“Gender Equality” in South America
Adam MacRae 
June 16, 2022
Adam MacRae
June 16, 2022 For the fifth edition of Holocene’s Global Goals Briefings, we head to the home of machismo: South America. Countering the ills of machismo is central to achieving “Gender Equality” in South America and ending discrimination against women and girls. Specifically, the target (and indicator) of focus for this briefing is whether or not there are legal frameworks in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex.
For those of you that missed out on last month’s edition focussing on “Quality Education” in North America, you can find it here.
The potential benefits of achieving gender equality for the world are enormous. According to Project Drawdown, ‘Health and Education’ (which includes family planning solutions as well as educating girls) was identified as the second most influential solution to addressing climate change and could reduce over 80 gigatons of CO2 emissions from 2020 through 2050. This is an enormous potential positive impact for the climate and would be nearly double the impact of Onshore Wind Turbines at 47 gigatons. For context, the IPCC estimates that by 2100, we must remove 100 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere to stay on target for our climate goals. Unfortunately, at current rates, this will take 267 years to achieve just for women’s economic empowerment and participation. That is 267 years which we do not have.
Climate aside, while Gender Equality has come a long way over the years, much work remains:
Gender equality is a massive topic. It includes a combination of public life, private life, equality among the sexes, equality within the sexes, between races, between economic classes, etc. Therefore, for the purposes of focussing on legal frameworks, we begin our journey where it all began: women’s suffrage.
Better 2,401 years late than never.
Democracy famously traces its roots back to ancient Greece in 508 BCE when Athens allowed for a form of direct-democracy for all of its citizens. Unfortunately, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners, and youths below the age of military service. In reality, it was the birthplace of male democracy.
It would take another 2,401 years until the first self-governing country achieved universal suffrage when New Zealand allowed all women to vote in parliamentary elections in 1893. From there, the right for women to vote spread like wildfire. Now, most women on earth are able to enjoy the freedom to vote just like their male counterparts. Unfortunately, in 11 countries, there are still high barriers that prevent women from fulfilling their right to vote.
As a region, South America was on-par, if not ahead of the curve for enfranchising women with the right to vote. Ecuador was the first country in South America where women were allowed to vote in 1929, while Paraguay was the last in 1961. These milestones are especially impressive considering South America achieved full universal suffrage 10 years before Europe with Switzerland giving women the vote in 1971. Furthermore, South America, and Latin America at large, has the largest number of women elected to national parliaments in the world.
As with many regions around the world, women have had to endure tremendous levels of double standards in the workplace and at home.
The pandemic proved devastating for the goal of Gender Equality.
Not only were women already doing 2.5x more of the unpaid work in the house going into the pandemic, but women were reported as taking up more unpaid housework compared to their partners and were more likely to leave the workforce. Economic consequences aside, a more serious concern was the rise in violence against women during the pandemic. These twin threats must be addressed to prevent women from being trapped in physically abusive relationships and losing economic opportunities to lead independent and fulfilling lives.
Every year, the World Bank publishes an annual report on Women, Business and the Law. Looking at 190 economies, the report examines the legal differences between men and women’s access to economic opportunities with scores from 1-100 calculated by the researchers analysing 35 aspects across 8 indicators. As a region, South America scores relatively well with an average score of 85.9.
The central question then is, why do such inequalities remain in South America if, as a region, it was an early political champion of the women’s suffrage movement and ranks highly with regards to laws supporting economic outcomes?
To answer this exact question, governments in Latin America and the Caribbean identified 4 structural obstacles to gender equality:
To solve these 4 structural obstacles, the same governments identified 6 solutions:
It is important to stress that there is no ‘silver bullet’ for gender equality. It will take everyone to actively work towards supporting the goal in everything we do in our lives.
Establishing legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality is simple yet tricky. Ultimately, it is a yes or no question: whether there are laws in place or not (words). However, it is also important to consider to what degree they are adhered to and what gaps remain (deeds).
Especially for ensuring legal frameworks in South America, there are few metrics/targets must be improved either economically or politically. What matters is following through on those laws and commitments. In support of these commitments, there are two organisations that are doing great work in this space.
Start-Up Chile, a public accelerator, was launched in 2010 by the government to develop an entrepreneurial innovation hub. Since its creation, it has been widely regarded as one of the best accelerator programmes in the world and famous for its Female Founders programme.
On the other side of the continent, in 2019, the Brazilian government launched Sabrae Delas. Their aim is to promote and encourage professional business practices and public policies to help improve women’s skills.
These are just two initiatives supporting women and businesses in South America. However, for these programmes and others like them to have any hope of succeeding, it will require all of us, men and women alike, to work towards gender equality.
If you are interested in learning more about gender equality and the thematic research that Holocene Impact Capital offers, please reach out to Adam at [email protected].