Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ideas Matter

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Behavioral Economics
    • Environment and Climate Change
    • Macroeconomics and Finance
    • Microeconomics and Competitiveness
    • Politics and Institutions
    • Social Issues
  • Authors
  • Spanish

Closing Gender Gaps in the Southern Cone: The Path for Growth

June 8, 2022 by Veronica Frisancho - Virginia Queijo von Heideken Leave a Comment


As the COVID-19 pandemic struck the Southern Cone countries of Latin America, gender equality gaps, already far too wide, suffered real setbacks, reflecting the fragility of the gains made in recent years. Women took on most of the additional workload at home due to the closure of schools and care facilities, and their participation in the labor market declined sharply. Its recovery since has been slow.

Policymakers in the Southern Cone countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay—need to urgently enact programs and policies that reduce gender inequality and give women an opportunity to reach their full potential in the labor market and beyond. Now more than ever improving gender equality is essential as those countries focus on sustained and inclusive growth in the pandemic’s recovery phase.

As a contribution to that cause, the IDB has launched a volume of studies that provides evidence useful for designing policies that can effectively tackle gender disparities. Entitled Closing Gender Gaps in the Southern Cone: An Untapped Potential for Growth, the collection includes studies that dig into the sources of gender gaps in the labor market, covering diverse challenges ranging from disparities in the education system to biased daily mobility patterns. Other studies analyze the economic consequences of gender inequalities, such as their impact on aggregate productivity, and the effect of different policies or phenomena, such as globalization, on gender parity.

Gender Gaps are Costly

The aggregate costs resulting from gender gaps in the labor market, according to this research, are high. Eliminating occupational barriers such as wage discrimination, gaps in human capital accumulation (skills and abilities), and gender-biased social norms could yield considerable aggregate output gains in Southern Cone countries, ranging between 4% and 15%, depending on the country. Removing barriers faced by women and various ethnic groups in Brazil could achieve gains as high as 30% of GDP.

Key to removing those barriers are policies that tackle human capital accumulation gaps early on and promote women’s labor market participation and access to high-skill occupations. Technical fields are one area that is ripe for improvement. Research in this volume, for example, finds that enrollment in education for engineering and technology, as opposed to humanities, arts or social science increases men’s earnings and employment. It does not, however, do the same for women. This does not seem to be because women prefer jobs with different characteristics such as more flexibility, better work-life balance, or a shorter commuting time. Rather, it seems that women in technology and engineering may be subject to more labor market discrimination relative to women in other fields.

Different Factors Affecting Gender Gaps

The volume also finds that factors other than human capital formation can contribute to gender inequalities in the labor market. Different mobility patterns, for example, may restrict access to jobs for women. Because of their household and family responsibilities, women tend to take more frequent trips than men, travel more outside of rush hour, and use more public transportation. This leads to relatively higher costs of transportation which limits women access to employment opportunities, especially for those belonging to disadvantaged populations. Thus, deliberately considering women in urban planning and transportation policies could help alleviate some of these problems.    

Another study looks at the role that foreign direct investment (FDI) can play in reducing gender disparities in the labor market. The results show that local firms with more workers with multinational experience have smaller gender gaps in earnings. The effects are small in terms of their economic significance, however, suggesting that countries should not rely on FDI as a significant source of improvement in gender equality.

Formalization Programs Disproportionately Attract Women

By contrast, gender-neutral interventions targeting micro and small enterprises could significantly affect labor market gender gaps. Reducing the bureaucratic and tax costs of registering a business increases formalization rates, especially among women. Indeed, as the literature shows, women value the benefits of formalization more than men, and they seek more social security for their families. Thus, understanding the motivations of women in moving to formal labor can inform the design of future programs.

Achieving gender equality is one of the priorities of the IDB’s Vision 2025. A focus on gender is critical in helping the region’s countries promote sustainable and inclusive growth. A good start is implementing programs and public policies that reduce gender inequality and give women the opportunity to reach their full potential.


Filed Under: Social Issues Tagged With: #gender

Veronica Frisancho

Verónica Frisancho es economista senior en el Departamento de Investigación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). El trabajo de Verónica mejor se describe como microeconomía aplicada, y su principal campo de especialización es la economía del desarrollo. Su investigación en estas áreas incluye un énfasis en educación, mercados laborales en países en desarrollo, violencia doméstica e inclusión financiera.

Virginia Queijo von Heideken

Virginia Queijo von Heideken is a Regional Economist at the Country Department Southern Cone of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington DC, and previously served as IDB Country Economist in Uruguay. Prior to joining the IDB in 2014, Virginia worked as a Senior Economist and Researcher at the Central Bank of Sweden (Riksbank). She has a Ph.D. in Economics from Institute for International Economic Studies in Sweden. Virginia has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited books in the areas of macroeconomics, monetary policy, gender, and youth.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Related posts

  • The Women’s Wage Gap: How Does It Affect Us All?
  • Women and Urban Mobility: An Unfinished Agenda
  • A Nobel Prize on Women in the Labor Market that Speaks to Latin America and the Caribbean   
  • Can Women Break the Glass Ceiling in Latin America and the Caribbean?
  • Do You Want Your Research to Help Close the Gender and Diversity Gaps? This Call for Proposals Is for You

About this blog

The blog of the IDB's Research Department shares ideas that matter on public policy and development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    X
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT