nexus on gender and labour. Moreover, the feminization
of poverty represents a serious impediment to any effort towards economic growth or full
development. Globally, women constitute 60-70% of the poor and this growing phenomenon of
female poverty is replicated in the hemisphere. In the Americas, the feminization of poverty is
highest among rural women, disabled women, indigenous women and women of Afro-descent. Of
particular significance is that within the CARICOM sub-region, women make up 50.4% of the entire
population (figures for the 2000 Census quoted in: Women and Men in the Caribbean, CARICOM
Secretariat, 2007).
Among economically inactive women, it has been noted that female poverty is concentrated at the
two ends of the age spectrum. According to a 2006 ILO Study, young women between 15-29 years of
age – especially young mothers - constitute an astounding 75% of the 22 million young people who
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neither study nor work. Notably, the feminization of poverty is exacerbated by later life where
women outnumber and outlive men and represent a growing poverty demographic. This has
implications for women’s status and the quality of life and for access to resources in advancing age
with regard to the provision of social services and social protection.
The time has come to address the seeming invisibility of elderly women and poverty. Most social
security systems existing in the region are linked to the labour market, which reproduces for elderly
women the same inequalities that they had to face in the sphere of work. Due to their lower level of
entry into the labour market and higher participation in the informal sector, women are a minority
among pensioners and invariably their pensions have been reduced by hiatus in labour participation
associated with maternity and family care and by wage gaps with respect to men.
Compounding this is the fact that a significant percentage of women in the hemisphere are
increasingly assuming sole headship of homes and are opting for informal consensual unions as an
alternative to legal marital unions. This has implications for inheritance and legal rights as well as
having access to certain resources of their significant partners. In Latin America, 31% of households
headed by women live below the poverty line compared to 15.5% of household headed by men
(Grieco, 2002). The numbers and relative proportion of women reporting that they have never been
married; are divorced, widowed (and not remarried) or legally separated has implications for
women’s access to resources. It is argued that households headed by women have a lower standard
of living than those headed by men. Yet, studies have shown that the income earned by women
yields higher health and social benefits than that earned by men because women tend to invest their
resources in the health, education and well-being of their families.
To maximize the benefits of this, the increasing feminization of poverty has to be seriously
addressed, assessed and redressed as it correlates to an increase in the number of female-headed
homes, especially those female intergenerational family structures comprising children and
dependents. A joint study by the World Bank and the IDB has revealed that by doubling women’s
participation in the workforce among low-income groups in 2003 in Chile, the poverty level would
be reduced by 2% and extreme poverty by more than 12%.
The Situation for Women in Employment: Women, on the whole have limited access to
productive resources such as work, land, capital, information, new technologies, natural resources
and housing – which hinder their capacity to earn decent incomes. One central impediment to
women trying to enter into the economic world is the problematic of their dual roles as workers and
caretakers. Along with gender segregation in employment and gender-based discrimination which
still persists in the workplace, there are the perennial challenges of balancing work and family life –
especially for single parents with young children or dependents. Therefore it is critical to find
effective reconciliation of work and family life responsibilities for men and women, through
measures such as available, affordable and accessible child care facilities to cover the full range of 06 yrs. There is also need for flexible working hours, tele-commuting, job-sharing and arrangements
including parental leave and support in returning to work.
Another related matter which has serious implications for women, is the need to quantify the social
and economic contribution of unpaid work (domestic, productive and reproductive labour)
performed primarily by women and to promote its inclusion in national accounts. In 2003, an
ECLAC study observed that the division of labour by sex assigned domestic tasks of a reproductive
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and care-giving nature almost exclusively to women. This double-burden role that women bear can
be overwhelming and overburdening and leads to a paucity in time for women to engage in training
and recreational activities. Moreover, it circumscribes women’s options for joining the labour force,
in obtaining more diversified work and earning and/or supplementing their income. Importantly, it
hamstrings women’s ability to take part in political activity – especially at the decision-making level.
Additionally, to redress gender imbalances it is an imperative that women workers be considered for
specific programmers and training in non-traditional areas and occupations; especially into cutting
edge sectors of the economy including new technologies; to dismantle the structural and cultural
barriers to female empowerment. Further, provision needs to be made for training programmes for
self-employed workers, seasonal workers and those engaged in micro-enterprise.
An area which requires particular attention is that of domestic service, where women constitute a
top-heavy 90%. This particular service is an important one for women, since it allows for greater
entry into the workforce of other women who would have had to presumably assume the necessary
reproductive functions covered by hired help. However, domestic service is associated with a
precarious form of employment with low wage levels, unclearly defined hours of work, an absence
of labour contracts, low/no social security and high levels of segregation.
Women’s Participation in the Labour Market: Despite the fact that females tend to outperform
males in the educational arena, especially in the Caribbean sub-region, there is still the fact that girls
have high school drop outs rates primarily due to pregnancy and also to parental demand for their
reproductive and productive services - especially in poorer and rural sectors of the society. The
situation for young women with regard to employment is stark and must be given urgent attention,
since young women have the most difficult times in finding jobs and anecdotal evidence points to
them resorting to transactional sex to support and supplement their households. The unemployment
rate of young women is twice the total female unemployment rate and three times the total male
unemployment rate.
Similarly, unemployment among women is out of proportion to their relative number. According to a
2006 ILO study during the 90s, unemployment rates among women were 30% higher than among
men in Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, Chile has one of the lowest labour participation
rates among low income women in Latin America.
Having said this, though, there has been an increase in the entry of women into the labour force in
the last three decades. In 1970, according to an ILO study the participation rate was 23%, however
by 2006, the female labour market mushroomed to 52%, so that now women dominate the labour
force numerically. While this is to be commended, it has not resulted in a serious closing of the
gender-based wage differentials. In the ILO Decent Work Hemispheric Agenda: 2006-2015, it was
stated that the women’s increasing entry into the labour market and the new opportunity created by
this increase have not been accompanied by equal pay for work of equal value, or by a reduction in
occupational gender segregation. Further, a 2003 IDB study revealed that in 12 out of 16 countries of
the hemisphere, that women were more likely to earn poverty wages.
Therefore, greater participation in the labour force for women had not actually translated into greater
access by women to Decent Work. Women are over-represented in the informal and low-productivity
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sectors where according to ILO’s 2006 Labour Overview of Latin America; 51.4% of economically
active women worked in the informal sector. Female employment is concentrated in two sectors,
namely the trade and the service industry. These two sectors employ 75% of urban employed women
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Violence Against Women: The high prevalence of widespread physical, psychological and sexual
violence against women both in the private and public sphere – throughout the hemisphere - has to
be urgently and comprehensively addressed within the framework of decent work. The issue is a
serious one, since violence against women has an adverse impact on women’s entry into the
workforce; their ability to sustain employment and also to function as productive workers. This often
invisible, under-reported and under-addressed scourge increases women’s vulnerability and
insecurity and impacts their autonomy and availability – even in their productive roles. It is
imperative that this critical issue be taken into account when examining the connectivity between
gender and labour, since it also generates exorbitant costs for the state.
A striking example of the impact of violence against women was observed in The Regional Project
for Non-Traditional Skills Training for Low Income Women, which was implemented in Belize,
Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago between 1995 and 2002. The effect of violence against
women had not been factored into this project as a side effect. However, as a result of this
worthwhile project there was an increase in domestic violence intimately related to the fact that the
women had chosen to participate in the training against the will and support of their male partners,
who responded negatively to the women’s protracted absence from the home. In light of this, as we
tease out some primary gender-related issues in the labour discourse, I also want to flag the
importance of the issue of Gender-Based Violence and its connection with HIV/AIDS as another
important prism through which the schematic of labour, employment and gendered differentials has
to be addressed.
Women’s Participation in Public/Political Life: In order to achieve sustainable results in
transforming societies to embrace an engendered approach to development, there is always need for
a critical mass of women to be appointed and/or elected to the top decision-making levels of their
societies. It is essential that we remain actively engaged in securing enabling mechanisms in our
member states to promote and ensure women’s participation in power and decision-making
structures - including trade unions and labour organizations. This is a surefire method for
strengthening of democratic governance and the full enjoyment of the deliverables of development
for all citizens.
Hemispheric Strategic Guidelines: Having elaborated on the specificity of gender and labour, I
wish to take the opportunity to refer to Hemispheric Strategic Guidelines, which furnish us with the
necessary lamps we need to illumine the footpaths ahead. These guidelines are proposed to inspire
action by Ministries of Labor for mainstreaming a gender perspective in their institutional structures
and policy agendas:
 High Level Dialogue (to include the development of a Focal Points Network)
High Level Dialogues on Gender and Employment will provide the opportunity for Ministries of
Labor grouped in the IACML to meet with the highest authorities of women’s mechanisms, grouped
in the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), in order to reinforce the political commitment
in favor of gender equality in the world of work, to develop intersectoral actions putting in practice
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that commitment, and to facilitate fluid, ongoing communication among the said institutions.
 Analysis of the institutional Arrangements of Ministries of Labor
Several Ministries of Labor in the region have created offices, units or commissions on gender issues
within their organizational structures.
In some cases these bodies and agencies are of recent creation, whilst in other cases they have been
reformulated, strengthened or eliminated. Although their mere existence does not guarantee that the
Ministries have the capacity to incorporate a gender perspective into their policies and programs,
their correct operation can make a substantial contribution in that direction. Given the existing
diversity as to approach and experience, we recommend an analysis of the offices, units or
commissions dealing with gender issues within Ministries of Labor that request it.
 Hemispheric Horizontal Cooperation
The IACML has broadly recognized horizontal cooperation as a key mechanism for the institutional
strengthening of Labor Ministries, and the creation of the Inter-American Network for Labor
Administration (RIAL) is a manifestation of this recognition. The RIAL will facilitate cooperation
on decent work and gender equality-related issues, and our proposal is to use its instruments
(Portfolio, Workshops, etc) and include specific topics related to gender equality, the fight against
discrimination, and institutional development for gender mainstreaming.
 Hemispheric Labor Observatory on Gender and Employment
It would be valuable to create an Hemispheric Labor Observatory with a special focus on gender and
employment issues that provided information on gender gaps and family/work balance on a regular
basis. The Observatory could compile information already available through existing observatories
in several countries and regions and could contain links to sources of information in other
international organizations such as the ILO, the World Bank, ECLAC and the IDB.
The specific goals are as follows:
 Increase women’s participation and employment
 Reduce gender gaps with regard to informality and wages
 Improve the quality of employment for women
 Achieve the full entry of women into the world of work, free from discrimination and under
conditions of equal opportunities
 Ensure equal access to the benefits of social protection
 Impact on the work - family balance
 Increase participation of women in social dialogue schemes and trade unions
Conclusion: In light of this, it is clear that decent work cannot be attained unless we address the
indecency of gender inequality and persistent inequities and discrimination. Therefore, I wish to end
by strongly endorsing the IACML’s Strategic Guidelines, which undoubtedly cover in a very cogent
and comprehensive way the issues which the Ministers of Labour need to give focus to, with regard
to gender equality and equity. I encourage you to continue to work within these very useful
guidelines for realizing hemispheric cooperation and for advancing the integration of gender actions
into the labour process.
Finally, as a very strategic thinker on matters of incorporating a gender perspective into labour
policy and programmes, I commend very highly the proposal for a Hemispheric Observatory on
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Gender and Employment.
However, ever one to push the envelope, I am further proposing that we make a quantum leap to
contemplate the hosting of a Joint Ministerial between Gender and Labour. I see this as the optimal
way to address this matter and maximize results within the hemisphere. Consequently, I strongly
encourage you to give serious consideration to this proposal for a joint ministerial, so that success
can be realized at the national, regional and hemispheric levels in fully embedding gender within all
the labour processes in the hemisphere. This would go a long way in galvanising the process and
transforming the way in which we do business in the Americas.
With this proposal in mind, I wish to leave you with the poignant words of a very perceptive and
prolific writer, Anais Nin, who said: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was
more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Thank you.
(Power Pont presentation)
http://scm.oas.org/pdfs/2007/DDSE00056E.ppt
DDSE00056E01