Ministers and Experts Will Debate on Time-Use
Statistics at ECLAC

Photo: Carlos Vera/ECLAC

How do men and women distribute their time in Latin America and the Caribbean, taking into account paid labour, household duties and other daily activities? Until now, the statistics show that women in the region are overloaded with work, which in turn affects their economic autonomy and possibilities for development.

This issue, often overlooked in public debate, will be dealt with at the seminar entitled “Policies on time, time for policymaking” which will be held on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 November at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago as part of the Forty-sixth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be inaugurated on Monday 28 November.

Those who will attend the international seminar include ministers and authorities for Women in Latin American and Caribbean countries, and experts in gender affairs. They will share international, regional and national experiences on the use of time-use statistics for the design, implementation and assessment of public policies.

“We believe that now is the time for policies on time-use. The countries are starting to measure paid and non-paid workload in their societies. Knowing, for example, what is the percentage of GDP relating to non-paid household duties is a crucial aspect,” explained Sonia Montaño, Director of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Division for Gender Affairs.

Time-use surveys enable the number of hours that men and women spend on paid labour, household activities and care to be calculated. Until now, national statistics offices in 18 countries in the region have adopted one or more initiatives of this type.

“There are even four countries in the region that have given time-use maximum priority in their policies, in other words, at constitutional level. ECLAC is working to develop gender statistics to measure how men and women use their time,” stated Montaño.

Renowned experts will participate in the seminar, such as the Indian researcher, Devaki Jain, the Spanish sociologist, María Ángeles Durán, from the Institute for Economics, Geography and Demography of the Centre for Human and Social Sciences in Spain, and the Director of the Gender Equality and Economy Programme of the Levy Institute in the United States of America, Rania Antonopoulos.

During the meeting of the Presiding Officers, the countries will present a report on the latest initiatives implemented at national level in order to fulfil the Brasilia Consensus and the activities planned for 2012.

The Brasilia Consensus was adopted at the Eleventh session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean held in July 2010 in the Brazilian capital. It addresses eight areas for action. One of them shows the commitment to “achieving greater economic autonomy and equality in the world of work”.

The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is a subsidiary body of ECLAC which involves the participation of high-level authorities in charge of areas relating to the status of women and policies aimed at ensuring gender equality in the countries of the region.

Brazil holds current presidency of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference, while vice presidency is held by Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay. Mexico is the rapporteur.

As part of the international seminar, the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean, an inter-agency initiative in which ECLAC acts as Technical Assistant, will present its annual report 2011, which will focus in particular on the progress made in the area of women’s autonomy and gender institutionality in Ibero-America .