Progressing towards SDG 5 involves implementing public policies to end discrimination and violence against women, recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work, ensuring women’s full and effective participation at all levels of decision-making, as well as universal access to sexual and reproductive health. To this end, laws must be approved to ensure women’s rights to economic and natural resources, the use of technology for empowerment should be enhanced, and policies for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels must be adopted.

Despite that the rate of unemployment in Latin America has tended to be low, accumulating a decline of 2.8 percentage points between 2002 and 2013, since 2015 this tendency has reversed. According to data from the Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean of ECLAC, for that year the rate of unemployment reached 7.4%, with women being the most affected: for them unemployment was placed at 8.6%, whilst for men at 6.6%. In 2016 unemployment reached 9.0%, which represents an increase of 4.1 million people unemployed.

Sexual harassment is defined as any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favour, verbal or physical conduct or gesture of a sexual nature, or any other behaviour of a sexual nature that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offence or humiliation to another, when such conduct interferes with work, is made a condition of employment or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment

On the International Day of the Girl Child, it is fundamental to emphasise the need to consolidate specific information and analysis about their situation, to generate evidence for the design of policies that eradicate the barriers that affect girl children and adolescents in order to achieve their autonomy and exercise of rights, and assure their well-being in the present and the future.

Uno de los nudos críticos que explican las desigualdades de género en la región remite a la actual división sexual del trabajo y la temprana segmentación de los roles de género. Alrededor de 2013, 23% de las adolescentes de 15 a 17 años no asistía a un establecimiento educacional en América Latina (16 países). De ellas, el 87% se encuentra trabajando, ya sea en el ámbito público o privado, reciban ingresos o no: 54% están dedicadas al trabajo doméstico y de cuidado no remunerado y 33% trabajan de forma remunerada. Esta situación es más marcada entre las adolescentes que viven en áreas rurales y en hogares en situación de pobreza. Entre los adolescentes de este mismo tramo etario que están fuera de la escuela, solo 6% están dedicados al trabajo doméstico y de cuidado no remunerado y la gran mayoría están insertos en el mercado laboral.

The mining sector represents an opportunity for women’s economic autonomy, and their incorporation increases the productivity and innovation of the mining industry, thus contributing to sustainable development.

Earning the same as men under equal conditions is a woman’s right, and a requisite for her autonomy as well as for the achievement of gender equality.

In Latin America, the street and public transport are not neutral ground, and the degree of freedom experienced by men and women when moving through the city is different.

Political harassment, like other forms of violence against women, threaten the achievement of equality and women’s autonomy: without parity in the presence of women in decision-making spaces in all levels, it is not possible to talk about gender equality, nor the deepening of democracy.

By 2015 16 countries in Latin America had modified their laws to include a specific type of crime referring to the murder of women under the name of femicide or feminicide, or as an aggravating circumstance of homicide.