1. Strategic Guidelines of the XV IACML for Advancing Gender Equality with a Decent Framework
Hon. Jacqui Quinn-Leandro
Minister of Labor, Administration and Empowerment, Antigua & Barbuda;
President of Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM)

2. Background to the Study
The OAS recognized the need to integrate a gender perspective into Decent Work:
2000 General Assembly: CIM’s Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality managed by the CIM
III Summit of the Americas, Quebec City 2001
XII IACML, Ottawa 2001and afterwards

3. Justification
The purpose of the study, and its strategic guidelines, is to help build the capacities of Ministries of Labor to successfully mainstream gender into their policies and programs aimed at achieving decent work for all in Latin America and the Caribbean, in accordance with the mandates and agreements of the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor (IACML).

4. Gender Equality for Decent Work: Main Findings

5. Development and the Feminization of Poverty
Economic value of mainstreaming gender perspective into labor and employment policies:
Gender inequality limits economic growth and full development
Feminization of Poverty
Women’s economic participation reduces household vulnerability to poverty
Of the 22 million young people (ages 15-29) who neither work nor study, 75% are women.
By doubling women’s participation in the workforce among low income groups in Chile, the poverty level would be reduced by 2% and extreme poverty by over 12%.

6. Current Situation of Women in Labor Market
Difficulty in balancing work and family obligations
The need to quantify the social and economic contribution of unpaid work by women and promote its inclusion in national accounts
Training required for women in non-traditional areas:
Women constitute 90% of domestic service workers

7. Current Situation of Women in Labor Market
The most significant advancement relates to women’s participation in workforce:
Rise in women’s participation from 23% in 1970 to 52% in 2006
However, this increase does not indicate greater access by women to decent work :
Female unemployment rates were 30% higher than that of men in the 1990s
In spite of women’s advancement in education, they continue to be concentrated in traditional sectors: “trade, hotels, restaurants”, and “communal, social and personal services”
Female employment is of poor quality
In % of economically active women were engaged in the informal sector i.e. unprotected and insecure activities such as domestic services

8. Persistent challenges
In order to achieve success and ensure sustainability in the efforts at embedding a gender perspective into the labor process, it is necessary to overcome the following critical obstacles:-
Violence against women
The limited participation of women in public and political life

9. IACML STRATEGIC GUIDELINES
Hemispheric Strategic
Guidelines
Goals
Immediate Objective
Decent work with gender
Equality
Increase women’s
participation and employment
Reduce gender gaps with
regard to informality and wages
Improve the quality of
employment for women
Achieve the full entry of women
into the world of work, free from
discrimination and under
conditions of equal opportunities
Ensure equal access to the
benefits of social protection
Impact on the work - family
balance
Increase participation of women in
social dialogue schemes and
trade unions
High Level Dialogues
Focal Points Network
Institutional
strengthening
of Ministries of Labor,
aimed at effectively
mainstreaming
gender in their
operations, policies
and programs
Analysis of the
Institutional
Arrangements
Hemispheric
Horizontal Cooperation
Portfolio of Programs
Compilation of Instruments
Workshops
Hemispheric Labor
Observatory on
Gender
and Employment

10. Thank You!