The coronavirus crisis will drive 118 million Latin American women into poverty

Family from the Embera community, crammed into a flat in the Colombian capital, Bogotá.Camilo Rozo

The economic crisis generated by the covid-19 will hit women, especially those with fewer resources, and will leave 118 million Latin American women living in poverty this 2020, 22% more than the previous year, as warned this Wednesday the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in the presentation of a report on the role of caregivers during the pandemic together with UN Women. "This is the worst economic contraction in the last 100 years in the region and women are going to be particularly affected, disproportionately, because there will be a greater increase in unemployment, poverty and, above all, they will be affected by the care overload, especially in the poorest homes, "said the organization's executive secretary, Alicia Bárcena.

In addition to the 37.4% increase in the female poverty rate in the region, the pandemic will leave 15.2% of Latin American women unemployed, six percentage points more than in 2019. The agency attributes the special impact of the pandemic to women to what he calls “structural nodes of inequality”, especially those related to the sexual division of labor. They are more exposed as they are overrepresented in front-line jobs, both in the health sector and in occupations considered essential during the pandemic, and they have also been hit hardest by the loss of income as the majority are in informal jobs and in small companies. , the first to fall during the crisis. According to ECLAC forecasts, the pandemic will cause a 9.1% drop in regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 2.7 million formal small and medium-sized companies will be lost.

“More than half of women are in sectors at high risk of being affected by the economic contraction: commerce, households, manufacturing, tourism, administrative services, real estate activities and, of course, in the health sector where we see that 73% of the workers are women, ”said Bárcenas. To this cocktail must be added the increased burden of care in homes that ECLAC defines as "an obstacle to achieving their autonomy", in a region where women dedicate more than three times as much time to unpaid work as men .

For this reason, both ECLAC and UN Women in the report ask the governments of the region to place care at the center of their responses to the pandemic so that this work is recognized as key, better redistributed between genders and reduces the burden of unpaid labor. "The COVID-19 crisis must become an opportunity to strengthen care policies in the region, from a systemic and comprehensive approach," said Bárcena.

For her part, María Noel Vaeza, director for the Americas of UN Women, defended the investment in care policies, which she affirmed would have a triple benefit for the countries due to its potential to generate well-being for dependents, create quality employment and increase the participation of women in the formal workforce, with the corresponding benefits in the form of taxes and contributions. "If governments do not take seriously the need to strengthen care systems with co-responsibility, this crisis can leave many women out of the economy and unable to exercise their economic and social rights," she warned. In addition, Vaeza advocated the urgency to "break this vicious circle between care, inequality, precariousness, exclusion and poverty."

Representatives from all the countries of the region participated in the forum, which was held through the Zoom digital platform. The Costa Rican Vice President, Epsy Campbell, in her turn advocated that the economic recovery plans of the crisis generated by the coronavirus be taken advantage of to include the care of social services offered by states and companies. "You should not think that you are providing a service to women, you are providing a service to people who require care" such as children, the elderly or the disabled, she said.