In the Dominican Republic, the economy grew at an average rate of 5.7% annually during 2004-2019, almost double the regional average. At the same time, poverty fell from 29% to 25% between 2017 and 2019. However, the gains of the last decades have not been proportional between men and women.
Yesterday representatives of world Bank They presented to the press a survey on gender equality in the Dominican Republic in which they also state that women work more hours than men and receive 60% of the salary for the same job function.
The document highlights that, in the country, women face multiple forms of inequality, discrimination Y exclusion social, which has caused the Dominican Republic to be among the lowest positions within the indexes of inequality gender globally.
The uprising was introduced by Alexandria Valerioresident of world Bank for the Dominican Republic, together with other executives of the international organization, during a breakfast with representatives of the press from the economic area of the country entitled: “Economic growth with the face of a woman.”
The conclusions of the survey indicate that “the Dominican Republic has a bad performance in terms of equality of genre”. Situation that can have a considerable cost for the country’s wealth, she warned.
Impact on GDP
“Estimates show that the loss of wealth of human capital due to inequality gender represented 185.4 trillion dollars in 2018, equivalent to 2.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP)”, he explained.
He also revealed that the burden has deepened after the pandemic caused by the coronavirus that increased the unemployment and the inequality with more effects on women, explained the WB economist.
The poor performance led the country to obtain an index of 0.455 in 2020, occupying the position 112 among 189 countries analyzed in the Index of Inequality Program of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), one of the reference studies of the WB to expose the problems in the country.
Among the findings that highlight the low purchasing power between genders, they pointed out that the proportion of households headed by women who lived below the poverty indices have been higher among women, for 2019 the threshold was 25%in front of 19% of the men.
One of the pillars with which this organization will work in its support agenda for the 2022-2026 period is to improve access to housing, since the data showed that 70% of women in the Dominican Republic do not have their own home. that half of the women who work earn only 60% on average, compared to men.
labor participation
“Despite the high levels of literacy and primary education, the female labor participation rate from 15 to 64 years old reached 58.5% in 2019, compared to 83.7% for men”, a gap marked by limitations in the field of education basic and superior, highlighted Valerio.
However, that labor participation rate decreased for 2021, when women represented 49.6 % and men 75.2 %. Of that amount, only 2.9% of management positions are held by women, the survey highlights: Dominican Republic in perspective.
He went on to point out that around 18% of women aged 15 or over who are not studying do not have their own income, unlike young men of the same age, who represent a eleven %.
In that order, she explained that women spend an average of more than 31 hours a week Unpaid workthree times more than men.
While of the hours of worked paid it is 19 hours a week, about half the time spent by men. “The unemployment rate is higher for women than for men,” she said.
