Note for Equality Nº 28: Women in the future of work
The segmentation of Latin American labour markets - a consequence of the high degree of structural heterogeneity and the persistent sexual division of labour - limits women’s employment and concentrates them in certain sectors and occupations of the economy, as shown in the figure below. The accelerated changes product of the adoption of digital technologies pose new scenarios for the world of work. In addition, the ongoing process of population aging presents challenges and opportunities for women’s autonomy and for the achievement of a more equal participation in the labour market.
The dynamics of technological change generate concerns and uncertainty about the possible effects on the quantity and quality of jobs. It is important to analyse the impacts on how the labour market will be organized: the dynamics of the elimination and emergence of jobs, the characteristics of future jobs and the skills required for them. Therefore, it is important to eliminate skills’ and abilities’ gaps related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) - which are areas that are predicted to be of greater employability – as well as to anticipate automation processes to avoid job displacement that disproportionately impact women.