Valuing unpaid work: key to achieving gender equality
There are more women on the labour market than before: for example, in France, the employment rate among women stood at 68.2% in 2019, against 52.7% in 1975 (Employment Survey, INSEE). However, the reproduction of stereotypes and traditional gender roles remains a determining factor in the gender division of labour and the management of the time use of women and men. The paid and unpaid working time is unevenly distributed: women generally do a disproportionate share of unpaid work (household chores, childcare and care for dependants) and spend proportionately less time than men doing paid activities. For example, in France, women spend 183 minutes doing household chores every day on average, while men only spend 105 minutes on them (INSEE, 2010). In other words, it means that when the two are added together, women work overall more than men.
An issue that needs to be taken into account in public policies
These inequalities have a negative impact on women’s participation in the political sphere and their holding management or senior management positions, which is also called the “glass ceiling”. Recognising, reducing and redistributing unpaid domestic work is therefore a prerequisite for achieving gender equality, as set out by Sustainable Development Goal n° 5.
To this end, it is necessary to take this issue into account in the planning and implementation of projects and public policies. This issue is therefore a priority for the Gender Unit of the EUROsociAL+ programme, which carries out capacity-building activities for the institutions of 19 Latin American countries to promote the physical empowerment, economic empowerment and political autonomy of women and gender mainstreaming.
In the economic sphere, the technical assistance provided by EUROsociAL+ also targets the financing of public care policies for upgraded jobs, the promotion of equal pay, the involvement of men in household chores and new masculinities.
Colombia: a tool to observe pay inequalities
For example, the EUROsociAL+ Gender Unit has assisted Colombia with the implementation of its law on equal pay, which was adopted in 2011 but was difficult to enforce. The team has consequently assisted the Ministry of Labour with the development of a tool to monitor pay inequalities.
The development of this instrument was based on French experience (Equal Pay Index, Equal Pay Diagnostic) and Belgian experience (The Institute for the Equality of Women and Men), as well as the Equipares professional equality label.
This proposal will be applied under a pilot project in 2020 with various companies and will be submitted for validation to the authorities of the Ministry of Labour, companies and trade unions.
To find out more, consult the project sheet of the Gender component of EUROsociAL+
EUROsociAL+ is based on three components and aims to strengthen social cohesion in Latin America. It is implemented by a consortium led by FIIAPP (Spain) and composed of Expertise France, Istituto Italo Latino Americano (IILA - Italy) and Secretaría de la Integración Social Centroamericana (SISCA). Expertise France is responsible for the implementation of the programme’s Gender component.
