A new assessment of decent work in the Latin American and Caribbean region by the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme concludes that women are unfairly burdened with the costs and demands of care, and remain largely underpaid.

The 'Work and Family: Towards New Forms of Reconciliation with Social Co-responsibility' report published in November 2009, finds that the average income of women represents 70 per cent of what men earn, even while their participation in the workforce is growing.

In 1990, female participation in the labour market was at 32 per cent, rising to 53 per cent by 2008.

"Today, more than 100 million women throughout the region work - an unprecedented number," says the report, which is meant to be a policy guide to strip away workforce inequalities.

The upshot is that it is serving to make countries wealthier but not the women responsible for adding economic value, though the researchers also found that, as more women enter the labour force, poverty levels also decline.

Sexual division of labour

The report links the pay disparity to discrimination, which it says is the result of the prevailing sexual division of labour, and which in turn perpetuates gender roles; the economic dependence of women; their inextricable relationship to the economy of care, which is seen as a low value enterprise; and the subordination of women's work.

The report also notes that many migrant women in the region are employed in the care industry, contributing to the well-being of families in destination countries at the cost of their own children and/or elderly parents.

The study demands a response at state level, claiming that "levels of social investment in the region vary between US$100 and US$1,500 per inhabitant and the amounts allocated to childcare are minimal and supply scattered." Despite rapid growth in preschool education, many children under five do not attend a day care centre or nursery school, the study finds.

Programmes extending school hours as a means of care are also lacking.

"In many countries the provision of child care falls within anti-poverty programmes which are highly focused and lacks universality," it said.

Disproportionately present

The report also noted that regionally, women were disproportionately present in the informal business sector where they were more prone to unacceptable working conditions.

The report launched in Jamaica on November 18 is instructive for Jamaica, according to academics - offering insight on how the Government can design mechanisms to monitor and enforce current legislation on equal pay for equal work.

Taitu Heron, former analyst with the Planning Institute of Jamaica, and now a lecturer in gender at the University of the West Indies (UWI), told Wednesday Business the report is very relevant especially as it relates to the value of women's work, both in the home and outside the home, and speaks to the need to deconstruct and legitimatimise unpaid work that mostly women do.

The low cultural and financial value given to unpaid work really burdens women's advancement, both in familial relationships and in the professional sphere, said Heron.

At the report's launch at UWI, Faith Innerarity Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports also presented a country study detailing interviews and experiences of Jamaican workers, highlighting major concerns such as longer working days; security and safety on public transportation; stress, dissatisfaction and fatigue on the job; inability to meet school and other social responsibilities; and inadequate maternity leave provisions.

Among the solutions proposed were the establishment of a Parenting Commission, flexible working arrangements, a national school bus system and fast-tracking of reforms to the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act.

Recommendations for reconciliation, arising from discussion at the launch, included the creation of jobs in the care sector, adapting public-service business hours, promoting decentralisation of services, expanding school hours, providing transportation and health care in schools, and integrating persons with disabilities and chronic illnesses by means of infrastructure.

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com