Women’s rights in Latin America and the Caribbean

INTERVIEW In Latin America and the Caribbean, the EU and Expertise France push for the prioritization of women’s rights on the agenda of the region, where the care economy is an issue.

With Alejandra Mora Mora,
executive secretary of the CIM/OAS

and Luz Vidal, undersecretary at Chile’s Ministry of Women and Gender Equality

Why is care on the women’s rights agenda in the region?

A. M. M. For several years now, women have expressed to us their need to put their economic rights at the centre of our priorities so they can obtain social and economic recognition for the value of their work. This requires a pivotal starting point: the reconceptualization of the very notion of work to integrate the fact that domestic tasks are work, non-paid work, but work nonetheless.

Furthermore, care is an activity that dates back millennia, performed by women, to support families and whole countries’ economies. It is crucial to think of care through the lens of a profound transformation of our society’s organization, in which we are only limited to the private sphere, to move towards the sharing of responsibilities. These elements are part of a larger concept that is also at the core of our regional agenda: women’s economic rights. Our objective is to encourage women to perform decent paid work, which will allow them to continue progressing towards economic autonomy, an essential condition for a life free of violence.

L. V. With time, the responsibilities which were traditionally assigned to women became an obstacle to their self-fulfilment. In this sense, care constitutes an obstacle to women joining the workforce, obtaining economic autonomy and living free of violence. But countries don’t always care about this reality, so a part of our agenda is dedicated to what needs to be done to meet these challenges. Care and the fight against gendered violence don’t affect women exclusively, there are social issues in their own right, which affect countries as a whole and require cooperation between continents. I think there needs to be a shared vision today about the way care responsibilities should be approached while involving actors at the national and international levels.

Care is an activity that dates back millennia, performed by women to support families and whole countries’ economies.

How do France and the EU help to put women’s rights on the regional agenda?

L. V. SDGs, which we must meet by 2030, force us to collaborate as countries so we can progress on our path to reach them at a global scale. One country alone can’t do it, we must work together with the European Union. Some programs, such as the EU-funded and Expertise France-managed EUROsociAL, are essential. Its goal is to support the reduction of inequalities between men and women, by helping to implement equality policies. This kind of initiative allows us to keep moving forward so that well-being can be placed at the centre of public policies. Countries can’t face this reality alone, and while we need Latin-American cooperation, we also need the support of the EU.

A. M. M.Highlighting intersectionality in our regional agenda is important. It allows us to understand how access to economic rights varies for rural women, indigenous women and women of African heritage. We also foreground the issue of violence against women. But we cannot resolve these problems in isolation. By facilitating synergies, alliances and cooperation opportunities, we can move forward on these issues. We also need specific multilateral tools to help us improve. We think that real changes, at the national and local levels, are ushered by the international and multilateral agreements that we promote.

Interview conducted in May 2024.

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