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

1
The Status of Women in Latin America What is the
Role of Social Institutions?

• Denis Drechsler
• OECD Development Centre

Institut dÉtudes Politiques Paris ? 4 May 2007
2
Recently Elected Female Heads of State in the
World
Chile M. Bachelet
Finland T. Halonen
Germany A. Merkel
Liberia E. Johnson Sirleaf
3
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
4
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
What can be done?
V
Conclusion
VI
5
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

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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?

7
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
What can be done?
V
Conclusion
VI
8
II) The Gender, Institutions and Development
Database (GID)

• A new tool for researchers and policy makers
• Allows an analysis of obstacles to womens
  economic status
• Covers 161 economies and has around 60 indicators
  on gender discrimination
• Includes institutional variables that range from
  intrahousehold behaviour to social norms

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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.
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GID-Indicators Social Institutions

Physical Integrity Prevalence of female genital mutilation Missing Women Legislation punishing acts of violence against women
Family Code Marriage before the age of 20 Acceptance of polygamy within a society Parental authority granted to father and mother equally Inheritance practices in favour of male heirs
Ownership Rights Womens access to land ownership Womens access to bank loans Womens access to property other than land
Civil Liberties Freedom of movement Obligation to wear a veil in public
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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
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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.
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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
What can be done?
V
Conclusion
VI
14
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

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Global PerspectiveEmployment, 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

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Employment
Source GID Data Base
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Education
Source GID Data Base
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Education
Source GID Data Base
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Health Care
of 100,000 life births
Source GID Data Base
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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

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but some regional disparities e.g. women in
paid labour
Source GID Data Base
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or literacy rate as a share of men's literacy
rate
Source GID Data Base
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or Maternal mortality
Source GID Database
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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

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Employment
Source GID Data Base
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Education
Source GID Data Base
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Health Care
of 100,000 life births
Source GID Data Base
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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
What can be done?
V
Conclusion
VI
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Social Institutions
Scale 0 (minimum) to 1 (maximum) level of
discrimination through social institutions
Source GID Data Base
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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

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Social Institutions and Female Participation in
the Labour Market
  GDP (Log income) Social Institutions (GID) GDI (UNDP) Observa-tions R-squared
5.2 (6.5)     146 0.18
   -45.1 (-11.7) 116 0.55
   42.4 (9.1) 136 0.38
  -1.1 (-0.5) -40.8 (-6.1) 11.7 (0.7) 109 0.55
of women in paid non-agricultrual labour force
Source Jütting, Morrison, Dayton-Johnson,
Drechsler (2006)
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a clearly negative correlation
Source GID Data Base
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which is more pronounced than economic
development
Source GID Data Base
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Social institutions and educational attainment
Source GID Data Base
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Average marriage age and women in paid labour
Source GID Data Base
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Early Marriage
Source GID Data Base
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Early marriage and GDP p.c.
Source GID Data Base
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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
What can be done?
V
Conclusion
VI
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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

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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 mens
  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

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Gender equality is getting more and more
attention
Women in Costa Rica demonstrated for equal
rights on International Womens Day 2006.
Source AFP
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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
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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
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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.
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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
What can be done?
V
Conclusion
VI
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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

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• Merci!

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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