Soil endowments, production technologies and missing women in India

The deficit of women relative to men in some societies has emerged as the most extreme indicator of gender-based discrimination (Sen 1990). Studies concerned with the demographic gender imbalance have provided evidence on significant effects of economic factors (Rosenzweig and Schultz 1982, Rao 1993, Larsen et al. 1998, Rose 1999, Qian 2008) and of cultural disparities in the perception of women’s worth (Das Gupta et al. 2003). However, great geographical differences in population sex ratios remain and are more difficult to explain (Basu 1982, Das Gupta et al. 2003).

This study examines the remarkable geographical heterogeneity in infant sex ratios in India. In India, a country characterized by a severe female population deficit, sex ratios are not male-biased everywhere. They differ substantially across districts, even within the same state and cultural region (Dyson and Moore 1983, Agnihotri 1996). Average district sex ratios for the 0-to-6 year old population are more biased in the North than in the South, and range from a minimum of 766 to a maximum of 1035 females per 1000 males.

I show that in India, where 72 percent of the population is rural, there is a significant and important association between the geographical variation in exogenous soil texture and rural infant sex ratios. I argue that the association can be explained by differences in the economic contributions of women relative to men in agricultural production. In agriculture, the depth of land and seedbed preparation are exogenously determined by the soil texture. Deep tillage of land reduces the need for transplanting, fertilizing and weeding operations, which are typically performed by women (Basant 1987). In areas where deep tillage is required, the lower demand for female relative to male labor is expected to have a negative impact on the perceived relative value of girls to a household (Boserup 1970, Bardhan 1974 1988, Miller 1982, Rosenzweig and Schultz 1982, Bossen 1989, Qian 2008, Alesina, Giuliano and Nunn 2010).

Soil texture is a physical property of the soil that is exogenously defined by geological and meteorological factors and that is not easily modified by land management practices. The soil texture is not a chemical or biological attribute and, by itself, does not determine the quality of soil or the type of crop that can be grown. Instead, the soil texture determines the workability and tillage requirements of the soil. Deep tillage can only be done in light soils of loamy texture but not in heavy soils of clayey texture (Muller and Schindler 1999).

I built on the exogenous variation in soil texture to explain the variation in rural infant sex ratios in India. The identification assumption is that, conditional on weather, soil chemical and biological characteristics and state fixed effects, the relationship between soil texture and rural 0-to-6 year old sex ratios across districts can only be explained by the impact of deep tillage of land on the relative demand for female labor. Because smaller relative female labor contributions in loamy areas make girls relatively more costly, the ratio of girls to boys will be negatively related to the difference between the fractions of loamy and clayey soils.

Identification is obtained from the variation in soil distribution across districts within a same state. The district is the unit of analysis where the impact of deep tillage of land can be isolated from other channels. In India, labor markets are geographically small and migration is limited and occurs mostly within district boundaries. Other geographical differences in income, agricultural yield or cropping patterns, as well as in culture, policy, social and economic variables, are not driven by soil texture and are insignificant across districts within a same state. Therefore, differences in the relative female labor force participation and the infant ratio of girls to boys across districts within a same state could not be explained by those alternative mechanisms.

Consistently, I find that the districts with larger fractions of loamy relative to clayey soils exhibit a lower ratio of female to male children. I also find significantly lower female participation in agriculture and higher stocks of deep plows and draft animals per hectare of land in loamier districts. In contrast, I find no evidence of differences by soil texture in crop yields, crop mix or income once other determinants are properly identified.

World Bank.Author: Carranza, Eliana;Document Date: 2012/02/01. Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number: WPS5974

Soil endowments, production technologies and missing women in India c

Sex-Specific Reporting of Scientific Research

NAS. The number of women participating in clinical trials has increased over the last two decades, but women are still underrepresented in clinical trials in general. Some of the overall increase can be attributed to the greater number of women-only trials (of therapies for diseases that affect only women). Even when women are included in clinical trials, the results are often not analyzed separately by sex.

On August 30, 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice hosted the workshop Sex-Specific Reporting of Scientific Research. The workshop explored the need for sex-specific reporting of scientific results; potential barriers and unintended consequences of sex-specific reporting of scientific results; experiences of journals that have implemented sex-specific requirements, including the challenges and benefits of such editorial policies; and steps to facilitate the reporting of sex-specific results. Presenters and participants included current and former editors of scientific journals, researchers, and scientists and policymakers from government, industry, and nonprofit organizations. Presentations and discussions highlighted the importance to both women and men of having sex-specific data, the problems with sample size and financial constraints for conducting the research, the appropriateness of sex-specific analyses, and the limitations of journal policies to  ange experimental designs.

Sex-Specific Reporting of Scientific Research summarizes the presentations and discussions by the expert panelists during the IOM workshop. The workshop's first session focused on why sex-specific reporting is important. Panelists highlighted historical and current events that have hindered or helped to advance the study of women. In the next session, panelists in academe discussed the challenges of collecting, analyzing, and reporting sex-specific data from the researcher's perspective. That was followed by two panels of leading journal editors who shared their experiences in developing and implementing editorial policies and the implications of sex-specific reporting policies for journals. 

OECD (2012), “ICT Applications for the Smart Grid: Opportunities and Policy Implications”, OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 190, OECD Publishing.

Sex-Specific Reporting of Scientific Research

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Human rights based approaches to developmen t: concepts, evidence, and policy

This paper assesses the benefits, risks, and limitations of human rights based approaches to development, which can be catalogued on the basis of the institutional mechanisms they rely on: global compliance based on international and regional treaties; the policies and programming of donors and executive agencies; rights talk; and legal mobilization. The paper briefly reviews the politics of the first three kinds of human rights based approaches before examining constitutionally based legal mobilization for social and economic rights in greater detail. 

Litigation for social and economic rights is increasing in frequency and scope in several countries, and exhibits appealing attributes, such as inclusiveness and deliberative quality. Still, there are potential problems with this form of human rights based mobilization, including middle class capture, the potential counter majoritarianism of courts, and difficulties in compliance. The conclusion summarizes what is known, and what remains to be studied, regarding human rights based approaches to development.

Human rights are probably the dominant normative conception in the contemporary globalized world. It is common for struggles for national self-determination, the recognition of alternative identities, class-based and labor empowerment, gender equality, democratic inclusion, property rights protections, rectification of state violence, and consumer goods to use rights discourse – in spite of varying political orientations and alliances among the actors involved. Development is no exception. Whereas it was understood primarily in the terms of economic output from about 1950 to 1970, and concerned with poverty from around 1970 to 1990, development has in the past two decades increasingly been framed in the language of human rights and related concepts, such as fundamental human capabilities and multi-dimensional poverty. The objectives for doing so, on the part of advocates, have been, broadly speaking, to characterize the elimination of extreme poverty as a moral imperative, and to underscore that the kind of political power associated with the assertion of claims by the poor themselves is a prerequisite to the elimination of extreme poverty. The first point is commonly thought of as speaking to the ―intrinsic‖ dimension of human rights, and the latter to their ―instrumental‖ dimension.

The intrinsic dimension is instrumentally useful, however, if it mobilizes rich country governments and citizens, as well as the privileged citizens of developing countries, to contribute more resources to development, and to do so more effectively. So perhaps it is better to say that there are aspects of human rights based approaches to development (HRBAs) that target duty-bearers by raising the moral pressure, and other aspects that target rights-holders by instilling the dignity and self-respect necessary for political, social, and legal mobilization; and that both can, arguably, reduce poverty and inequality at the global and national levels. In other words, HRBAs work both on the supply and demand sides of development.

Author: Gauri, Varun ; Gloppen, Siri. Document Date: 2012/01/01. Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper. Report Number: WPS5938

Human rights based approaches to developmen t: concepts, evidence, and policy

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Cote d'Ivoire.Emergency Basic Education Support Project

Approval Date N/A.Closing Date N/A.Total Project Cost** 41.4.Region Africa.Major Sector (Sector) (%) Education (Primary education) (80%). Education (Secondary education) (10%).Education (General education sector) (10%).Themes (%) Gender (10%).Education for all (70%).Nutrition and food security (10%).Conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction (10%).Environmental Category B.Bank Team Lead Kamil, Hamoud Abdel Wedoud

World Bank. Borrower/Recipient REPUBLIC OF COTE D'IVOIRE.Implementing Agency MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

Emergency Basic Education Support Project - EFA-FTI Grant Cote d'Ivoire


World Bank.Document Date:2011/08/08.Document Type: Project Information Document.Report Number:AB6738.Volume No:  1 of 1

v

Nepal.Gender.Focused Capacity Development in Clean Energy

The project will improve the reliability of energy supply in Nepal and strengthen the transmission infrastructure needed to promote Nepal s capacity for cross-border energy trade. It will provide support in three critical areas in the electricity supply industry, which has experienced severe underinvestment: (i) electricity transmission capacity expansion, (ii) strengthening of distribution systems including those along the Tamakoshi (Khimti) Kathmandu transmission line, and (iii) rehabilitation of selected small hydropower plants.

Asian Development Bank.Project Number 41155- 02

Gender-Focused Capacity Development in Clean Energy :  Nepal

x

Lebanon.National Volunteer Service Program

World Bank. Approval Date 09-AUG-2011.Closing Date N/A.Total Project Cost** 2. Region Middle East And North Africa.Major Sector (Sector) (%) Health and other social services (Other social services) (100%).Themes (%) Gender (20%).Improving labor markets (40%).Conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction (40%)

 

Lebanon.National Volunteer Service Program.

Ethiopia.Support to Improve Artisan Miners Project

In response to the request for financial assistance made on behalf of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, I am pleased to inform you that the International Development Association (World Bank),as administrator of grant funds provided by Japan under the Japan Social Development Fund proposes to extend to the Recipient a grant in an amount not to exceed two million eight hundred sixty-five thousand fifty United States Dollars (US$ 2,865,050) on the terms and conditions set forth or referred to in this letter agreement, which includes the attached Annex, to assist in the financing of the project described in the Annex.The objective of the Project is to significantly reduce the poverty levels of Artisan and Small-scale Mining Communities in rural Ethiopia, with specific reference to women artisan miners

World Bank.Author:Pavluk,Jonathan David. Document Date:2011/11/04.Document Type:Grant or Trust Fund Agreement.

Agreement for JSDF Grant TF098807 Conformed

Burkina Faso.Strengthening community participation for the fight against female genital cutting

Implementation Status Results Report

Author: Ousmane Diadie,Haidara.Document Date:  2011/11/27.Document Type: Implementation Status and Results Report.Report Number:ISR5146

Burkina Faso - Strengthening community participation for the fight against female genital cutting (FGM/C) : P116645 - Implementation Status Results Report : Sequence 01

Gender and Climate Change:Three Things You Should Know

World Bank. Press Release No:2012/169/SDN.WASHINGTON, November 28, 2011—As the United Nations conference on climate change opens in South Africa, a new World Bank study demonstrates that women, when fully empowered, can be an important force for change as countries and citizens grapple with the impacts of climate change and prepare to adapt to them.

World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte said a growing body of evidence shows that women tend to be disproportionately more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change compared to men.  Because of their vulnerability – to more frequent and more extreme natural disasters like cyclones, floods, and droughts – it’s vital that women play a more central role in building their communities’ climate resilience.

“We are seeing time and time again that when women are empowered to play leadership roles within their communities, the whole community benefits from better preparedness for extreme weather events,” Kyte said. “It's smart economics, smart business, smart planning, and smart design to look at challenges with women’s realities in mind."

One example of this comes from Bangladesh.  In 1991, Cyclone Gorky killed 140,000 people in that country. Deaths of women outnumbered deaths of men by a ratio of 14 to 1. Through the government’s intensive efforts to increase women’s involvement in preparedness – including providing women-only spaces in storm shelters and getting women more involved as community mobilizers – the number of deaths in a similar cyclone event in 2007, saw the gender gap in mortality rates shrink to 5:1.

“Now women are acting as powerful agents of change in Bangladesh,” Kyte said. “Women are getting the message out ahead of cyclones through early warning messages to other women in the community, encouraging them to use cyclone shelters. It’s not only had a dramatic effect in reducing the gender differential in those who are dying in cyclones, but it has also improved cyclone preparedness overall.”

In the paper, entitled “Gender and Climate Change: Three Things You Should Know”, the World Bank underscores the importance of gender equality for effective and equitable action on climate change.       

The study refers to examples in India where poor women in drought-prone states like Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have improved their social and economic opportunities through self-help groups that have linked together to increase their bargaining power. Over time, these institutional platforms that have grown up around improved livelihoods can be used to build climate resilience, including accessing advice for dealing with drought and building better watershed management structures.

The paper’s author, Lead Social Development Specialist Robin Mearns, says the key to ensuring gender equality is ensuring equal access to resources and opportunities for everyone.

“Women very often don’t enjoy the same rights or the same socio-economic status as men and that structural disadvantage means that they are often more vulnerable than men to the impacts of the same climate or hazard events,” he said.

In developing countries, projects aimed at addressing climate change or improving energy access can have important benefits for women if gender considerations are factored into early planning.

For example, a new Bus Rapid Transit project in Lagos, Nigeria has helped cut carbon emissions in that city by 20 percent. A gender analysis undertaken ahead of the project highlighted the need for providing well-lit bus shelters and other safety measures for women to improve their likely use of the system. Now, women are significant users of public transport, improving their participation in the local economy.

The paper also highlights the important decisions that billions of women make every day that influence the amount of carbon that is released into the atmosphere. Women’s choices around cooking fuels, cooking technology and the foods to cook all have an important bearing on carbon emissions.

“Low-emissions development pathways can be more effective and more equitable where they are designed using a gender-informed approach,” said Mearns.

Gender and Climate Change: Three Things You Should Knowd

Afghanistan has ‘long way to go’ in protecting women from violence.

UNHR.KABUL, 23 NOVEMBER 2011. Judicial and law enforcement officials are so far implementing sporadically the two-year-old law supporting the equality and rights of Afghan women, and the Government has not yet succeeded in applying the law to the vast majority of cases of violence against women, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report released today.

“Judges, prosecutors and police in many parts of Afghanistan have begun to use the new law which is a positive development, but unfortunately only in a small percentage of violence against women cases,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. “Although the law’s implementation is clearly growing, there is a very long way to go before Afghan women are fully protected from violence and their equality is properly upheld through this important law,” she added.

Enacted in August 2009, the landmark Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) law criminalises child marriage, forced marriage, selling and buying women for the purpose or under the pretext of marriage, baad (giving away a woman or girl to settle a dispute), forced self-immolation and 17 other acts of violence against women including rape and beating. It also specifies punishment for perpetrators.

The 33-page United Nations report entitled A Long Way to Go: Implementation of the Elimination of Violence against Women law in Afghanistan, found both positive progress and gaps in the implementation of the law in the period from March 2010 to September 2011.

The report is based on 261 interviews with judicial, police and Government officials and UNAMA/United Nations human rights office monitoring of numerous violence against women cases throughout Afghanistan. The report analyses statistical data on the law’s application by judicial and law enforcement authorities in 31 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces in its first full year of implementation (21 March 2010 - 20 March 2011) with additional research over the following six months.

The report notes that comprehensive official statistics on the number of cases of violence against women in Afghanistan are not available and most incidents are unreported. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission registered 2,299 incidents of violence against women that could be defined as crimes under the EVAW law between March 2010 and March 2011. Using the available figure of 2,299 incidents as a baseline estimate, United Nations human rights officials found that prosecutors in 28 provinces opened cases in 26 percent of the total 2,299 incidents (i.e. 594 cases). They filed indictments in seven percent (155 cases) and primary courts relied on the EVAW law as the basis of their judgments in only four percent of total incidents (101 cases).

“The justice sector in some provinces has applied the EVAW law which is encouraging. But the low number of cases prosecuted and tried shows that a much more active collective effort by justice system actors, Government decision-makers and others is needed to urge judicial and local authorities to apply the law to all cases of violence against women,” said Staffan de Mistura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA. “Progress on the status of Afghan women over the last ten years, including their 38 percent access to schools, their 69 MPs in Parliament and some women who have qualified as airplane pilots, is undermined by uneven implementation of the Elimination of Violence against Women Law.”

Prosecutors in 17 provinces filed indictments under the law. Herat province led the country, with 68 EVAW law indictments filed and 35 cases tried. The Special Violence against Women Unit of the Attorney General’s Office in Kabul opened approximately half of all cases in the country – 285 from Kabul, in addition to 47 received from 19 other provinces. However, its record of filing indictments with the courts was comparatively small: a total of only 21 indictments were filed in Kabul courts from March 2010 to March 2011.

The report determined that many cases of violence against Afghan women were withdrawn or mediated including serious crimes that would require prosecution. United Nations human rights officials found that some murder cases and other serious crimes criminalised under the EVAW law were instead prosecuted under the Penal Code or Sharia law. This sometimes resulted in acquittal of perpetrators, reduction of charges to less serious crimes, convictions with lighter sentences and women victims themselves being accused of “moral crimes”. The report also found that police and prosecutors in many regions continued to refer a majority of cases of violence against women to traditional dispute resolution mechanisms that did not enforce the EVAW law or adequately protect women’s rights.

Mediation was used extensively for domestic violence complaints by institutions including the Police Family Response Unit, Department of Women’s Affairs, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Special Violence against Women Unit of the Attorney General’s Office. While mediation was sometimes preferred by women complainants, the report found that authorities often inappropriately pressured women to withdraw complaints and opt for mediation.

The report said that provincial branches of the Commission for the Prevention of Violence against Women are struggling to fulfill their mandate and require more support from provincial Governors, the national Ministry of Women’s Affairs and other government bodies. Of the 28 provincial branches established since the EVAW law was enacted, only 16 are still functioning currently and meeting regularly.

“As long as women and girls are subject to violence with impunity that violates their human rights, little meaningful and sustainable progress for women’s rights can be achieved in Afghanistan,” said Georgette Gagnon, Director of Human Rights for UNAMA. “Ensuring rights for Afghan women – such as their participation in public life, including in the peace and reconciliation process and equal opportunities in education and employment – requires not only legal safeguards on paper, but speedy and full enforcement of the EVAW law.”

To improve implementation of the EVAW law, UNAMA and the United Nations human rights office made 32 recommendations to the Government and its international partners, including to make a much greater effort to raise awareness of the law among Afghan women and men and within all levels of the Government; to have the Supreme Court, Ministry of Interior and Attorney General’s Office instruct all officials to apply the law consistently, rapidly and efficiently; and, to train police, prosecutors and judges on how to apply the law. The report called on international donors to support and fully fund the 2008-2018 National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) and the National Priority Programs on Law and Justice for All and Capacity Development to Accelerate NAPWA Implementation.

Excerpts from the Report

Examples of application of the EVAW law:

· Herat prosecutors applied Article 22 of the EVAW law and Article 395 of the Penal Code to pursue a double murder. Two sisters, age 15 and 17, were killed in Karukh district of Herat in July 2010. Reportedly, the 17-year-old had refused to marry a man her family had chosen for her. Five people, including her would-be in-laws and two other men attacked the two girls in their home and killed them. Police arrested the five in October 2010. The Court of Appeals acquitted three of the men, but sentenced the would-be husband and father-in-law to 16 years imprisonment.

· In Jawzjan province, in March 2011, a district court found a former ANA soldier guilty of forcing his wife into prostitution (EVAW Article 18). Injured and unable to work, the former soldier told his wife to have sex with their landlord in exchange for rent. The wife refused and reported the case. The husband confessed and was sentenced to three years imprisonment; the Court of Appeals increased the sentence to seven years.

· In March 2011, a woman reported her daughter’s forced suicide to the (Kandahar) Family Response Unit. Her family had given away their 25-year old daughter in marriage for 300,000 Afghanis (US$6,600). Her in-laws constantly berated the woman saying “Your parents took so much money from us you must now pay it back by working in people’s homes.” In February 2011, after ten years of marriage, the inlaws ordered her to have sex with three male guests visiting the family. A month later, the woman set fire to herself in her room. “She was always saying that she would burn herself one day. I would tell her, please tolerate, this is life as it comes and one day you will have a bright future,” the woman’s mother said. Police recorded the mother’s complaint but made no attempt to investigate. Forced self-immolation is one of several crimes the EVAW law instructs must be pursued by police and prosecutors even in the absence of a complainant.

· In Daikundi province, authorities referred a case of serious violence against a woman to elders for resolution. The case involved a man who stabbed his sister-in-law multiple times in November 2010. She survived, was hospitalized and police arrested the perpetrator. Authorities then reported the case had been resolved through the informal justice system with the assistance of community elders. Their resolution was a pledge from the man that he would leave his sister-in-law in peace instead of prosecution. The prosecutor denied responsibility, blaming the police for referring the case to the elders.

Read the full report:

English: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/AF/UNAMA_Nov2011.pdf

Dari: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/AF/UNAMA_Nov2011_Dari.pdf

Pashto: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/AF/UNAMA_Nov2011_Pashto.pdf

América Latina: más mujeres tienen empleo pero no facilidades para balancear demandas del hogar

NUEVA YORK, 24 de octubre de 2011 –Adela Maldonado, de 42 años, corta papas y muslos de pollo en tiritas tan delgadas como sus hábiles dedos mientras prepara un enorme guiso para cientos de niños –incluyendo a su hija-, en una escuela de un pequeño poblado a las afueras de Barranquilla, Colombia. Mientras tanto, a unos 1.000 km de distancia, Lina María Castaño, de 30, manda un mensaje de correo electrónico desde su BlackBerry al director ejecutivo de una las empresas más importantes de Colombia, inmediatamente después su pulgar aprieta el botón de llamadas para hacer los arreglos necesarios para recoger a su hija de cinco en la escuela. Separadas físicamente por la abrupta geografía del vasto territorio colombiano y por su formación profesional —una es cocinera, la otra Vicepresidenta de la Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá— las dos mujeres comparten su pertenencia a una nueva generación de mujeres trabajadoras que se han beneficiado de años de progreso en términos de acortar la brecha de género de América Latina. También comparten la lucha por equilibrar trabajo y vida familiar. En décadas recientes, las mujeres de la región han avanzado a pasos agigantados en cuanto a participación laboral, acceso a la educación y salud, superando incluso a los hombres en muchos indicadores y posicionándose muy por encima de otras regiones en el mundo, según indica un nuevo informe sobre género en América Latina. Al mismo tiempo —indica el informe—, enfrentan nuevos desafíos a la hora de progresar de la mano como madres y como mujeres trabajadoras. Trabajo y familia: mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe en busca de un nuevo equilibrio (i) indica que más de 70 millones de mujeres ingresaron al mercado laboral regional desde 1980, marcando un crecimiento sin precedentes de la participación femenina en el mercado laboral. Hace tres décadas, solo el 36 por ciento de las mujeres en edad de trabajar formaban parte del mercado laboral. Desde entonces, la participación femenina en ALC creció más rápido que en cualquier otra región del mundo. Estos resultados están estrechamente relacionados con el hecho que las mujeres han alcanzado enormes éxitos educativos, superando a los hombres en un número de indicadores. Hoy en día es más probable que las jóvenes cursen la escuela secundaria o la educación superior que los varones, y también tienen más probabilidades de terminar ambas. Sin embargo, a medida que la brecha entre ambos se cierra, surgen nuevos desafíos, indica el informe. La primera generación de políticas de género abordó las disparidades, asegurando un acceso igualitario a los servicios, desde la educación a la salud. Sin embargo, se necesita un nuevo conjunto de políticas para ayudar a las mujeres a balancear las demandas impuestas por el trabajo y la vida familiar, dicen los expertos. “Curiosamente, estos avances en la agenda de género implican nuevos desafíos para los diseñadores de políticas, particularmente la demanda de flexibilidad no satisfecha por parte de aquellas mujeres que intentan equilibrar su vida laboral y familiar,” dijo la autora del informe, la economista del Banco Mundial Laura Chioda. “Ya sea la prestación de servicios de guardería o la formalización de arreglos de tiempo parcial en el mercado laboral, las políticas que permiten una mayor flexibilidad en el trabajo han demostrado que sirven para mejorar la calidad de la participación femenina en la fuerza laboral,” dijo Chioda. Para Lina María, la solución fue un cronograma de trabajo flexible que le permite pasar más tiempo con su hija. Adela, por otro lado, ha tenido la suerte de conseguir un trabajo en la escuela de su hijo, por lo que puede atender su papel como madre y proveedor al mismo tiempo. Pero estos arreglos son informales y no establecidos, por lo que dejan afuera a un buen número de mujeres que deben hacer malabarismos para atender las demandas de su vida profesional y familiar, ya sea haciendo sacrificios como aceptar un menor sueldo o trabajar en el mercado informal. La evidencia que aparece en el informe apunta a que las mujeres de América Latina se enfrentan a un desafío cada vez más complejo que incluye balancear diferentes papeles, identidades y aspiraciones. Muchas ven el ingreso al mercado laboral como una oportunidad de hacer carrera en lugar de una simple fuente de ingreso —algo que no necesariamente implica abandonar su deseo de casarse, tener hijos y una familia. Estos temas deben convertirse en el centro de atención a la hora de diseñar políticas, sostiene el informe. “Una legislación que reconozca las presiones sobre la maternidad y en general sobre la disponibilidad de tiempo en los hogares puede derivar en importantes resultados al permitirles a las mujeres cumplir con su identidad como mujeres y trabajadoras, elevando la calidad de su participación económica, aumentando de esa manera su bienestar, así como el del hogar como un todo,” indicó Chioda. Video: La mujer latina del siglo XXI: hacia la conciliación entre familia y trabajo La mayor participación profesional de las mujeres en una sociedad también deriva en una mayor participación en la política formal —incluyendo puestos de alto rango. La participación de las mujeres en las bancas parlamentarias de América Latina actualmente llega a 24 por ciento, la más alta del mundo y marginalmente por encima de los países de alto ingreso de la OCDE (23 por ciento). Mientras que la participación de las mujeres en el sistema legislativo está aumentando, su distribución sigue siendo desigual de acuerdo al país: alrededor de 10 por ciento en Belice, Panamá, Brasil y Surinam, pero más de 30 por ciento en Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador y Guyana. “Las mujeres latinoamericanas han avanzado mucho en poco tiempo, con un mayor acceso a la salud, educación y empleo,” dijo la Secretaria General Adjunta de la ONU y Directora Ejecutiva de ONU Mujer, Michelle Bachelet. “Ahora debemos consolidar los logros y reducir las desigualdades, abordar la doble carga del trabajo no remunerado en las mujeres, y aumentar la participación política y el liderazgo de las mujeres. La ONU Mujer está comprometida con esto.” Bachelet fue Presidente de Chile de 2006 a 2010. El informe insta a evitar conclusiones y miradas simplistas respecto a los temas de género en América Latina, llamando a una mejor comprensión de los procesos de toma de decisiones por parte de las mujeres para mejorar el diseño y eficacia de las políticas. “En vista de los impresionantes logros regionales en las últimas cuatro décadas, sería tentador poder concluir que estos avances en acceso se traducen de manera mecánica en avances en el mercado laboral, o que a partir de esta tendencia podemos inferir sin equivocaciones un mejor bienestar,” indica el informe. Los legisladores deben asegurarse de que la próxima vez, mujeres como Adela y Lina María no quedan a la suerte de las circunstancias para conseguir el sueño de tener un buen trabajo y felicidad familiar.

Reporte Trabajo y familia: mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe en busca de un nuevo equilibrio (i) Video La mujer latina del siglo XXI: hacia la conciliación entre familia y trabajo http://go.worldbank.org/JGWG1KHLY0

Work and Family: Latin America and the Caribbean Women in Search of a New Balance

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2011 – In many respects, the gender gap in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has been closed. Today, women in the region outnumber men in schools and universities. Since 1980, nearly 70 million women have joined the labor market ensuring that more women now work outside the home than not and that the percentage of single working women is as high as that of single men.

“The region is making important strides towards broader social equity with significant progress in poverty reduction. We are also witnessing a reduction in gender disparities,” said Pamela Cox, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean.  “We are glad to see that the focus on improving women’s status is paying off.”

According to the new study, Work and Family: Latin American and Caribbean Women in Search of a New Balance, maternal mortality rates have been declining continuously in the region since the 1980s. In fact, those countries previously most affected have seen the most progress, with mortality rates dropping by 40 percent in the Caribbean and 70 percent in the Andean region. Latin American fertility rates are now as low as those of industrialized nations.

With the exception of indigenous populations, girls now outperform boys in education, according to the study launched today at UN Women headquarters in New York. Female enrollment rates from primary to tertiary education have increased to the point of closing or even reversing the gender gap. In the labor market, such gap has narrowed faster than in any other region in the developing world. In most LAC countries, the rate of women working has at least doubled since the 1960s, and has tripled in Brazil.

This expanded professional engagement of women in Latin American society has also translated into higher participation in formal politics, with the share of parliamentary seats held by women in the region at nearly 24 percent, the highest among all regions of the world.

The dramatic increase in working women has brought a level of financial and social equality between men and women unimaginable decades ago. Yet increased access to work and financial independence don’t automatically translate into improved wellbeing. The new study, cautions against such simplistic conclusions, and urges a nuanced understanding of differences that remain and that require a new approach to gender issues.

“Latin American women have come a long way in a relatively short time, with increased access to health, education and employment,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet during the launch. “Now we need to consolidate gains and reduce inequities, address the double burden of women’s unpaid work, and increase women’s political participation and leadership. To this, UN Women is committed.” Bachelet was President of Chile from 2006 to 2010.

The quest to achieve work-life balance reflects the tension commonly known as “mothers’ guilt.” In Latin America and the Caribbean, men and women tend to still believe that young children are likely to suffer if their mothers work. However, more and more women and men in the region also believe that women’s identity extends beyond their role as a housewife. This apparent contradiction represents the tensions between the roles and identities women now seek to reconcile.

As discussed in the report, in some cases, household dynamics can yield efficient allocations of resources, with both spouses gaining from cooperation. In others, household interactions may be far less efficient leading to destructive outcomes, including extreme instances of domestic violence. Understanding the conditions that affect bargaining positions is therefore crucial in today’s reality.

Household interactions are seldom exploited in the design of policy. Notable exception are conditional cash transfer programs, pioneered in Latin America, which favor women as the recipients of small stipends given in exchange for keeping children in school and getting regular medical checkups. These programs are designed on the presumption that money in the hands of women is spent differently and benefits children more.

“Gender policy in the region is at a crucial juncture,” said World Bank Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, Augusto de la Torre. “The evidence and analysis presented in this study indicate that women in the region are increasingly facing the complex challenge of balancing different roles, identities, and aspirations. These complexities have to be brought to the center stage of policy design, with a greater emphasis on equity than equality.”

The study documents, for instance, women’s demands for greater flexibility. Today, unfortunately, formal labor market institutions are still woefully insensitive to these needs leaving women in the region resorting to informal employment -- trading basic labor protections and career advancement for the job flexibility that facilitates balancing family responsibilities.

This puts a premium on policies that help women find a balance among competing demands-- through labor contracts that allow flexible leave and part-time arrangements, or regulation that better protect informal unions. Legislation that acknowledges the pressures of motherhood in today’s world can generate important returns by enabling women to fulfill their identities as mothers and workers, raising the quality of their economic participation, increasing their well-being, and that of the entire household.

Work and Family: Latin America and the Caribbean Women in Search of a New Balance

Press Release No:2012/123/LAC.World Bank Study, Launched with the Participation of UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet, Sheds Light on Responses to a New Gender Reality