Social dialogue advances gender equality and shared care responsibilities in Latin America

LIMA (ILO News) - Social dialogue - through processes such as collective bargaining and company practices - is expanding care-related rights beyond legal minimum standards in eight countries across the Latin America, according to a new report launched by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The report, titled Advancing gender equality through social dialogue: Innovative experiences in care and leave policies in Latin America (available in Spanish only), shows how collective bargaining and company initiatives - in large, medium and small enterprises - have expanded maternity and paternity leave, strengthened parental leave schemes, created lactation rooms and promoted more flexible working arrangements for workers with family responsibilities.

Closing gender gaps in the world of work requires transforming the barriers that currently prevent women from accessing decent jobs on equal terms with men. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 47 per cent of women are outside the labour market due to care responsibilities. In addition, women devote up to 29 more hours per week than men to unpaid care work, representing more than 8.4 billion hours of family care provided each week across the region.

When care responsibilities fall almost exclusively on women, labour markets lose talent. Many women are forced to accept precarious jobs or interrupt their career paths, resulting in lower incomes, higher levels of informality and persistent inequality. Based on an exploratory study in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay, the report clearly demonstrates that the combination of social dialogue and business engagement can translate into concrete improvements that extend rights beyond legal minimum standards, while promoting shared responsibility for care and contributing to talent retention and more productive workplaces. The study also reaffirms the central role of the State in consolidating a universal floor of rights and promoting frameworks that encourage the social sharing of care responsibilities.

Care is a need that exists throughout the life cycle. It is a right, a form of work that drives the economy, and a public good that generates broad social benefits
Virginia Moreira Gomes, ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean

"Care is a need that exists throughout the life cycle. It is a right, a form of work that drives the economy, and a public good that generates broad social benefits. Recognizing its value - both paid and unpaid - is essential to advancing more inclusive labour markets. The evidence confirms that social dialogue and collective bargaining can translate international labour standards into concrete advances that expand rights and promote shared responsibility," said Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. The evidence also shows that when women actively participate in business and trade union leadership and in social dialogue processes, more solid, sustainable and gender-responsive advances are achieved.

"We are observing that, even in contexts of informality and limited coverage of collective bargaining, there are real opportunities for the progressive expansion of rights through social dialogue. These measures not only protect rights; they also strengthen productivity, improve talent retention and promote the social sharing of care," said Paz Arancibia, ILO Senior Specialist on Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination.

The report adopts an approach grounded in decent work and the right to care as essential components of social justice, in line with ILO Convention No. 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities, Convention No. 183 on Maternity Protection, and the Resolution concerning decent work and the care economy adopted in 2024. Itconcludes that when the three dimensions - regulatory, collective bargaining and business practices - operate together, progress can be made towards a more equitable distribution of care work, as well as towards decent work and social justice.

The full report is available here.