Pensions and gender equality in Latin America: Long-standing gaps and recent developments

ARZA, CAMILA

Nueva York

Workshop; Expert Group Meeting "Social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality"; 2018

UN-Women

In a context of gendered labour markets and the unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work in the household, most pension systems generate unequal outcomes for women and men. Around the world, women tend to have lower pension coverage and lower pension benefits. These gender inequalities overlap with other socio-economic inequalities leaving women in lower income household as well as those in some occupations (such as the domestic service) largely unprotected in old age. The economic protection of older women depends on several aspects that interact, including pension system rules, labour market conditions and family arrangements over women?s entire lifetimes. This paperdiscusses the way in which specific pension design features can reproduce or mitigate gender inequalities in old age, with a focus on the Latin American experience. It reviews the gender dimensions of pension reforms in Latin America since around 1990, aiming to contribute to explain the impacts that different pension reforms can have on women, and the policy options that can help enhance gender equality today and in the future.