Publication:
Latin America and Caribbean Poverty and Labor Brief, August 2012 : The Effect of Women's Economic Power in Latin America and the Caribbean

dc.contributor.authorWorld Bank
dc.date.accessioned2012-11-29T20:31:19Z
dc.date.available2012-11-29T20:31:19Z
dc.date.issued2012-08
dc.description.abstractFor the last decade, economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has sharply accelerated, pushing poverty and inequality to historic lows in the most unequal region in the world. In 2012, as the world’s ongoing economic problems make optimistic predictions less certain and threaten to undermine gains against poverty and inequality, it is critical to understand the structural forces that have promoted recent positive social outcomes. This report explores how women in the region have played a critical role in achieving the poverty declines of the last decade, with their labor market participation rates growing 15 percent from 2000 to 2010. It further considers how future progress will require increased female economic power and more effective policies to promote it. If female labor income had remained the same during this period, holding all else constant, extreme poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean would have been 30 percent higher in 2010. In other words, 17.7 percent of the population in the region would have been below the extreme poverty rate, compared to the actual 14.6 percent. The report suggests focusing public policy on three priorities: expanding female labor market opportunities; improving female agency which — while important in its own right — has important potential benefits for equality of economic opportunities and assets, and supporting the growing number of poor single female-headed households. Along with these suggested policy priorities, strong monitoring and evaluation systems should be included to every extent possible.en
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/978-0-8213-9770-1
dc.identifier.isbn978-0-8213-9770-1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/11867
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherWashington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesLatin America and Caribbean Poverty and Labor Brief;August 2012
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.subjectAgency
dc.subjectEconomic power
dc.subjectGender equality
dc.subjectGrowth
dc.subjectInequality
dc.subjectLabor market
dc.subjectPoverty
dc.subjectWomen
dc.titleLatin America and Caribbean Poverty and Labor Brief, August 2012 : The Effect of Women's Economic Power in Latin America and the Caribbeanen
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crosscuttingsolutionareaGender
okr.date.disclosure2012-11-29
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Publication
okr.globalpracticeSocial Protection and Labor
okr.globalpracticePoverty
okr.globalpracticeHealth, Nutrition, and Population
okr.guid731771468010902462
okr.identifier.report74103
okr.language.supporteden
okr.region.administrativeLatin America & Caribbean
okr.region.geographicalCaribbean
okr.region.geographicalLatin America
okr.topicGender
okr.topicPoverty Reduction
okr.topicSocial Protections and Labor
okr.topicHealth, Nutrition and Population
okr.unitLCRVP
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