The feminization of poverty and the economic impact of public
policies in Mexico and Jalisco
Draft paper for discussion at ISA 2011 Annual Convention, Montreal
Ruth Elizabeth Pradoa and Eva Maria Gonzalezb
a
Sociopolitical and Juridical Studies Department, Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente
b
(ITESO); and Bussiness School, Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus
Guadalajara
Abstract
This paper evaluates the economic impact of the federal public policies, which have
incorporated the gender perspective in their design and implementation at both, national,
and Jalisco’s level. The paper looks at different indicators to illustrate the situation of
women regarding poverty, economy, education, participation and citizenship.
Key words
Feminization of poverty, public policies, gender equality, gender perspective, economic
impact.
From March 1th to 12th, 2010, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the “Beijing
+ 15” meeting took place. The meeting aimed at reviewing and discussing the situation,
challenges and progress made on the implementation of the measures established on the
Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, both emblematic international instruments
of the struggle against gender inequality, fifteen years before. This meeting represents a
good opportunity for evaluating the steps taken by the Mexican government and Jalisco’s
1
state government regarding the feminization of poverty at both national and state levels.
The feminization of poverty is with no doubt the greatest challenge of gender inequity
because on one hand, it is an essential requirement for the successful implementation of
women’s human rights (WHR), and on the other, it impacts directly the exercise of other
rights. This article examines the achievements and challenges that the implementation of
public policies has had on the fight against women poverty in Mexico and Jalisco. Beyond
reviewing the indicators that may provide an account of the situation of poor women in
Mexico and Jalisco and the relation between poverty and women, our objective is to
evaluate whether public policies have been able to address the feminization of poverty. To
that end, it is important to establish that the feminization of poverty should not be
understood as the high level of poverty between women as a result of the lack of an
income, but as the multidimensional poverty which are caused by focused the adverse
conditions resulting from gender inequity.
In the first part, a review of Mexico’s participation in international forums that have set the
path for the struggle against the inequality of gender is made. Here, the commitments
made and the lines of action are examined. In the second part, the notion of poverty, both
in its material and non-material dimensions is analyzed. In this section, the feminization of
poverty and the challenges needed to mitigate it will be tackled. The third section
emphasizes the importance of gender equity as a condition to break the cycle that
perpetuates the feminization of poverty. The final part reviews the incorporation of the
gender perspective on public policy design and implementation in Mexico, examining
some the main programs, and some indicators that account for the results and challenges
of such policies.
2
International initiatives concerning women and poverty
The Commission on Status of Women (CSW) was created in 1946 (UN. Res. 11[II]) as a
functional Commission of the Economic and Social Council of United Nations with the aim
of analyzing issues related to gender equity and the progress of women. Through
formulating recommendations and encouraging the study and inclusion of topics related to
women, the Commission has become the most influential instance in the design of gender
equity policies at the international level. To that purpose, the CSW has organized four
international conferences to analyze the situation of women around the world and in each
of them the condition of women in poverty and women and development, or the lack of it,
has emerged.
The First World Conference on Women took place in Mexico (1975) during the
international women’s year. The topic of the Conference was “Equality, Development and
Peace”. In this conference, participants called states to encourage integration and full
participation of women in development. The Conference’s Platform of Action established
as one of its goals, to guarantee equal access for women and men to resources such as
education and job opportunities (UN, 2010). The Conference in Mexico marks the
beginning of the transformation of the role of women in development. Women, until then
seen only as passive recipients of support and assistance and beneficiaries of the
resources produced by development, began to be seen as producers of it, with the same
rights to resources and opportunities than men, but still a long way from exercising those
rights.
One of the most important mechanisms on the way to equality between men and women is
the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), approved
in 1979, before the following World Conference in Copenhagen. This Convention has been
called “the women human rights charter” and currently it is legally binding for 165 States.
3
In Copenhagen in 1980, when evaluating the progress made on achieving the goals set
out in the Platform of Action five years before, participants realized that, despite
governmental actions to promote and guarantee women’s rights, the necessary conditions
for women to exercise their rights had not yet been developed. Therefore, the disparity
between given rights and the capacity of women to exercise them became the objective of
analysis and action of the World Conference. To that purpose, three areas with their
particular goals were established to address the problem. Two of those areas, equality of
access to education and job opportunities1 made it clear once again that there were huge
setbacks on the inclusion of women to development and the (formal) productive processes
linked to the production of wealth. Hence, the Program of Action of Copenhagen
encouraged, among others, the adoption of measures that could guarantee women’s rights
over property and land control (UN, 2010).
Five years later, in 1985, in Nairobi, it was clear that the efforts to reduce the gender gap
in the past decade had produced marginal achievements. Therefore, what was needed
was a new approach, wider and inclusive of all the areas of human interaction. In
particular, the 155 participant states were called to adopt the necessary measures at the
national level to encourage the participation of women on decision-making, not only those
decisions related with women, but decision-making in general.
On these issues, in 1995 the World Conference was celebrated in Beijing. This was
considered the top Summit for gender equality. In Beijing, there was a redefinition of the
approach used for dealing with gender inequity, moving the focus of the analysis from
women to the notion of gender. It was then recognized that there exists a dominant
structure that rules the lives of men and women, which needed to be reevaluated and
restructured to achieve the necessary changes for fully potentiating the role of women on
society, institutions and on the development process.
4
The Beijing’s Platform for action identifies twelve areas of concern2 that may be obstacles
for gender equity; one of them is “women and poverty”. On the delimitation of this area, the
Commission expressed at Beijing its concern not only for the number of women who live in
poverty, but also for the obstacles that the prevailing economic structures imposed on
them which in turn makes it more difficult for them to satisfy their needs and get
opportunities to go out of poverty. Since 1995, when there were one billion poor people in
the world, most of them were women, and the situation has not significantly changed.
The four strategic objectives to help women in poverty that are established in the Platform
for Action are: 1. To review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and
developmental strategies that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty; 2. To
revise laws and administrative practices to ensure women’s equal rights and access to
economic resources; 3. To provide women with access to savings and credit mechanisms
and institutions; 4. To develop gender-based methodologies and conduct research to
address the feminization of poverty. The achievement of these objectives requires an
active participation of governments, enterprises and financial institutions in the design and
implementation of efficient measures to reduce poverty. Nevertheless, to evaluate the
achievements of these objectives it is necessary to carefully examine the notion of poverty
in the first place, which will lead to the analysis of its feminization.
Poverty: a complex and multidimensional phenomena
Even though there is not a unanimously accepted definition of poverty, there is a general
agreement about the material aspects of poverty usually linked to the economic and
monetary conditions that determine the purchasing power within the market. But a broader
notion of poverty incorporates non-material dimensions that make a human being poor.
5
According to Perez Orozco (2003:2), a less orthodox notion of poverty would include the
lack of diverse resources, including economic, cultural, self-esteem, time availability,
space, leisure, freedom and even political rights.
In order to address poverty from a multidimensional perspective, in Mexico, the National
Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Consejo Nacional de Evaluación
de la Política de Desarrollo Social, CONEVAL) has developed a methodology3. CONEVAL
estimates that in 2008 there were 47.19 million people experiencing a multidimensional
poverty in Mexico, and 2.54 million of these were in Jalisco. The indicators that CONEVAL
takes into account to measure the multidimensional character of poverty are based on the
“social deprivations” illustrated in table 1.
Incidence indicators
National
Million
people
Educational backwardness
21.7
23.16
Health services access
40.7
43.38
Social security access
64.7
68.99
Quality and housing
17.5
18.62
Basic housing services access
18.9
20.13
Food access
21.6
23.06
Table 1. Percentage of Multidimensional Poverty Mexico 2008.
Source: CONEVAL estimations based in the IMC_ENIGH 2008.
Social deprivation indicators
Percentage
Jalisco
Percentage
21.2
37.2
57.6
9.7
9.5
17.80
Million
people
1.48
2.59
4.01
0.68
0.66
1.24
Still, the prevailing poverty vision is the economic one, which, as it has been said, depends
on the monetary transactions of the market. This vision has inspired international
governments and organizations in the design of programs and action plans. This way, at
an international level, material poverty is the one that has been addressed since the end of
World War II, and it has also defined the notion of development understood as economic
growth (Thomas, 2000: 647). As a result, in the predominant discourse, the lack of
development equals poverty and therefore, it is located in Third World countries. But
beyond the official discourse, it is certain that material poverty in the world has a woman’s
6
face. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), a
disproportionate percentage of poverty in the world corresponds to women. UNIFEM
estimates that 70 percent of poor people in the world are women and the implications of
this is more significance, not only because they are devoid of basic rights, but because this
also perpetuates their isolated role in decision making to change their environment
(UNIFEM, 2010).
The feminine face of poverty was called in the 70s “feminization of poverty”, but it was not
until the mid 90s that the term was added to the lexicon associated with development
(Chant, 2008: 166). Nevertheless, it is important to make clear that feminization of poverty
does not simply refer to high levels of poverty among women. These are more a state of
being, while feminization is a process (Ibid: 169). This concept refers to certain
characteristics that can be appreciated in the next box:
Women experience a higher poverty incidence than men.
Women experience a more severe and deeper poverty than men.
Women tend to suffer a more persistent and long term poverty than men.
The burden of poverty in women shows a relative increase compared with men.
Women face more challenges to get out of poverty.
Feminization of poverty is related with feminization of the household head.
Families with feminine head of households are the poorest of the poor.
Poor families with feminine head of households transmit poverty to children.
Box 1. Characteristics of the feminization of poverty
4
Source: various .
Wennerholm (2002: 10) says that the thesis of feminization of poverty, attracts more than
attention to the large number of poor women, but has had relevant implications for its
analysis. It does so by highlighting the impact of macroeconomic politics over women, by
rethinking the role of women in development processes and, by promoting the awareness
of the existence and vulnerability of women as head of households. Clearly then, any
action that pretends to tackle economic poverty, in which millions of women in the world
7
live, has to consider its approach and the aspects characterizing feminization of poverty,
because only by doing this, can one develop the processes to tackle women poverty.
The gender perspective in the building of an equitable society
Mexico was not only the venue of the First World Conference on Women (1975); it has
also actively participated in other initiatives and international forums on the matter. Mexico
signed the CEDAW in 1980 and the next year it was ratified, acquiring the contracts it
imparted. The most important one is the inclusion of gender perspective (GP) in all
government levels for the design and implementation of public policies, as it is established
in the National Development Plan 2007-2012 (Presidencia de la República, 2010). With
this purpose, the National Institute on Women (Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres,
INMUJERES) was founded in 2001, a public and decentralized agency from the public
federal administration to whom it was given the responsibility of promoting the
improvement of the social condition of women.
The inclusion of the GP in the public policies design denotes a clear course change in
governmental efforts on fighting against poverty, in which million of women live in Mexico.
Whereas that at the end of the 80s and mid 90s the “Women Solidarity” (Solidaridad
Mujeres) and “Progress” programs were trying to tackle gender inequity with
compensatory actions like economic support through community infrastructure building
and establishment of dairy farms and sown fields; INMUJERES creation introduces
strategies such as opportunity equality, affirmative actions and transversality (Avila and
Gonzalez, 2009:6).
For the implementation of GP in states and municipalities, the institutions that coordinate it
were created inside their respective jurisdictions. In the case of Jalisco, this activity is
8
realized through the “Jalisco Institute on Women” (Instituto Jalisciense de las Mujeres,
IJM) that was created in 2001. In municipalities, on the other hand, the strategies for the
implementation of the GP are carried out throughout “CE-women”, which legal nature is
coordinated by their town councils and varies for each municipality (Avila and Gonzalez,
2009: 8).
Currently, one of the most important duties of INMUJERES is to operate the National
Program for Equality among Women and Men (Programa Nacional para la Igualdad entre
Mujeres y Hombres, PROIGUALDAD). This program gathers governmental endeavors to
guarantee women’s human rights (WHR) by the establishment of basic action guides that
guarantee access to justice and security as well as the strengthening of women’s capacity
to enhance its economy for more welfare and development opportunities (INMUJERES,
2010). As a result of these initiatives, some laws were enacted, like the Access to a Free
Life of Violence General Law, the Equality among Men and Women Law, and the
Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination Law. Such laws initiated a series of actions
and institutional adjustments to reduce gender inequity.
INMUJERES holds that in Mexico the conditions and irreversible transformations
necessary to construct an authentic equality culture are being created. Nevertheless, it
also points out that one of the main difficulties is the establishment of agreements and
compromises on gender with agencies in the three governmental levels. Due to that, this is
still a very long process that the personnel in public agencies are in constant rotation,
which hinders the GP incorporation in the planning and/or action, programs and projects
definition (INMUJERES, 2009. 3). According to INMUJERES, human and financial
resources are still insufficient to complete some agencies’ will and politic compromises.
This, at the same time, prevents total harmonization of the national legislation with the
international commitments acquired through binding documents (Ibid: 4).
9
Poverty Alleviation Public Policies in Mexico and Jalisco
Before continuing with the analysis, it is necessary to clarify two key concepts. The first
one refers to gender inequity and the second to public policies.
Gender is a cultural construction of sexual difference. The notion of gender is dynamic,
because it changes with every epoch and social group. As a result of this construction,
series of psychological, social, political and cultural characteristics have been assigned to
gender. They have shaped the type of power relation between men and women and, in
consequence, their opportunities to develop. When one talks about gender equity it has
been recognized that there are specific features for men and women, but in spite of them,
when interacting and in their environment, there should be no discrimination. Equity
appeals to equality and justice but taking into consideration the differences between them.
In this sense, public policy design is needed to incorporate the GP, since only by doing this
the needs of men and women would be differentially attended to end inequality.
Public policies, no matter what area they work in, are understood as the governmental
action addressed to take charge of public matter. Through laws, regulations and courses
of action among others, governments develop, define and implement strategies to tackle
public interest issues. The Mexican government has developed and implemented seven
specific public policies to reduce gender inequity in: poverty, reproductive health,
comprehensive health for women, gender violence, gender mechanisms, WHR and labor
(Avila and Gonzalez, 2009: 6).
Those public policies can be evaluated in reference to the strategic objectives that were
established in the Platform for Action in Beijing for this purpose. Table 2 enumerates the
most relevant public policies aimed at achieving each one of these objectives. As it can be
seen, the federal government has developed specific programs to address poverty among
10
women in Mexico, and to implement them; the three different governmental levels are
involved.
Area
Macroeconomic
policies and
developmental
strategies
Rights’ equality and
access to economic
resources
Access to credit and
saving institutions
Research lines and
methodologies
Public policies and actions
PROIGUALDAD
Opportunities
To live better
Food Support and Rural Supply Program
Scholarships to Young Mothers and Pregnant Young Women
Program
National Higher Education Scholarships Program
GP institutionalization
General Law for Equality between Women and Men (2006)
Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence General Law
(2007)
PROIGUALDAD
Mexican Norm for the Incorporation of Labor Equality Policies
and Practices between women and men
Women in the Agriculture Sector Program (PROMUSA)
Program to Strengthen Rural Business and Organizations
(PROFEMUR)
Productive Boost for Women Program (IPM)
Productive Organization for Indigenous Women Program
(POPMI)
Micro-entrepreneurs Funding National Program (PRONAFIM)
Micro-financing to Rural Women Fund (FOMMUR)
National Fund to Support Solidarity Business (FONAES)
National Trust Fund for Cooperatives Promotion (FIFONAFE)
CONEVAL’s Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty
Methodology for the Incorporation of the GP in Public Budget
Opportunities for Low Income Women in Rural Areas
Observance of Housing and Poverty Perceptions from the
Gender Approach
“What Poor People Say” Survey
Table 2. Federal Policies on Gender Equity, Mexico.
Source: personal elaboration.
As it was pointed out previously, PROIGUALDAD serves as a guiding program for the
inclusion of GP in public administration. For such reason this program identifies seven
strategic objectives5 and one of them deals with poverty on women. This way,
PROIGUALDAD establishes as its strategic objective number six: to boost economic
diligence of women in favor of greater opportunities for their welfare and development. For
11
this, programs were implemented to strengthen women capacities and to improve their
economic situation, and with this allow their insertion to the developmental process in its
traditional definition. It is important to mention that obtaining economic resources can
precede from three fields –market, state (through public services) and home (through
some community works) (Perez Orozco, 2003: 3)- but public policies seem to be directed
to the first.
To evaluate achievements on the matter in public policies, it is necessary to first examine
indicators that account for their impact in the reduction of gender inequity. Second, it is
required to review public policies and developed programs made to such purpose as to
evaluate their congruency in the two governmental levels. The above will allow us to
analyze in which extent these policies successes address the feminization of poverty
beyond poverty in women.
Analysis of the impact of public policies in gender equity in Jalisco
As it has been previously examined, the concept of poverty is multidimensional and
emphasized public policies in the above section have multidimensional objectives that
work in the areas of: poverty, economy, education, health care, decision making, violence
and stereotypes.
The following section focuses on the specific analysis of how these public policies are
transforming the existing reality from a gender perspective. The question that emerges
from this context is, what has been the result of these public policies and actions? To give
an answer, this work proposes the scrutiny and analysis of some poverty, economic, and
educational indicators as direct estimations of a first real impact of these policies. Other
indicators such as health, violence and stereotypes are left aside for two reasons: the
available space and even more important, for being a very specialized area in which
12
experts have already elaborated solid works (Azaola 2010; Enciso 2007; Collblack and
Bhushan 2007).
Women and Poverty
It can be said that poor individuals are limited in exercising their rights as citizens when it
is shown that they do not have a guaranteed access to goods and basic services. From
this point of view they are subjects of marginalization without access to education, health,
welfare, housing, etc. In this sense, poverty becomes a more severe issue for women who
already face marginalization and situations of inequity. Poverty, therefore, heightens the
situation of in this part of the population. Specifically, the analysis of poverty from a gender
perspective can be done in relation to homes situation, based on their female or male
head of household. To analyze the specific situation in terms of poverty, poverty indicators
developed by CONEVAL (2007) are taken up again. CONEVAL distinguishes three types
of poverty: food (FP), capabilities (CP) and patrimony (PP)6. In the following table and line
graph, the results of homes by poverty and head of household (male vs. female) are
shown, being evident in both cases the upsurge of patrimony poverty against the rest of
the kinds of poverty.
FP
Year Male
CP
Female Male
PP
Female Male
Female
2000 19.46
14.39 26.13
21.29 47.26
38.9
2002 16.03
13.87 22.11
18.41 43.29
38.98
2004 14.04
13.14 20.27
18.73 40.28
37.92
2005 14.45
12.77 20.06
17.44 40.48
36.64
2006 10.79
10.05 16.78
14 36.49
32.36
Table 3 and graphic 1. Percentage of women and
men by poverty type, Mexico, 2000-2006.
13
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2000
2002
2004
2005
2006
FP
CP
PP
Source: CONEVAL
Note: The line graph shows in each line the
analyzed year, and the dots indicate first the
situation of male head of households and second
the situation of female head of household by type
of poverty.
According to that official data from CONEVAL, feminine poverty has not only decreased in
the analyzed years (2000-2006), but it has also done it above with male as head of
households. Even though there is a significant rise on poverty in rural areas regarding
urban areas, this has happened in both male and female head of household homes. This
explains public interest for developing credit programs to these particularly depressed
zones (e.g. FOMMUR).
Data
Food Poverty
Capabilities Poverty
Patrimonial Poverty
2006
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
Urban
5.62
6.78
10.76
10.18
29.76
27.90
Rural
20.22
17.08
22.76
22.20
48.79
41.93
Table 4. Percentage of poor homes, National, Female head of household by urban and rural regions 2006.
Source: Inmujeres, based on ENIGH 2006 and methodologies from CONEVAL for poverty lines.
This study takes as an example the Jalisco case. It is important to mention that Jalisco is
the state with the third highest GDP in the country and it is the second highest with
economic growth generated in the 2006-07 period (INEGI 2007). However, the state is
located in the 14th place out of the 32 states in the country regarding the Gender-related
Development Index (GDI)7, with a GDI index of 0.8157, slightly higher than the National
with 0.8145. Data available for Jalisco in 2005, the last updated year, show in general
lower figures than the national averages. Unfortunately, there is no disaggregated data by
sex or head of households to complement this analysis from a gender perspective.
14
2000
2005
Type of Poverty
Mexico
Jalisco
Mexico
Jalisco
Food Poverty
24.1
13.8
18.1
10.9
Capabilities Poverty
31.8
20
24.7
17.2
Patrimony Poverty
53.6
41.3
47
41.6
Table 5. Poverty by income 2005.
Source: CONEVAL and COEPO Jalisco.
In an individual perspective of poverty between men and women, it is evident that poverty
in Mexico has declined in the period 2000-2006. The most significant is again the upsurge
of the levels of patrimonial poverty. Even more, in this poverty level where women are
poorer than men and the difference in absolute points is not very significant, it is still
consistent throughout time (see table 5).
FP
CP
Wom
PP
Año
Men Wom Men
Men
Wom
2000
24.4
23.8
8
31.8
7
2002
20
19.9
4
26.9
5
2004
17.3
4
17.4
4
24.7
6
24.64 46.91
2005
18.2
9
18.2
9
24.7
3
24.67 46.87 47.21
2006
13.4
1
13.4
1
20.2
5
21.04 42.34 42.88
31.65 53.52 53.68
26.95 49.71 50.24
47.5
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2000
2002
2004
2005
2006
FP
Table 6 and graphic 2: Percentage of poor homes by
household, Mexico and Jalisco 2000-2006.
Source: estimated from CONEVAL, based on the II
Counting on Population and housing 2005, and
ENIGH 2005.
Note: The line graph shows in each line the year and
the dots indicate first the situation of male head of
households and second the situation of female head
of household by type of poverty.
15
CP
PP
Source: CONEVAL
In general, the analysis may show that there has been a decrease in poverty. From 2002
to 2005 poverty has considerably decreased, but still presents concerning levels.
Especially alarming is patrimonial poverty, measured in base of citizen’s access to basic
services as food, housing, health, etc. and, it is precisely in this poverty level where
feminine poverty is situated. It could be said then, that feminization of poverty has moved
from levels of extreme subsistence to levels of basic opportunity. In accordance with these
results, homes with female head of households are not in general terms poorer than those
with male head of households. However, women as individuals are in fact experiencing
more poverty than men in the aspects that guarantee their incorporation to society as
citizens with full rights. In other words, public policies have had positive effects in the
reduction of poverty, but not necessarily on the feminization of poverty.
Women and Economy
Adopting a classic economic perspective in the analysis of gender equity implies reviewing
indicators like: global employment and unemployment, activity in economic sectors and
salary levels, among others. The review is made previously at a national level and regional
indicators are integrated to Jalisco in data with updated information.
This first graph compares the percentage of active population by men and women in a 10
years period is compared, taking as a starting point the year 1995, year when the Beijing
Conference took place, and finishing in 2004.
16
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Women
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
men
Graphic 3. Percentage of employed population, Mexico (1995-2004).
Source: INEGI National Employment Survey (1995-2004)
The line graph shows a gradual increase in women incorporated into the labor force at
almost 1% a year, against a decrease of men’s jobs in the same years. This incorporation
of women into the labor force, although significant, still reflects a clear gap between both
populations (in 2004: 35% women and 64.66% men). In the Jalisco case the percentages
show an even bigger gap. For 2000, year with disaggregated data per region, Jalisco
represented an employment rate for women at 33.61%, slightly a point less than the
national average at 34.15%. Nevertheless, in 2009 there is a considerable rise: 39.6% of
employed persons are women (COEPO-INEGI, 2009), which implies an important
quantitative progress in respect to the type of growth with more than 5 points in only 9
years (2000-2009).
This encouraging increase in female employment seems at first impression to account for
an advance towards gender equity in economic terms. However, if the employment
population per sector data is examined more carefully, a very traditional pattern is evident:
female employment is still relegated to the commerce and service sectors, as it is shown in
the next bar graph (graphic 4), where it can be seen 69.4% of formal female employment
is in the mentioned sectors, while for Jalisco 80% of female employment is in the service
sector, 16.9% in the industry and only 2.1% in the primary sector (in 2009).
17
Graphic 4. Percentage of Employed Population by activity branch by sex, Mexico 2004.
Source: INEGI, National Survey of Employment (2004).
This approach is complemented with the unemployment and self-employment analysis
represented in graphics 5 and 6. The first one shows a greater instability in female labor
market against male market, where women have the highest unemployment percentage
(see graphic 5). And, the second proves the challenge for women in terms of selfemployment, since the percentage of self-employed women (33.99 in 2004) is half the
percentage of men (66.01 in 2004).
10.00
100
9.00
90
8.00
80
7.00
70
6.00
60
5.00
4.00
3.00
50
Women
40
Men
30
2.00
20
1.00
10
0.00
0
Graphic 5. Unemployment percentage, Mexico
(1995-2004)
Source: INEGI, National Employment Survey
(1995-2004)
Women
Men
Graphic 6. Percentage of Self-employment,
Mexico (1995-2004)
Source: INEGI, National Employment Survey
(1995-2004)
18
Another traditional debate has been situated around the matter of perceived wages for
men and women. This debate has two lines of work: number one, to guarantee equity in
salaries, and number two, to incorporate women in all wage levels, taking them out of the
poorest sectors. In the following table one can see that in the rural sphere, 55.8% of active
female population receives less than two times the minimum wage. In the city the situation
is slightly better since 45.78% is between more than 1 and up to 3 times the minimum
wage. Although salary disparities among men and women have decreased between the
year 2000 (average increase for parity 14.4%) and 2008 (average increase for parity
9.5%), yet we cannot talk about equity based on the perceived remunerations.
Income level
Rural
Women
Urban
Men
Women
Men
Total
20,771,500
2,406,865
6,069,114
13,659,177
Up to the minimum wage
31.66
20.05
14.89
6.27
More than 1 to 2 X min. wages
24.14
22.69
24.74
16.98
More than 2 to 3 X min. wages
11.10
16.45
21.04
24.77
More than 3 to 5 X min. wages
5.92
11.04
15.16
24.48
More than 5X min. wages
2.23
3.25
10.03
16.92
Has no income
22.72
22.39
8.15
3.44
Unspecified
2.23
4.14
5.98
7.15
Table 7. Economically Active Population by locality, gender and income level, Mexico.
Source: Elaborated by the Consejo Estatal de Poblacion based on INEGI and STPS, National
Occupation and Employment Survey 2007.
According to the National Occupation and Employment Survey (Encuesta Nacional de
Ocupacion y Empleo, ENOE), for 2008, the female economic participation rate was 42%.
But this information must be taken with caution since a deeper analysis speaks for the
deprivation in this job level for women. Along with wage insecurities is the issue of the time
dedicated to work that is officially recorded. In this sense, the traditional definition of roles
makes it difficult to incorporate women into labor market being that from the number of
women that work, 35% do it part-time (less than 35 hours a week), while in the male sector
only 17% do it in this way. Of course, in these statistics, the hours that women spent on
average doing domestic work, taking care of children and older adults (21.2 hrs.) are not
19
counted. Women do not receive any economic compensation or benefits that would be
owed to them if this work were considered from an economic point of view. On the other
hand, men spend (7.5 hours) just a third part of women’s time on these activities but they
neither receive any payment (INEGI, 2010).
One of the options against the loss of formal employment is self-employment. Graphic 6
show the lower percentage of workers on their own, that by 2004 was of 33.99% in women
and 66.01% in men. According to INMUJERES report (2004), from the economic point of
view efforts have focused on promoting women incorporation into business activities, this
is self-employment. To achieve it, the access to funding for entrepreneur women with
viable projects has been boosted. Among the relevant programs in this sense are
PROFEMOR, that provides economic resources to women for their companies;
PROMUSA, which gives micro-credits to women for the establishment of farms and this
way helping female head of households; FOMUR, that increased the amount of given
support from 54 million pesos (mdp) in 2003, to 169.6 mdp in 2008, distributed through 22
institutions of micro-financing; and POPMI, operated by the National Commission for
Indigenous People Development (CDI) that in 2008 spent 180 mdp to support 2,340
projects in benefit of 19,528 indigenous women with incipient organization level, high
degree of marginalization and scarce economic and commercial experience to strengthen
their organizational processes for the development of productive projects.
Some of the mentioned programs in previous paragraphs are directly oriented to the most
marginalized population, like the rural and indigenous. Especially in the rural sector, the
greatest effort has been made through micro-credits. According to official data of the
Micro-financing Found for Rural Women (FOMMUR, 2010) about the number of microcredits given in 2008, the percentage of micro-credits given is higher for women (70.40%).
20
This numbers also show the high responsibility and commitment of beneficiaries to its
refund, with a 99.7% rate in 2008.
Total
of Total
of Percentage
Released
Women (1)
Women/total
credits (1)
2001
100.6
67.8
67.40
2002
112
87.8
78.39
2003
151.2
108.8
71.96
2004
201.9
147.2
72.91
2005
245.4
163.6
66.67
2006
205.2
156.9
76.46
2007
178.3
133.3
74.76
2008
158.8
111.8
70.40
(1) Data in thousands
Table 8. Credit results FOMMUR 2009.
Source: Micro-financing Found for Rural Women (2009).
Recovery
Percentage
94.4
98.3
98.3
99.1
97.1
98.2
100.4
99.7
Continuing with the self-employment matter, a recent study about the situation of business
women in Mexico showed that 75.7% has not received any type of credit and the ones that
have received one are only 24.3%, most of them from the Economy Department
(INMUJERES, 2008). The following table indicates the sources those financing, stressing
the short range of the FONAES program with only 18.4% of the total received financing.
Institution
Frequency
Percentage
Ministry of Economy
45
51.7
FONAES
16
18.4
Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
8
9.2
Nacional Financial Bank (NAFINSA)
6
6.9
Other
12
13.8
Total
87
100.0
Table 9. Grantor Institutions of funding for micro-entrepreneurships (2008).
Source: INMUJERES, General Direction of Promotion and Link Sustainable Development Direction.
Despite efforts and as sample of the persisting gap in gender equity, the Diagnosis on the
Situation of Entrepreneurs (INMUJERES, 2008:1) points out that among the most
important difficulties that female entrepreneurs face are: the lack of accompanying when a
credit is given; the paucity of information, especially in remote localities from the capitals of
federative entities; the difficulty to accomplish the requirements that the available credits in
the market demand; the distrust about governmental efficiency to facilitate credit access;
and limitations from the condition and position of entrepreneurs. Another important fact
21
that this research provides is the high education level between interviewed women, since
almost the half, 47.8% have a degree and 23.7% also have a postgraduate. In this sense,
the PYME Mexico Observatory (Secretaria de Economia, 2003) found out that the
conclusion percentages of studies are similar between men and women that are owners of
a business. Analyzing data from other perspective, it can be said that these women that
are a successful example of self-employment, have as a characteristic a high training,
above of the common averages of population. Education seems to be then an important
variable to overcome gender inequity. For this reason the next section will try to
summarize some relevant educative indicators.
As a general panorama it is worth to note that: women experience a major unemployment
level, and for that they are less active in formal employment as in self-employment.
Perceived wages are lower than men’s and job precariousness (full-time jobs) too. Overall,
the situation has improved in the analyzed period, but there still are challenges in
economic inequity of gender.
Women and Education
In the case of entrepreneur women, the situation on professional equity between men and
women has a relevant relation with education levels. But it would be worth asking: what is
the general situation of female population in Mexico in view of the legislative and public
efforts that have been made on educative equality?
In general, reported data by the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaria de Educacion
Publica, SEP) for the analyzed period (2000 to 2006)8 indicate similar percentages
between men and women in all educational levels (see table 10).
22
Women
Men
Total
Preschool
11.9
11.7
11.8
Primary school
50.7
51.6
51.2
Middle school
18.9
18.9
18.9
Technical prof.
1.3
1.2
1.2
Bachelors
9.8
9.2
9.5
Teacher’s Degree
0.9
0.4
0.6
University and technology degree
6.1
6.5
6.3
Postgraduate course
0.4
0.5
0.5
Table 10. Student Population Percentages by educational level 2001 (%).
Source: SEP, Basic Statistic of the National Educational System. Begining of courses, 2001-2002.
In a more detailed study, this same report of the Ministry of Public Education report lower
levels of educational desertion in women and also higher terminal efficiency in basic
levels. Particularly for the scholar period 2005-2006 the next table shows that desertion in
women in primary and middle education is lower than in men.
Scholar
Primary Education
Middle Education
Cycle:
Total
Men
Women
Total
Men
Women
20051.3
1.5
1.1
7.7
9.6
5.9
2006
Table 11. Desertion in primary and middle school index by sex, Mexico (1996-2006).
9
Source: SEP, 2007 .
Nevertheless, illiteracy reported levels are higher in global terms in women of all age
ranges, although significantly higher in the more age intervals: 45-50 and 60 and more.
23
Illiteracy
Age
Group
Total
15-24
25-44
45-59
60 and
more
2000
Men Women
7.4
11.3
3.2
3.5
4.8
7.4
11.3
19.5
2005
Men Women
6.8
9.8
2.4
2.4
4.2
5.7
9
14.8
23.9
23.1
35.5
33.1
40
35
30
Total
25
15-24
20
15
25-44
10
45-59
5
60 and more
0
2000 Men
2000
Women
2005 Men
Women
2005
Table 12 and Graphic 7. Illiteracy percentage in men and women.
Source: INMUJERES, calculations based in INEGI, Population and Housing Census (1999-2000),
and INEGI, II Population and Housing Counting. 2005
To complete the analysis, a review the indicators by region, urban and rural, shows the
inequality situation that rural regions face. In these zones, illiteracy levels and lack of
schooling came to be two and three times higher than urban. In the next table Jalisco’s
result are specifically used to illustrate such point. Specifically, men and women population
percentages are shown by zone: urban versus rural.
Indicator
Rural
Women
Men
Urban
Women
Men
Education
Percentage of illiterate population from 15
years old and older
12.30
12.90
4.80
4.00
Population from 6 to 14 years old that does
not attend school
9.40
9.40
5.00
5.70
Table 13. Education in Jalisco.
Source: Prepared by the Statal Population Council based in INEGI’s II Population and Housing
Counting. 2005.
Education has been a priority since first reunions about gender equity. From this point of
view it has been understood as an essential goal to guarantee incorporation to labor
market opportunities and participation as full rights citizens. In this sense, the data that has
been presented in this section reflects important progress in terms of equality education
24
among men and women. However, some challenges, mostly related with illiteracy rates
between some women groups are pointed out, especially in those who live in rural areas.
Power exercise and Citizenship
It was until 1953 that in Mexico women obtained the right to vote. This event is emblematic
in women struggle for their rights, because the right to vote constitutes a political right that
at the same time is associated with citizenship. There is formal citizenship, the one that is
established in laws, substantive citizenship and that is exercised, which means that it is
located in effective capabilities to exercise it (Garcia Quezada et al 2000). In gender equity
terms, formal citizenship has narrowed to its minimum expression in the last years, being
substantive citizenship where serious differences persist. In this sense, the exercise of
political rights and women participation in public administration reflect the degree of
progress.
Female participation in politics and public administration in Mexico can be illustrated with
the following information: 3 State Agencies (Foreign Relations, Tourism and Energy) out of
a total of 19 agencies; in 2009, 40% of middle and superior management positions in
public federal administration and 57% of operational positions; 2 ministers of the Supreme
Court of Justice out of 11; 1 magistrate at the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary, who
also chairs it (INMUJERES, 2009). In Legislative Power, women participate with: 133
deputies, out of a total of 500 deputations (Camara de Diputados 2010), and 27 senators
out of 128 (Camara de Senadores 2010). Respecting governorships, only two women
head an entity government (Yucatan and Zacatecas).
The immediate consequence of the limited participation is invisibility of feminine voice,
even for definition of programs and supports that are more appropriated for women. And in
25
the statal breakdown Jalisco is precisely one of the states that present the lowest equity
levels (10%) in the country, just after Nayarit (10.3%)10.
Government position
Total of government Amount of women in Percentage of female
employees
in functions
representation
position
Deputies
39
8
3.12
Ministries
19
2
0.38
Magistrates
33
2
0.66
Mayors
125
8
10.00
State Governors
1
0
0.00
Totals
217
20
14.16
Table 14. Percentage of women in public positions, Jalisco, 2010.
Source: equity of gender in public positions indicator, Jalisco Government 2010.
Level
Value
Political
participation
(parliamentary
seats)
%
Women
Men
Participation as
government
employees and
directors
%
Women
Men
Participation as
government
employees
%
Women
Men
Relation
of
women’s
estimated
incomes
respecting
men’s
0.45
0.43
Jalisco
0.50
14.29
85.71
23.14
76.86
39.18
60.82
National
0.58
23.44
76.56
25.24
74.76
39.80
60.20
Table 15. Men and women citizenship participation, National and Jalisco.
Source: Human Development Index and Status of Women in Jalisco, State Population Board
(2009).
With the objective of increasing political participation of women, between 2005 and 2007,
INMUJERES implemented the boost to political leadership program in the local area and in
2008 designed the Strategic Platform. However, if the current feminine representation in
power exercise is considered, it can be deduced that the results of the established
incentives by the programs have not being achieved yet. It is not surprising that the United
Nations Development Programme Report (2004) situates Jalisco in the 27th place
respecting the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) of the 32 political entities in the
country. This index reflects women participation in public life, so one of the government
main goals is, or should be, encouraging women involvement in political processes, from
which derives governmental decisions that concern them. Women lag in the exercise of
26
power is illustrated with the Gender Equity Index in High Level Public Positions, data of
table 14 show the prevailing lag in the country.
Conclusions
Since 1975, date when Mexico hosted the International Conference on Women, it has
maintained an active participation in the international forums and institutions that have
established the guide lines for the improvement of women’s living conditions. The Mexican
government has made significant efforts to improve the conditions of Mexican women. In
general, its public policies have been coherent with the action objectives established in the
Beijing Conference, especially since the year 2000. An example of this is the creation of
INMUJERES in 2001, which despite its limitations and mistakes has been with no doubt a
motor on the way to equity.
That way, the one of women struggle for equality has been slow and results, although
positives in general, have not always been the best. This article provides evidence that
suggests that this can owe to the fact that the majority of public policies have been
orientated to mitigate economic poverty, leaving aside the obstacles that come with the
context in which women get resources, both economic and other types. For example, two
out of the four strategic objectives that are established in the Platform for Action of Beijing,
are related with the access to economic resources and to credit mechanisms. Besides,
usually in the definition of poverty there are mentioned the lack of economic resources as
a key factor. In response to this, programs and actions direct their effort to create
conditions for women development, access to economic resources and access to saving
and credit institutions.
The analysis made in this work allows asserting that progress has been important but that
many challenges are still ahead before talking of gender equality in economic terms. For
27
mentioning some that have been published in this paper we find that unemployment,
precarious work and wage inequality still have a woman face, And the most obvious
solutions, self-employment and entrepreneurships are not a real way out since the cases
of entrepreneur women and the percentages of self-employed workers are yet scarce.
Although the data related with education show that there are more prepared women in all
educational levels, the business culture is still completely alien for them. The clearest
explanation may be found in patriarchal models that do not allow these women to imagine
themselves as their own bosses in the working level, because in the familiar level they are
responsible for an important part of the country’s homes, which also are more
economically successful that their masculine counterpart.
By the above it can be concluded that it is required a more integral strategy to mitigate
feminization of poverty, .i.e. poverty understood in a wider way that not only includes more
elements, but in a deeper way. Attending in a particular and focalized manner those
regions and areas inside the country that experience not only a higher poverty level, but
greater obstacles to get out of it, like Jalisco.
1
The third area refers to adequate health services.
These twelve areas are: women and poverty; education and women trainging; women and health; violence
against women; women and armed conflict; women and economy; women and decision making power;
institutional mechanisms for women progress; women‟s human rights; women and media; women and
environment; girls.
3
CONEVAL (2010) defines moderate multidimensional poverty: when a person has not guaranteed the
exercise of at least of his or her rights for social development and if it incomes are not enough to get goods
and services required to satisfy her basic needs. Meanwhile, extreme multidimensional poverty is considerate
as: the populations that have such a low income that even if they dedicate it completely to food acquisition,
they could not satisfy the necessary nutrients to have a healthy life; besides, they present at least three out of
the six social shortages.
4
Chant (1997, 2007), Moghadam (1997), Cagatay (1998); Baden (1999); Davids and van Driel (2001, 2005);
Wennerholm (2002); Medeiros and Costa (2006); in Chant (2008: 167).
5
These objectives are: 1) to institutionalize a transversal politic with gender perspective in Public Federal
Administration, and build the mechanisms to contribute to its adoption in Union Powers, in governmental
orders and in the private sector; 2)to guarantee legal equality, women‟s human rights and no discrimination in
the rule of law framework; 3) to guarantee justice, security and civil protection access for women; 4) to
2
28
guarantee women the access to a free of violence life; 5) to strengthen women capacities to expand their
opportunities and reduce gender inequality; 6) to maximize women agency in favor of better opportunities for
their welfare and development; 7) to boost women empowerment, their participation and representation in
decision making spaces in the State and to consolidate democratic culture.
6
Food poverty: inability to obtain a basic food basket, even if one uses all the available income at home to
buy only goods from such basket.
Capabilities poverty: insufficiency in the available income to acquire the value of the food basket and to carry
out necessary expenses in health and education, even spending the total income at home just for these
purposes.
Patrimony poverty: insufficiency in the available income to acquire the food basket, as long as to realize
necessary expenses on health, clothing, housing, transport and education, even if the totality of the home
income were exclusively used to the acquisition of these goods and services (CONEVAL, 2007).
7
“Given that Human Development Index (HDI) does not consider inequalities among men and women, it was
necessary for the UNDP to create the Gender-related Development Index (GDI), which reduces development
levels to the extent that differences in the indicators between men and women increase. If achievement
differences between men and women are taking into account in indicators that form the HDI, losses in human
development occur and produce changes in the relative position of countries, regions, federal entities and
municipalities respecting this topic. Such loss in human development due to gender inequalities is defined as
percentage difference between HDI and the GDI in the corresponding year” (PNUD, 2010).
8
Secretaria de Educacion Publica (SEP). General Direction on Planning, Programming and Budget. SEPDGPP. Planning and Evaluation on Educative Policies Unit, 2007.
9
SEP. General Direction on Planning, Programming and Budget. SEP-DGPP. Planning and Evaluation on
Educative Policies Unit, 2007. Available at: http://www.inegi.gob.mx/
10
Reported calculations by INMUJERES from INAFED (2008)
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