In this paper, UN Women points to the difficulty of finding, within public policy formulation, policies linked to women’s empowerment in the context of the current economic slowdown in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In order to understand and tackle the uneven progress and setbacks in women’s economic empowerment depending on their socioeconomic background, the report looks at three scenarios, in which family and other, market-related, factors play a part.

Although the region has made gains in this area, no measures have been pushed through that would enable more space to be opened up for women to take a more active part in the economy. To this end, the report argues that the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean should work to overcome the obstacles and push forward with women’s economic empowerment, putting forward six key strategies to achieve this, but above all to prevent setbacks and consolidate the progress already made:

1.   Acknowledge, reduce and re-allocate domestic tasks and unremunerated care work
2.   Make progress on constructing universal welfare systems with a gender-based approach
3.   Create more and better jobs and turn work into an occupation that recognizes women’s rights
4.   Encourage equitable family relationships that value the diversity in the region’s households, together with the rights and obligations of all parties
5.   Create the right conditions for the effective enjoyment of women’s sexual and reproductive rights
6.   Minimize the adverse effects of the economic slowdown on gender equality