Achieving gender equality and the care society requires transforming data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into political decision

To achieve gender equality and the care society without leaving anyone behind, we need to tell what is not told, transform data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into political decision, reiterates a new document presented by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in the framework of the Fifteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbeanwhich takes place until Friday the 11th in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The report Breaking the statistical silence to achieve gender equality by 2030an articulated result between the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC, presents the current situation of statistical production with a gender approach in the region, the key factors to advance in this matter and pending challenges.

The document was presented by Ana Güezmes, Director of ECLAC’s Gender Affairs Division, and commented on by Marco Lavagna, Director of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) of Argentina, the country that holds the Presidency of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, and Nadine Gasman, President of the National Institute for Women (INMUJERES) of Mexico, in a panel that was moderated by Clemencia Carabalí, Presidential Advisor for Women’s Equality of Colombia.

“The information generated in Latin America and the Caribbean has made it possible to break the statistical silence and make visible an inequitable distribution of power, resources, work, time and wealth, which is at the base of the unsustainability of the style of development dominant. Along with this, the production of statistics with a gender approach has been essential for monitoring international commitments, especially the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in a transversal manner”, the report states.

The document reviews the data on the four structural knots that must be addressed to achieve gender equality by 2030, established in the Montevideo Strategy: i) socioeconomic inequality and the persistence of poverty within the framework of growth exclusive; ii) the sexual division of labor and the unfair social organization of care; iii) the concentration of power and hierarchical relations in the public sphere, and iv) patriarchal, discriminatory and violent cultural patterns and the predominance of the culture of privilege.

In this sense, it specifies that the data produced by the countries show a greater concentration of income among men in the highest quintiles, while only 35% of individual labor income is in the hands of women. In addition, gender gaps are exacerbated in the households of the poorest quintiles. This reveals the challenges that remain to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in the countries of the region and achieve Goal 10.

“Gender statistics are a powerful tool that makes visible the magnitude and intensity of the different expressions of gender inequality in the labor market. The sexual division of labor persists in the region and constitutes the main barrier to greater participation of women in the labor market. The region had overcome the barrier of 50% labor participation by women, but in the first year after the arrival of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, this situation fell back by the equivalent of 18 years and revealed how In the face of crises, women’s work functions as an adjustment variable”, the document states.

She adds that, even with the recovery efforts, currently, 1 in 2 women does not participate in the labor market, while in the case of men this figure drops to 1 in 4.

The report reveals that the gender approach, together with the intersectional analysis, has made it possible to understand and attend to the ways in which gender inequality is enhanced by other axes of discrimination in different areas of life such as race or ethnicity, age, functional capacities, sexuality and gender identity, and territory. Thus, for example, when analyzing information on the labor market by life cycle, it has been shown that young women face greater obstacles to entering the labor market than men and women of other age groups.

It highlights that it has been thanks to gender statistics that it has been possible to identify the underlying causes that affect gender inequalities in the labor market among young people. 37.8% of young women between the ages of 15 and 24 and 22.5% of men in the same age range do not study or work for pay. While for women the most important reason for not having a link with the main axes of social inclusion —the labor market and the educational system— is linked to the need to attend to care responsibilities (51.1%), for men the The main reason is unemployment (44.8%).

“This document is a milestone, because it is the first that we do within the framework of two subsidiary bodies of ECLAC: the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC”, he highlighted. Ana Güezmes during her presentation.

The document analyzes the regional architecture that favors the production of gender statistics and their comparability, as well as the mainstreaming of the gender approach in the region.

It also reviews the alliance between producing organizations and information user entities and highlights the link between the national statistics offices and the mechanisms for the advancement of women, which has potentiated the dissemination of gender statistics.

It also highlights the advances in the production of statistics on gender violence and in the production of gender statistics.

The report has a chapter that provides guidance on what to measure to move towards a care society. In this sense, he stresses that demographic data is the main tool for knowing the demand for care and is the starting point for projecting what the potential demand will be in the future.

However, it points out that this information must be complemented with specific studies on the social representations about the ideals of care in the population, on the characteristics of the social welfare systems of each country and on the participation of women in the labor market, among other dimensions that affect the way in which societies organize and distribute care responsibilities.