Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15 March 2018 – A fourth Gender Parity Task Force has been launched in Latin America to increase the number of women entering and progressing through the labour market. Following earlier announcements by Argentina, Chile and Panama, Peru is the latest country in the region to adopt the public-private collaboration model on economic gender parity developed by the World Economic Forum and applied in Latin America in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
With an average remaining gender gap of 29.8%, Latin America scores in the middle of the range of the Global Gap Index, behind Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Women throughout Latin America are less likely to enter the workforce and much less likely to be paid commensurately or to reach senior management roles.
Peru currently ranks 98 out of 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report on economic participation and opportunity. Recent advances in female education make the country ideally placed to maximize women’s economic potential. It is this potential that Peru is committed to help maximize through country-level collaboration.
The model for public-private cooperation was developed over three years by Forum-led gender parity task forces in Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea and Turkey. In each of the four pilots, partnerships were established with the aim of reducing the gender gap in each country by 10% in three years, relative to its starting point. This was achieved by encouraging business and policy-makers to take action, as well as fostering public-private dialogue and collaboration. The model aims to address gender gaps and reshape gender parity for the future, with a focus on closing gaps in participation, remuneration and leadership.