The Status of Women in Latin America: What is the Role of Social Institutions?

The Status of Women in Latin America: What is the Role of Social Institutions? Denis Drechsler OECD Development Centre Institut d‘Études Politiques Paris  4 May 2007

Recently Elected Female Heads of State in the World Chile: M. Bachelet Finland: T. Halonen Germany: A. Merkel Liberia: E. Johnson Sirleaf

Institutions and Development Level 1 Institutions: Social norms; hardly moving Development Growth Equity Gender Level 2 Institutions: slow moving; e.g. property rights Level 3 Institutions: cooperate governance Level 4 Institutions: Fast moving, capital flow controls Source: Williamson 2000

Introduction: Why does gender equality matter? I A new tool: The Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB) II III Applying the GID: What is the situation of women in Latin America? The impact of social institutions on gender equality IV V What can be done? VI Conclusion

I) Gender equality matters… • Gender equality = women and men have equal conditions for realising their full human rights and for contributing to, and benefiting from economic, social, cultural and political development. • Gender equality is an important goal in itself (MDG 3)… • … and also contributes to the achievement of other objectives: - stimulate growth and reduce poverty - reduce inequities - contribute to child development

… but what determines it? • Causalities between development and gender inequalities not clear • 2 main schools of thinking - Modernisation-neoclassical approach - Feminist thesis • Measurement problems: What? How?

II) The Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID) • A new tool for researchers and policy makers • Allows an analysis of obstacles to women’s economic status • Covers 161 economies and has around 60 indicators on gender discrimination • Includes institutional variables that range from intrahousehold behaviour to social norms

Indicators affecting the Economic Role of Women Input Variables Output Variables Social Institutions (A) e.g. Family Code, Physical Integrity, Civil Liberties, Ownership Rights Economic Role of Women (D) Access to Resources (B) e.g. share of women in wage e.g. Health, Education employment in the non - agricultural sector Political Empowerment (C) e.g. seats in parliament held by women Source: Own Illustration.

GID-Indicators: Social Institutions

Early Marriages in India In the Rajgarh district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a group of girl brides sit solemnly during celebrations that will culminate in their weddings later in the day. Source: Courtesy of the United Nations Children's Foundation

Violence against women Source: BBC News Source: AFP According to a UN report (2000), one in three woman in the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way, most often by someone she knows.

III) The Situation of Women in Latin America: A global and regional perspective • Latin America and Caribbean – LAC: Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cuba; Dominican Rep.; Ecuador; Guatemala; Honduras; Haiti; Jamaica; Mexico; Nicaragua; Panama; Peru; Puerto Rico; Paraguay; El Salvador; Trinidad and Tobago; Uruguay; Venezuela

Global Perspective:Employment, Education and Health Care Important divide between: - Latin America, East Asia and Pacific and OECD countries - South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region

Employment Source: GID Data Base

Education Source: GID Data Base

Health Care * of 100,000 life births Source: GID Data Base

Overall: Latin America performs comparatively well… • Employment - Latin America and Caribbean region has twice as many women in the paid work force than MENA • Education - 30% more girls are enrolled in primary education in Latin America than in sub-Saharan Africa • Health Care - Significantly lower maternal mortality rate compared to South Asia

… but some regional disparities: e.g. women in paid labour Source: GID Data Base

…or: literacy rate as a share of men's literacy rate Source: GID Data Base

…or: Maternal mortality Source: GID Database

Regional disparities: An Income Phenomenon? • High-Income Countries - HIC Puerto Rico • Upper-Middle Income Countries - UMC Argentina; Chile; Costa Rica; Mexico; Panama; Trinidad and Tobago; Uruguay; Venezuela • Lower-Middle Income Countries – LMC Bolivia; Brazil; Colombia; Cuba; Dominican Rep.; Ecuador; Guatemala; Honduras; Jamaica; Peru; Paraguay; El Salvador • Low-Income Countries – LIC Haiti; Nicaragua

Employment Source: GID Data Base

Education Source: GID Data Base

Health Care * of 100,000 life births Source: GID Data Base

Social Institutions Scale: 0 (minimum) to 1 (maximum) = level of discrimination through social institutions Source: GID Data Base

IV) The Impact of Social Institutions on Gender Equality • Modelling approach - (access to resources) = f (social institutions) + (log Y) + et - (economic role of women) = f (access to resources) + (log Y) + et - (economic role of women) = f (social institutions) + (log Y) + et

Social Institutions and Female Participation in the Labour Market… % of women in paid non-agricultrual labour force Source: Jütting, Morrison, Dayton-Johnson, Drechsler (2006)

…a clearly negative correlation Source: GID Data Base

…which is more pronounced than economic development Source: GID Data Base

Social institutions and educational attainment Source: GID Data Base

Average marriage age and women in paid labour Source: GID Data Base

Early Marriage Source: GID Data Base

Early marriage and GDP p.c. Source: GID Data Base

V) What can be done? • Empowerment of women - More participation of women in decision making on community level (example: quota in India) • Sex-disaggregated data collection • Enforcement reform of legal structures - Monitoring systems to ensure changes • Convince men of benefit of reforms - Men should get incentives to accept changes and in some cases compensation for potential losses

Barriers to change: Some important caveats • Depth of tradition - Examples: polygamy, early marriage - Rural population remains attached to such traditions despite their legal interdiction • Institutional change conflicts with men’s interest - Examples: polygamy, repudiation - Inequality provides men with material advantages that they lose upon reform • Limited enforcement of reforms - Example: Widely toleration of violence against women by police in northern states of India - Wide gap in performance between the publication of a law and its effective implementation

Gender equality is getting more and more attention… Women in Costa Rica demonstrated for equal rights on International Women’s Day 2006. Source: AFP

…and a voice Women police officers in India have formed a national forum to fight sexual harassment and discrimination from their male colleagues. Source: BBC news

India's first computer-literate village At least one member of every family in the village — there are 850 families — has completed basic computer literacy training. Photo: M.S. Vinod

The Grameen phone scheme - 'Telephone Ladies' connect Bangladesh Grameen phone ladies provide villagers with a vital link to services such as hospitals and to relatives both at home and abroad, in a country with the lowest number of phones in South Asia.

VI) Conclusion • Gender equality is key to development • Role of social institutions overlooked • Changes are possible in different settings • Need to provide the right incentives • Strategies should be flexible and adapted to levels of development and socio-economic context

Merci!

Further Literature Forsythe N., Korzeniewicz R.P. & Durrant,V. (2000). Gender Inequalities and Economic Growth: A Longitudinal Evaluation. Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. 48(3), pp. 573-617. Jütting J., Morrisson C., Dayton-Johnson J. & Drechsler D. (2006). Measuring Gender (In)equality: Introducing the Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base (GID), OECD Working Paper No. 247. Jütting J., Morrisson C., Dayton-Johnson J. & Drechsler D. (2006). The Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base, OECD Policy Insight No. 16. Klasen, S. (2002). Low Schooling for Girls, Slower Growth for All? Cross-Country Evidence on the Effect of Gender Inequality in Education on Economic Development. The World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 16(3), pp. 315 – 373. World Bank (2001). Engendering Development through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources and Voice. Washington D.C.: World Bank

The Status of Women in Latin America: What is the Role of Social Institutions?