Women

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Womens contribution to equality in Latin America
and the Caribbean
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I. Background

• Pursuant to Agreement 5 as adopted by the
  Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on
  Women in Latin America and the Caribbean at their
  thirty-ninth meeting (Mexico City, 11-12 May
  2006), the secretariat of ECLAC is presenting an
  annotated outline of the position paper to be
  prepared for the tenth session of the Regional
  Conference (Quito, Ecuador, 6-9 August 2007).

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I. Background

• Womens contribution to equality in Latin
  America and the Caribbean
• Analysis of womens contribution to the economy
  and social protection, especially in relation to
  unpaid work performed by women, and to political
  participation
• (b) Gender parity in decision-making at all
  levels.

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II. Annotated outline

• Introduction
• First, reference will be made to international
  agreements relating to unpaid work by women and
  participation in decision-making, in particular
  the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention
  on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
  against Women, International Labour Organization
  agreements relating to gender equality and
  paternity and maternity rights, and decisions
  adopted at United Nations world conferences and
  summits. Reference will also be made to the
  incorporation of these mandates into the
  constitutional and legal frameworks of the
  countries of the region.

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II. Annotated outline

• Second, the document will explore the underlying
  substantive factors that have led the Presiding
  Officers to devote particular attention to these
  two issues.
• Third, attention will focus on the common thread
  running through this analysis, namely, the
  importance of the unpaid work performed by women
  as a contribution to development and as an
  explanatory factor for their mode of
  participation in the economy and in democratic
  decision-making.

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Part One

• Analysis of womens contribution to the economy
  and social protection, especially in relation to
  unpaid work performed by women

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1. Conceptual framework

• The framework composed of the concepts of unpaid
  work performed by women, the care economy and
  time use will be introduced, and the rationale
  for the study will be examined in relation to the
  specific aspects of paid and unpaid domestic work
  performed by women, linkages between reproductive
  and productive work, the importance of such work
  for economic and social development, and womens
  participation in decision-making. The concepts of
  public and private will be explored from a
  gender perspective.

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2. Diagnostic assessment

• The ways in which reproductive work influences
  womens especially domestic workers access to
  the labour market will be examined, with special
  emphasis on their access to social protection in
  the context of globalization and ongoing changes
  in labour affairs and conditions.

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2. Diagnostic assessment

• The main aspects of the care economy as it
  affects the home will be reviewed, as well as its
  extension to certain areas of public affairs,
  including health care, childcare and elder care.
• The available empirical data drawn from household
  and time-use surveys conducted in the region will
  be systematized. Attention will be paid to
  relationships among access to the labour market,
  the wage gap, labour-market segmentation and
  sex-differentiated rates of domestic activity.

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3. Current status of information resources

• The status of current efforts to gather and use
  statistical information will be examined,
  together with methodological and institutional
  arrangements needed to strengthen the production
  of information for use in public policymaking.

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4. Public policies

• The study will include an analysis of existing
  public policies in the countries of the region.
  This analysis will cover policies geared towards
  reconciling the demands of family life and work
  as well as policies that inadvertently have
  negative implications for motherhood and the
  sharing of family responsibilities.

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5. Unpaid work in the areas of health, childcare
and elder care

• The preliminary findings of research on the care
  economy conducted with financial support from the
  Spanish Agency for International Cooperation
  (AECI) in three selected countries will be
  reviewed.

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6. Conclusions and policy recommendations
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Part two

• Political participation and
• gender parity in decision-making
• at all levels

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1. Conceptual framework

• The following concepts will be introduced
  democracy, participation in decision-making,
  affirmative action, quotas and parity, and the
  way they interact in Latin America and the
  Caribbean.

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2. Diagnostic assessment

• Womens participation in decision-making will be
  reviewed, and a status report will be provided on
  progress at the parliamentary level, with special
  emphasis on womens participation in the
  Executive branch and in municipal governments.

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2. Diagnostic assessment

• Up-to-date statistical information will be
  presented on the pace and stability of trends in
  womens participation in public office. Special
  attention will be devoted to the status of
  indigenous and Afrodescendent women and, where
  possible, age-related and territorial divides.

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3. Current status of information resources

• The focus will be on an analysis of available
  information sources, including methodological
  considerations and problems relating to analysis
  and dissemination.

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4. Case studies

• Representative cases of good legislative,
  political, organizational and other practices
  will be analysed as a means of illustrating the
  diverse range of situations existing in the
  region. Examples may include the quota system in
  Argentina, which was the first country in the
  region to implement such a scheme gender parity
  in the Executive branch in Chile, in view of its
  pioneering role in the region and the world
  womens participation in Cubas legislature and
  the case of Colombia, which is the only country
  using a quota system in the Executive branch.

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5. Conclusions and recommendations
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III. Information sources

• The document will be based on the following
  sources
• Specific contributions from Governments regarding
  good practices and sources of statistical
  information on the topics addressed in the
  position paper.
• Studies conducted by the ECLAC Women and
  Development Unit and other United Nations bodies
  on its two main themes.

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III. Information sources

• The document will be based on the following
  sources
• Specific studies conducted under the Project on
  the Care Economys Contribution to Social
  Protection, which is being funded by the Spanish
  Agency for International Cooperation (AECI).
• Recommendations of the United Nations Committee
  on the Elimination of Discrimination against
  Women (CEDAW).

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IV. Preparation of the document

• The following stages will be involved in the
  preparation of the position paper for
  presentation at the tenth session of the Regional
  Conference on Women in Latin America and the
  Caribbean (Quito, Ecuador, 6-9 August 2007)
• Presentation of the annotated outline to the
  fortieth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the
  Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and
  the Caribbean (Santiago, Chile, 3-4 October
  2006)

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IV. Preparation of the document

1. Survey of member States to gather the remaining
   information needed to prepare substantive inputs
   (third quarter of 2006)
2. Incorporation of comments received at the
   fortieth meeting of the Presiding Officers
   (October 2006)
3. Preparation of substantive inputs for the
   analysis of subjects covered in the paper
   (September - November 2006)

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IV. Preparation of the document

1. Incorporation of inputs received from member
   States and drafting of the preliminary version of
   the paper (December 2006 - March 2007)
2. Editing and translation of the preliminary
   version (March and April 2007)
3. Presentation of the preliminary version at
   subregional preparatory meetings in the Southern
   Cone, Central America and the Caribbean for the
   tenth session of the Regional Conference on Women
   (May 2007)

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IV. Preparation of the document

1. Incorporation of comments received at the
   subregional meetings (June 2007) and
2. Editing and translation of the final version
   (July 2007).