Breathe
By Mariana Becerra
In Mexico, female labor participation is very low; while 77% of men of working age have a place in the labor market, only 45% of women do. According to INEGI, in 2023 there were 52.8 million women over 15 years of age, of which only 23.6 million were working. In order to improve women's social mobility, understood as the socioeconomic change we experience throughout our lives, barriers to entry into the labor market must be eliminated. There are several factors that explain why this percentage of women's participation is so low: the lack of a care system, discriminatory policies in recruitment processes and the lack of flexibility policies in companies that allow for a work-life balance. These figures must change and it is up to civil society, companies and the State to achieve this.
Having a care system in place allows women who care for their children, people with disabilities or the elderly to enter the labor market. The care system in Mexico has been stuck in the Senate and needs to be approved in order to start operating and strengthen the infrastructure of childcare centers and eldercare centers, just to mention a few. According to the Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias, lower-income women had greater social mobility if they had care centers in their localities than those women who did not have access to them..
The State, for its part, should strengthen the infrastructure of care centers, as well as regulate barriers to entry into the labor market, such as prohibiting the inclusion of photographs and marital status in the curriculum. Companies should hire on the basis of equal treatment without discriminatory bias. According to Arceo-Gómez and Campos-Vázquez, explicit discrimination in job advertisements translates into discrimination on the basis of marital status and ethnic affiliation[1]. This research was carried out based on the sending of resumes with photographs of candidates that specified their marital status. The authors conclude that companies use candidates' personal information to discriminate against indigenous applicants. In many countries around the world, the candidate's photograph, marital status and age are not included. A regulation banning the photo on the résumé could eliminate this barrier to entry for many people who are judged solely on their appearance and not on their skills.
In addition to the above, companies should have flexibility policies that directly support those workers who need it most. There should be no penalties for missing work due to caregiving responsibilities; instead, it should be possible to work from home or to make up for the tasks that have been left pending. It is also important to equalize maternity leave with paternity leave so that gender is not a factor in the company's hiring decision.
If female labor participation had the same proportion as men's, Mexico's GDP would increase by 27%. In addition, there is evidence from the World Bank showing an increase in productivity in those companies that provide childcare and health clinic support for female workers. With support measures, absenteeism is reduced, staff turnover decreases and there is greater loyalty to the company, which translates into a positive win-win relationship between the company and the workers. Women should not have to give up because we cannot attend to our care responsibilities at home, it is up to the State to provide the necessary infrastructure to support us, and it is up to companies to eliminate barriers to entry and provide the necessary flexibility.
It is most likely that this six-year term we will have a woman president of Mexico for the first time, which is encouraging for female labor participation to increase, but it does not guarantee it. There have already been several female governors in different states and these percentages have not increased. It is important that women demand the care infrastructure we need and the inclusion and flexibility policies in companies so that those of us who are already working can continue working and those who have not been able to do so can enter the labor market.
*Mariana Becerra Pérez completed her undergraduate studies in Political Science at ITAM and her Master's degree in Public Policy at the same institution. Since 2013 she works as a researcher at the Centro de Estudios Espinosa Yglesias, in the direction of social mobility. Her areas of interest are the analysis of public policies and social mobility in education, health and labor market in our country. He has published in the magazine Gestión y Política Pública del CIDE, the magazine Nexos, as well as several opinion articles in CNNExpansión, ADN Político, as well as Animal Político. Previously, she worked for five years in the Federal Government, at the National Institute of Ecology in the area of research and analysis of public policies.
References
[1] Eva O. Arceo-Gomez, Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez, Raquel Y. Badillo, Sergio Lopez A. (2022). "Gender stereotypes in job advertisements: What do they imply for the gender salary gap?", Journal of Labor Research.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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