‘Women’s liberation seems to be only for the rich’,
a discussion from Political Economy
“La liberación parece ser sólo para las ricas”,una discusión desde la Economía Política
Karen García Rojas
FCE
¡Escribe y publica la FCE te apoya!
Nº 17Febrero 2012
Econografos
Econografos Escuela de Economía N° 17
Enero 2012
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias Económicas
Pág
ina2
“WOMEN’S LIBERATION SEEMS TO BE ONLY FOR THE RICH”, A DISCUSSION
FROM POLITICAL ECONOMY
Por: Karen Andrea García Rojas.1
Abstract
On average women are paid less than men for equal work in every country in the world. In
Colombia, the average of the wage gap seems to be between 10% and 13% although women have
surpassed men in average years of education. A part of these gap can be explained because of
men are greater represented in better paid disciplines, but the main explanation, 'the subjective
one', relevant with gender wage discrimination, could explain more than the half of the gap.
Historically, the female has had to cope with the existence of a stereotyped division of work,
which has assigned her, specific roles with deep traditional roots. For women it has not been easy
to get rid of these cultural patterns, which not only involve employment discrimination by
employers, but also involve, in general, doubts and dilemmas that make them less competitive in
a world dominated by men during centuries.
There are several papers about the gender wage gap in Colombia. But this field only considers
women professional workers, it means, high and middle classes. If they are in that situation, what
happen with the lower classes‟ women? This essay constructs a discussion since a political
economy critical view, around the difficult situation of labor gender discrimination and particular
situations of female workers in all social classes, making a comparison between the roles and
dilemmas of women workers of different classes; under the recognition that low class women
face a deeper and more dramatic discrimination. In the lower classes, women's situation is far to
be „liberation‟, although in some social circles there is the wrong idea that work gender
discrimination „is over‟. In general, lower classes‟ women do have a low possibility of
independence, autonomy and gender consciousness, because of the difficult access to quality
education and formal jobs. Moreover, there is evidence which proves that executive women and
women in leadership jobs have been decisively supported by the domestic work to get 'success' in
their careers; which shows that in our society there is a gender gap by social class: the dynamics
of modern capitalism has allowed, in general, the improved of the welfare, independence and
equality for women in upper class (although there remains a gap with their male counterparts),
but has not brought the same benefits to lower class women.
Keywords: gender wage gap, subject of degree, gender identity, social classes, domestic work,
informal work, double workday, gender patterns and dilemmas, patriarchal capitalism.
JEL Classification: A14, J16 J24, J31, J71
1 Research product of seminar: Political Economy of class, gender and race guided by Stanley Malinowitz.
1 Economic student. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. E mail: [email protected]
Pág
ina3
“LA LIBERACIÓN PARECE SER PARA LAS RICAS”, UNA DISCUSIÓN DESDE LA
ECONOMÍA POLÍTICA
Resumen
En promedio, las mujeres reciben salarios más bajos que los hombres por igual trabajo en todos
los países del mundo. En Colombia, el promedio de la brecha salarial parece estar entre 10% y
13%, a pesar de que las mujeres han superado a los hombres en los años promedio de educación.
Una parte de la brecha puede explicarse debido a que los hombres están mayormente
representados en disciplinas mejor pagadas, pero la principal explicación, la „subjetiva‟,
correspondiente a la discriminación salarial por género, podría explicar más de la mitad de la
brecha. Históricamente, la mujer ha tenido que hacer frente a la existencia de una división
estereotipada del trabajo, que le ha asignado roles específicos con profundas raíces tradicionales.
Para las mujeres no ha sido fácil deshacerse de estos patrones culturales, que no sólo implican
discriminación en el empleo por parte de los empleadores, sino que implican además, en general,
dudas y dilemas que las hacen menos competitivas en un mundo dominado por los hombres
durante siglos.
Existen varias investigaciones sobre la brecha salarial por género en Colombia. Sin embargo,
estas sólo consideran a las trabajadoras profesionales, es decir, mujeres de clases altas y medias.
Si ellas están en esa situación, ¿Qué pasa con las mujeres de las clases bajas? En este ensayo se
construye una discusión desde un punto de vista de economía política crítica, en torno a la difícil
situación de la discriminación laboral de género y las situaciones particulares de las trabajadoras
en todas las clases sociales, realizando una comparación entre las funciones y los dilemas de las
mujeres trabajadoras de distintas clases, bajo el reconocimiento de que las mujeres de clase baja
se enfrentan a una discriminación más profunda y dramática. En las clases bajas, la situación de
las mujeres está lejos de ser una „liberación‟, aunque en algunos círculos se tiene la idea
equivocada de que la discriminación laboral de género „ya no existe‟. En general, las mujeres de
las clases bajas tienen baja posibilidad de adquirir independencia, autonomía y conciencia de
género, debido a la dificultad de acceso a educación de calidad y puestos de trabajo formales. Por
otra parte, existe evidencia que demuestra que las mujeres ejecutivas y en cargos directivos han
sido decisivamente apoyadas por el trabajo doméstico para alcanzar el éxito en sus carreras, lo
que demuestra que en nuestra sociedad existe también una brecha de género por clase social: la
dinámica del capitalismo moderno ha permitido, en general, el mejoramiento del bienestar, la
independencia y la equidad para las mujeres de clase alta (aunque sigue existiendo una brecha
con respecto a sus pares masculinos), pero no ha traído los mismos beneficios para las mujeres de
clase baja.
Palabras Clave: brecha salarial de género, carrera profesional, identidad de género, clases
sociales, trabajo doméstico, trabajo informal, doble jornada laboral, patrones y dilemas de
género, capitalismo patriarcal.
Clasificación JEL: A14, J16 J24, J31, J71
FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS ECONÓMICAS
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES PARA EL DESARROLLO - CID
·1952 - 2012·
Escuela de Economía
RectorMoisés Wassermann Lerner
Vicerrector Sede BogotáJulio Esteban Colmenares
Facultad de Ciencias Económicas
DecanoJorge Iván Bula Escobar
Vicedecano AcadémicoJuan Abel Lara Dorado
Centro de Investigaciones paraEl Desarrollo CID
DirectorJorge Armando Rodríguez
SubdirectorGerman Nova
La Colección Econografos considera para publicación manuscritos originales
de estudiantes de pregrado de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, que hayan sido propuestos, programados,
producidos y evaluados en una asignatura, en un grupo de estudio o en otra
instancia académica.
Documentos FCE Escuela de EconomíaISSN 2011-6292
La serie Documentos FCE puede ser consultada en el portal virtual:
http://www.fce.unal.edu.co/publicaciones/
Diretor Centro Editorial-FCE
Álvaro Zerda Sarmiento
Profesor Asociado - FCE
Equipo Centro Editorial-FCE
Sergio Pérez
Juan Carlos García Sáenz
Diego Felipe Gutiérrez Bedoya
Maria del Pilar Ducuara López
Contacto: Centro Editorial –FCE
Correo electrónico: [email protected]
Este documento puede ser reproducido citando la fuente. El contenido y la forma del presente
material es responsabilidad exclusiva de sus autores y no compromete de ninguna manera a la
Escuela de Economía, ni a la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, ni a la
Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
FCE Econografos
Pág
ina5
“WOMEN’S LIBERATION SEEMS TO BE ONLY FOR THE RICH”, A
DISCUSSION FROM POLITICAL ECONOMY
Por: Karen Andrea García Rojas
Women earn less than men in every country in the world. The Global Gender Gap Report
2011 found that in Colombia the situation is very serious: the country ranks 94 in the
index of wage equality for similar work in a sample of 135 countries (Hausmann, Tyson
& Zahidi, 2011).
In Colombia, working women earn 7.1% less than men, according to the BID‟s study
“Gender and Ethnic Wage Gaps in Latin America” published in October 2009. The
average gap in Latin America is of 17.2%. The study found that in Latin America, men
earn more than women in all age groups, all levels of education, all types of employment
(independent, employer or employee) and all sizes of business.
This happens even though women have surpassed men in average years of education: the
education gap between women and men has almost disappeared, and according to the
conclusions of several researchers, such as the BID‟s economist Hugo Ñopo, Latin
American women have exceeded the average time of men‟s education.
The same result was found in a study by the economist Ximena Peña, a Colombian
expert on the labor market. This study revealed that in Colombia the gender gap in
education has not only closed, but on average women have exceeded men in the level of
studies conducted and completed.
Between 25 and 40 years old, there are more women than men with college degrees: for
every four men with higher education there are five women in the same condition.
Despite this, the researcher found that the wage gap between men and women with
university education in Colombia amounted to 19% in 2008.
But there is also the idea that those differences can be explained because of the greater
representation of men in higher paying careers, such as engineering. Baron and Cepeda
(2012) found interesting results by using information for recent college graduates in
Colombia in 2007 and 2008. They found that those differences by careers do exist, but
they only explain just a part of the gap:
First, from early on in their career, women earn lower wages compared to their male
counterparts; this gap is on average 10.7%. Second, gender differences in subject of degree
explain at least 34%, and up to 41% of the average wage gap. Finally, the gender gap for
Econografos Escuela de Economía N° 17
Enero 2012
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias Económicas
Pág
ina6
recent graduates exhibits glass ceiling effects, as women at the top of the distribution face
higher wage gaps (12% at the median and 15% at the top). A smaller proportion of the gap
can be attributed to field of study at the top, 31%, than at the middle of the distribution,
42%. On average, thus, field of study explains 3-4% higher wages for men relative to
women (p. 10).
It suggests that the subjective „gender factor‟ could explains more than the 50% of the
gap in recent professional graduates. In general, according to PNUD, no country in the
world has ensured that women earn the same as men for equal work and equal levels of
skills. There are several formal papers about wage gap and gender issues for
professionals and formal women workers, it means, women of high and middle classes.
Baron and Cepeda (2012) found that the gap is even deeper in high levels of income, and
less explained by the career election. But these „educated‟ women are the fortunate
portion. But women of lower classes suffer a special degree of inequity, not only because
of wage differences, which are difficult to measure in those classes, where the informal
employment is predominant, but for the fragility of their degree of access to education,
access to a formal job, autonomy and independence.
Why the gap?
Ximena Peña suggests that since the persistence of a clear pay gap is not due to
limitations in the training of women, it may respond to the traditional problem of
discrimination.
However, many sectors have the misperception that in Colombia, job discrimination
against women has almost ceased to exist. A survey of the company Yanbal, for example,
found that women between 18 and 25 years of age in general do not feel that there is
gender discrimination at work in Colombia.
The truth is that although the inclusion of women in the labor market has improved
markedly over recent decades, the differences in gender-based employment are still very
disturbing.
The existence of more jobs for women of course implies that there are fewer housewives
and more women in employment. For most middle-class women in general this is
something positive, because they are more likely to go to work and earn a proper wage.
Thus women reduce their economic dependence, which is positive for women in
Colombia, where domestic violence against them exhibits high rates.
Pág
ina7
While capitalism has resulted in the inclusion of women among income workers, the
situation for workers in general is not satisfactory: "As good economists, we can say that
the effect for women has been positive if we keep all else constant" (Stanley Malinowitz,
Phd., Interview)
Professor Malinowitz points out that the increased volume of female employment has
occurred because the rise of Neoliberalism causes a dynamic where men are paid less
than in the past. Consequently, a single wage is not enough to sustain the whole family,
so it may be noted that wage labor for some women is more a necessity than a right.
This is in agreement with research by Peña, who points out that a woman‟s salary is still
perceived in some circles as income 'complementary' to that of men, using this to justify
the lowest wages.
This is compounded by the fact that women exhibit lower bargaining power for their
wages, a fact which has been proven in publications like the book "Women Do not Ask"
by Linda Babcock, professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
Historically, the female has had to cope with the existence of a stereotyped division of
labor, which has assigned specific roles with deep traditional roots. For women it has not
been easy to get rid of these cultural patterns, which not only involve employment
discrimination by employers, but also involve special persistent doubts and dilemmas
that make them less competitive in a world dominated by men during centuries.
The expert in gender studies María Consuelo Cardenas has found in her research on the
characteristics of women in management positions that personal factors, such as lack of
confidence in her own capabilities in the context of education in terms of a role assigned
by society, constitute a consensual limitation for women in their jobs and to negotiate
fair wages.
An interesting finding from a study of the psychologist and professor at Los Andes, is
that most executives analyzed were female college graduates. "When you identify in the
literature the benefits of female education in schools versus co-education, it is mentioned
that women can better express their leadership qualities when they are against women
than when they have to compete with men, and that then facilitates performance."
Econografos Escuela de Economía N° 17
Enero 2012
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias Económicas
Pág
ina8
Additionally, as suggested by Professor Malinowitz "Women in general are still in charge
of childcare and domestic chores organization, so in most cases seek a more flexible job,
being at a competitive disadvantage in terms of job performance."
Because of this, companies choose not to hire women or to pay them less, providing a
way to limit the cost of absences of women due to addressing domestic and family
commitments, and for situations such as maternity leave. Malinowitz indicates that
unlike wage labor, in domestic work the distribution has changed very little: "In this
way, women must bear an additional burden of working hours at home in which the man
participates usually very little."
A gap within women
While for all social strata, the trend is that women remain the most responsible for
childcare and housework, for women workers of the high strata, especially those who
hold leadership positions, it seems more to be work that mainly deals with the logistics.
Cardenas and Durana (2009) developed a study on a sample of 94 Colombian executives,
whose careers were predominantly of Business Administration and Economics. They
found that the vast majority of women in leadership positions at the first, second and
third levels have managed to be promoted in their careers thanks to the significant help
of domestic service. "Most respondents (93.4%) have domestic workers: 96.3% in the
first, 91.7% in the second and 90% in the third level" (p. 37, translation by the author).
Cardenas and Durana concludes: "The participants who had exercised a position on the
first level are characterized by having left school or having studied primarily female
careers such as engineering, law and administration, having postgraduate master's
predominantly, being or having been married and having children, considering helpful
the cooperation of domestic service. Most have reached the highest positions in
organizations across the spectrum of financial or commercial areas and has achieved this
thanks to their outstanding performance and personality characteristics" (p. 38,
translation by the author)
This shows that the higher in the hierarchy is the position held, the greater is the use of
domestic service. It is thanks to this invaluable support, which is not so common in
developed countries, that the most successful executives have been able to devote full
time to the work activities required of them.
Pág
ina9
However, women of lower strata who are far from senior management, which provide
women as domestic servants, usually are subjected to a double workday: the work at
home and working for monetary income. In these sectors of the population, it is common
to assign the woman the housework and childcare, while pressing economic needs require
them to also enter the labor market.
To this extent, poor women who decide to enter the job market, whose bargaining power
is even lower, in general have not been able to access higher education and are forced to
seek informal or subcontracting work that carry very high levels of exploitation,
including sometimes excessively long days. This is the known case of women workers in
flower farms in the savannah of Bogota.
Other women, in search of flexibility that allows them to take care of their homes, decide
to work from home, even under extreme exploitation, as is the case of women workers in
the so-called satellite companies, especially in the textile sector.
The struggles in high classes are extremely different of the ones in low classes. As
Abbassi and Lutjens (2002) argue, in the last decades there has been a feminization of
some kinds of waged workforce; some examples are the „maquila‟ production, the
creation of Export Processing Zones (EPZs), and employment in the tertiary sector. These
dynamics have in common extremely bad remuneration. This tertiary sector includes
sometimes work related to the increasing informal sector. Franko (1999) identifies 3
categories in women‟s informal work: domestic labor, own-account employment and
micro-enterprises.
Benería and Roldán (1987) find evidence about women workers in maquilas in Mexico,
who are meaningfully lower paid and are subjugated to a continuous working day. The
articulation of necessity and cultural patterns, they say, seems to make women suitable
for that kind of work. This conclusion works Colombia. By doing a comparison with the
case of domestic maquilas in Colombia, we can ask the same questions: “What role do
women play in the articulation between the formal and the underground economy? Why
is it an overwhelming majority of homeworkers are married women with children?” (p.
14)
The answer is that for these women, who have to do all the domestic work, to care for
children and to earn money too, this work becomes the only choice. In Colombia,
maquilas exist for the following brands: Victoria's Secret, Levi Strauss & Co., Nautica,
Adidas, OshKosh, Eddie Bauer, Polo Ralph Lauren, Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger, Pierre
Econografos Escuela de Economía N° 17
Enero 2012
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias Económicas
Pág
ina1
0
Cardin, JC Penney, Limited Brands , Jockey, Vanity Fair, Sara Lee, Liz Claiborne, Mast
Industries Inc., Hanes, Leggs, Oxford Industries, among others (Proexport, 2007).
Companies like Didetexco (a subsidiary of Success) produce using 300 clothing
sweatshops and intermediate processes (printing and embroidery).
These women workers have to work without any contract, and that means without any
guaranty as to social security and the right to unionization. They work at home, making
clothes for those big brands, paying all their services, putting their own sewing machines,
and being terrible paid. They may work from seven in the morning of Friday to eleven
in the morning of Saturday to comply with the requests (interviews). This shows an
extremely deep form of precarization of work, and a very special type of working,
because there are not „bosses‟ and there are not workers in the common sense.
Domestic services can be compared in Colombia with the notions exposed by Grace
Esther Young (1987) in “The myth of being like a daughter”. This dynamic of rural young
women working in domestic services in the cities is really similar in Colombia. They have
great difficulties to study and are paid very badly. In general the psychological and
ethnic origins of that kind of workers are very similar in Peru and Colombia. This kind of
domestic work has certainly helped women of middle and high classes to perform with
more flexibility and tranquility, and to be „successful‟ in their professional roles, at the
expense of the exploitation of the domestic workers.
These small examples prove that in fact, poor women have a worse dynamic of inclusion
in the labor market. They don‟t have the consciousness of gender and they have fewer
tools to play the „new roles‟ that the modernity requires for them.
The difficulties of integration into working life, however, are a common denominator for
women of any kind. The study by Cardenas, whose information was obtained through
some executive workshops known as 'feminine consciousness forums', found that
participants have achieved success in the workforce, often to the detriment of the
aspirations of their personal and family life. Some have chosen to quit their jobs to
address this dilemma.
The obvious imbalance between the dimensions of these women respond to a traditional
division of labor that is becoming more dramatically transformed, but in which life's
conflicts have more impact on women than on men.
Not surprisingly, these dilemmas become more severe the lower the stratum. Poor
women, by necessity, cannot quit their jobs; most of the jobs require long hours and they
Pág
ina1
1
have no domestic service to look after their children and their homes. Nor do they have
in general access areas to help them acquire gender awareness and strengthen their
training and self-esteem.
While disparities exist for all women, they are worse in the case of poor women who are
the majority. According to researcher Ximena Peña, only 15% of Colombian women have
higher education. Additionally, those women with college degrees earned 2.37 times what
a woman at the high school level earns.
An investigation by this professor revealed that the gap to the lower strata is about 35%
"which means that in the poorer sectors if a man earns $ 425,000, a woman earns $
318,750 for the same hours worked." In the case of average wages, the gender gap
seemed to be reduced, but at the highest wage levels the difference becomes higher and
reaches up to 30%."
Although it is evident that the wage gap is very high at both ends, it appears that while
the quality of the inclusion of poor women in the labor market is quite poor, for women
with senior executive positions, this implies a greater inclusion and a certain level of
independence and increased equity of participation of women in the dynamics of society.
According to Isabel Londoño, PhD from Harvard and director of the NGO Women for
Colombia, "the greatest form of discrimination in the country is precisely that of class." If
one looks at the top executives in Colombia, are all strata 5 and 6 ... although all have
their own merits, the 'oil' of the upper class gave them access to the best positions.
Positions which still being men‟s fields”.
It becomes urgent, then, not only the adoption of practices such as quotas in hiring, but a
profound cultural change, which among other things implies a modernization of
organizations: "There should be an alternative that allows women to continue working in
the company and keep their children, as they would have to choose between two options
giving up one of them ... the two roles can enrich each other and become allies instead of
being polarized," suggests Cardenas (2007).
She makes a suggestive invitation: "Let's change with our practices, the design of full-
time work as an expression of loyalty and dedication to the organization and develop
flexible working arrangements that respect diversity and individual interests." At the
level of women, the introduction of a female consciousness which recognizes the
difficulties involved in implementing solutions is a priority in moving towards equity,
without the cancellation of identity and the denial of difference.
Econografos Escuela de Economía N° 17
Enero 2012
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias Económicas
Pág
ina1
2
References
[1] ABBASSI, J. and LUTJENS, S. (2002), “Rereading Women in Latin America and the
Caribbean, the Political Economy of Gender”. University of Chicago)
[2] ARROCHA, J. (1998) “Inclusion of Afro-Colombians: Un-reachable National
Goal?” Latin American Perspectives
[3] BARON, J. and CEPEDA, L. (2012). “Educational Segregation and the Gender
Wage Gap for Recent College Graduates in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía,
Number 625. Banco de la República.
[4] CARDENAS, María Consuelo (2007). “Mal de muchas, ¡consuelo de ninguna! Hay
que cambiar las organizaciones”. Universidad de Los Andes.
[5] CARDENAS, M. and DUARANA, V. (2009). “La particularidad de la ejecutiva
colombiana”. Revista Soluciones de Posgrado EIA, número 4, Medellin
[6] FRANKO, P. (1999). The puzzle of Latin America Economic Development. Lanham,
MD: Rowman &Littlefield.
[7] HARTMAN Heidi (1981), “The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism:
Towards a more Progressive Union”, in Lydia Sargent Women and Revolution.
[8] HAUSMANN, R., TYSON, L. y ZAHIDI, S. (2011), The Global Gender Gap Report
2011,World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland.
[9] HERRERA, Jesus Maria (2007) “Ethnicity and Race: The Political Economy of
Racism in Venezuela: Hugo Chavez and the Decline of an „Exceptional
Democracy‟“ (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers)
[10] KABEER, Naila (1994), “Reversed realities: Gender hierarchies in Development
Thought (Verso)
[11] LOURDES, Beneria and ROLDÁN, Martha (1987), The Crossroads of Class and
Gender, Industrial Homework, Subcontracting, and Household Dynamics in
Mexico City. (University of Chicago)
[12] ÑOPO, Hugo; HOYOS, Alejandro and PEÑA, Ximena. “The Persistent Gender
Earnings Gap in Colombia, 1994-2006”
Pág
ina1
3
[13] QUIJANO, Aníbal (2000). “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America”.
International Sociology.
[14] YOUNG, g. (1987). “The myth of being like a daughter”. Latin American
Perspectives. pages 365-380.