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Before and after reform: The effects of structural adjustment on women's employment in Latin America

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Before and after reform: The effects of structural adjustment on women's employment in Latin America

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BEFORE AND AFTER REFORM:
THE EFFECTS OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT ON WOMEN’S
EMPLOYMENT IN LATIN AMERICA
b y
Jennifer Ann Ball
A D issertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLITICAL ECONOMY AND PUBLIC POLICY)
A ugust 2000
C opyright 2000 Jennifer Ann Ball
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UMI Number: 3018054
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE S C H O O L
UNIVERSITY PARC
LOS ANGELES. CALI FORNI A 90007
This dissertation, written by
_
under the direction of h.&c Dissertation
Committee, and approved by eU its members*
has been presented to and accepted by The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Date . . . 2 2 2 9
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
•7 / y , Chairperson
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Jennifer Ann Ball Dr. Richard Easterlin
Before and After Reform: The Effects of Structural Adjustm ent on
W om en's Employment in Latin America
This study investigates the effects of structural adjustm ent on
wom en's em ploym ent in Latin A m erica. Specifically, the changes
that occurred in the structure o f demand for fem ale labor in the
decade of econom ic crises and adjustm ent (approxim ately 1980 to
1990) in Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and V enezuela are
analyzed. For each country, the changes that occurred in w om en's
em ploym ent are explored by projecting the patterns of industrial
and occupational distributions by sex from the period before
adjustm ent into the 1990s and com paring these co u n terfactu al
against actual data. The links of these changes to structural
adjustm ent policies in the extrem e cases of Costa Rica, where the
larg est increase in the fem ale percentage of total em ploym ent
occurred, and M exico, where the fem ale percentage of to tal
employment decreased, are also explored. Possible extensions from
these findings are then made to Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela, and
the sim ilarities and differences in the countries' policies and their
connections to changes in w om en's em ploym ent are d iscu ssed .
Finally, it is concluded that among these five countries, those in
w hich stru ctu ral adjustm ent p o lic ie s were less tra d itio n a lly
neoliberal experienced the greatest increases in w om en's relativ e
em ploym ent over the decade. This study adds to the cum ulative
knowledge on the subject of structural adjustment and its effects on
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women's em ploym ent in Latin America by offering a broad analysis
of five economies at two points in time. In this way it provides an
extensive view o f the changes in the structure of em ploym ent in
these countries, and how women's em ploym ent w as affected by
them. Also, by concentrating on women’s share of total em ployment
rather than their participation rates, changes in women's position in
the workforce relative to men's are em phasized. Finally, although all
of the countries in this sample engaged in some type of reform in the
1980s, the degree to which their policies were neoliberal vary, and
this allows the relationship of reform orthodoxy to changes in
women's relative em ploym ent to be explored.
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CONTENTS
LIST OF TEXT TABLES...............................................................................i v
LIST OF APPENDIX TABLES.....................................................................viii
ABBREVIATIONS.........................................................................................x
CHAPTER
1. PURPOSE OF STUDY AND BACKGROUND RESEARCH...................I
P u rp o se ............................................................................................... 1
Background Studies....................................................................... 2
2. METHODS AND DATA 1 3
M e th o d s 1 3
Data 1 8
3. COSTA RICA...............................................................................................2 5
Statistical Analysis of Women's Relative Employment....2 5
Structural Adjustm ent and W omen's Relative
Employment 3 2
C onclusions 5 9
4. MEXICO....................................................................................................... 6 2
Statistical Analysis of Women’s Relative Employment....6 2
Structural Adjustm ent and W omen's Relative
Employment.........................................................................................6 9
C onclusions 9 6
Comparisons to Costa Rica 9 8
5. EXTENSIONS AND COMPARISONS.................................................... 104
Chile......................................................................................................105
E cu ad o r.............................................................................................. 11 3
V e n e z u e la .........................................................................................121
Summary of Changes................................................................... 12 9
6. CONCLUSIONS.........................................................................................1 3 2
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REFERENCES 137
APPENDIX
A. COSTA RICA: COMPARISON OF HOUSEHOLD SURVEY AND
CENSUS.................................................................................................... 145
B. DATA ADJUSTMENT............................................................................. 14 7
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LIST OF TEXT TABLES
2.1 EMPLOYMENT DATA: YEARS, SOURCES, AND AGES
INCLUDED 1 9
3.1 SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE: COSTA RICA 1984 TO
1 9 9 2 ......................................................................................................... 25
3.2 FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS AND
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS: COSTA RICA 1984 TO
1 9 9 2 ......................................................................................................... 27
3.3 PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
COSTA RICA 1984 TO 1992............................................................ 2 8
3.4 OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
IN INDUSTRY: COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992..........................3 0
3.5 TRADITIONAL AND NONTRADITIONAL EXPORTS: COSTA
RICA 1984 AND 1992....................................................................... 3 7
3.6 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
EXPORT RELATED OCCUPATIONS: COSTA RICA 1987 AND
1 9 9 1 ......................................................................................................... 4 0
3.7 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
TOURISM RELATED OCCUPATIONS: COSTA RICA 1987
AND 1991 4 7
3.8 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TOTAL EXPENDITURES AND
EXPENDITURES ON WAGES AND SALARIES: COSTA RICA
1980 TO 1992 5 1
i v
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3.9 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
PUBLIC SECTOR RELATED OCCUPATIONS: COSTA RICA
1984 TO 1992 5 3
4.1 SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE: MEXICO 1980 TO 1990..........6 3
4.2 PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
MEXICO 1980 TO 1990....................................................................6 4
4.3 FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS AND
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS: MEXICO 1980 AND
1 9 9 0 ........................................................................................................6 6
4.4 OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
IN INDUSTRY: MEXICO 1980 AND 1990................................ 6 8
4.5 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE EMPLOYMENT AND
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN
SELECTED AGRICULTURAL OCCUPATIONS: MEXICO 1980
AND 1990................................................................................................ 8 0
4.6 VALUE OF GOODS EXPORTS BY SECTOR AS A PERCENTAGE
OF TOTAL VALUE OF GOODS EXPORTS: MEXICO 1980
AND 1990................................................................................................ 8 3
4.7 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
PRODUCTION OCCUPATIONS: MEXICO 1980 AND 1990 8 7
4.8 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES INCLUDING AND
LESS INTEREST PAYMENTS: MEXICO 1980 TO 1990...........8 9
4.9 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES ON SOCIAL
PROGRAMS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS: MEXICO 1980 TO
1 9 9 0 ......................................................................................................... 9 0
v
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4.10 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
PUBLIC SECTOR RELATED OCCUPATIONS: MEXICO 1980
AND 1990.............................................................................................. 9 2
4.11 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
CLERICAL OCCUPATIONS: MEXICO 1980 AND 1990...........9 5
5.1 SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE: CHILE 1982 TO 1992............10 5
5.2 FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS AND
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION: CHILE 1982 AND
1 9 9 2 ...................................................................................................... 106
5.3. OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL
EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY: CHILE 1982 AND 1992.........10 8
5.4 INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYMENT: CHILE
1982 TO 1992....................................................................................11 0
5.5 SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE: ECUADOR 1982 TO 1990....11 3
5.6 FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATION AND
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS: ECUADOR 1982 AND
1 9 9 0 ...................................................................................................... 115
5.7 INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYMENT:
ECUADOR 1982 TO 1990................................................................ 11 6
5.8 OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
IN INDUSTRY: ECUADOR 1982 AND 1990.............................. 11 8
5.9 SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE: VENEZUELA 1981 TO
1 9 9 3 .......................................................................................................1 2 2
v i
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5.10 PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
VENEZUELA 1981 TO 1993................................................................123
5.11 FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS AND
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS: VENEZUELA 1981 TO
1 9 9 3 ........................................................................................................ 124
5.12 OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL
EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY: VENEZUELA 1981 TO
1 9 9 3 ........................................................................................................ 126
5.13 SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTIONAL CHANGES.............................1 3 0
6.1 PRIVATIZATION, CUTS IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURES, AND
CHANGE IN WOMEN S RELATIVE EMPLOYMENT IN FIVE
LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES..................................................... 1 3 3
v ii
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LIST OF APPENDIX TABLES
A .I. COMPARISON OF 1983 HOUSEHOLD SAMPLE SURVEY
AND 1984 CENSUS BY INDUSTRY: COSTA RICA.....................14 5
A.2. COMPARISON OF 1983 HOUSEHOLD SAMPLE SURVEY
AND 1984 CENSUS BY OCCUPATION: COSTA RICA.................14 7
DATA ADJUSTMENT
B .l CHILE 1982...................................................................................14 8
B.2 CHILE 1992...................................................................................14 9
B.3 COSTA RICA 1984..........................................................................150
B.4 COSTA RICA 1992..........................................................................15 1
B.5 ECUADOR 1982...............................................................................15 2
B.6 ECUADOR 1990...............................................................................15 3
B.7 MEXICO 1980.................................................................................. 154
B.8 MEXICO 1990...................................................................................155
B.9 VENEZUELA 1981.......................................................................15 6
B.10 VENEZUELA 1993........................................................................15 7
PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED
B .ll CHILE 1982.....................................................................................15 8
B.12 CHILE 1992.....................................................................................159
B.13 COSTA RICA 1984....................................................................160
v iii
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B.14 COSTA RICA 1992...................................................................1 6 1
B.15 ECUADOR 1982........................................................................ 1 6 2
B.16 ECUADOR 1990........................................................................ 1 6 3
B.17 MEXICO 1980......................................................................... 1 6 4
B.18 MEXICO 1990......................................................................... 1 6 5
B.19 VENEZUELA 1981.................................................................... 1 6 6
B.20 VENEZUELA 1993.................................................................... 1 6 7
B.21 PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT ELIMINATED 1 6 8
ix
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A b b rev iatio n
AGRCLTR
MINING
MFRING
UTILITIES
CONST
COMMERCE
TRANS
BUS SERV
CSP SERV
SERV
A b b rev iatio n
PROF/TECH
ADM/MGR
CLERICAL
SALES
SERVICE
AGRCLTRL
PROD/TRANS
ABBREVIATIONS
In d u s try
Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry, and Fishing
Mining and Quarrying
M an u factu rin g
Electricity, Water, and Gas
C onstruction
Wholesale, Retail, Restaurant and Hotel
Transportation, Storage, and Communication
Business Services
Community, Social, Personal Services
All Services (in Mexico)
O ccupation
Professional, Technical, and Related Workers
A dm inistrative and Managerial W orkers
Clerical and Related Workers
Sales W orkers
Service W orkers
Agricultural, Animal Husbandry, Forestry
W orkers, Hunters, Fishers
Production and Related Workers, Transportation
Operators and Laborers
x
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CHAPTER 1
PURPOSE OF STUDY AND BACKGROUND RESEARCH
P urpose
The purpose o f this study is to investigate the effects of
structural adjustm ent on women’s em ploym ent in Latin A m erica.1
Specifically, I analyze the changes that occurred in the structure
of demand for female labor in the decade of econom ic crises and
adjustm ent (approxim ately 1980 to 1990) in C hile, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela. For each country, I first describe
the changes that occurred in women's em ploym ent by projecting
the patterns of industrial and occupational distributions by sex
from the period before adjustment into the 1990s and comparing
these counterfactual against actual data. I then explore the links
of these changes to structural adjustm ent policies in the extreme
cases of Costa Rica, where the largest increase in the female
percentage of total em ploym ent occurred, and M exico, where the
fem ale percentage o f total em ploym ent decreased. Possible
extensions from these findings are then made to Chile, Ecuador,
1 I chose Latin America because one of the main determinants of women's
status is region (Marshall 1985) and I hoped to avoid the necessity of
accounting for severe cultural variation. Of course, there is cultural
variation between Latin American countries, and even between regions
within countries, but I assume it is less than it would be between a Latin
and an Asian country, for example.
1
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and V enezuela, and the sim ilarities and d ifferen ces in the
countries' policies and their connections to changes in wom en's
em ploym ent are discussed. Finally, I conclude that am ong these
five countries, those in which structural adjustm ent policies were
less traditionally neoliberal experienced the greatest increases in
w om en's relative em ploym ent over the decade.
Background Studies
S ince the 1970s, the issu e o f wom en and econom ic
d ev elo p m en t has becom e a subject of scholarship in m any
acad em ic d iscip lin es, such as econom ics, p o litic a l scien ce,
international relations, and gender studies. As w ell as appealing
to scholars in many areas, the subject has attracted the notice of
theorists w ith diverse political view s. Park (1993) categorizes
lite ra tu re on the to p ic in to fo u r broad p e rs p e c tiv e s —
m o d e rn iz a tio n , lib eral fe m in ist, dependency, an d so c ia list
fem in ist—and sum m arizes that the theorists holding com peting
view points blame the follow ing for women's in ferio r status in
d ev elo p in g nations (respectively): pre-m odern attitu d es and
opportunities; the lack of policies aimed at incorporating wom en
into the developm ent process; w om en's in v o lv em en t in the
exploitative world capitalist economy; and the com bined effects of
capitalism , im perialism , and patriarchy.
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Studies such as Park's (1993) on the effects of rapid
econom ic developm ent on women and Lim's (1983) on w om en’s
em ploym ent by m ultinationals have illustrated how such issues
can be viewed from more than one perspective, and also how
more than one view point can be supported by the evidence. It
has become increasingly apparent that one can no longer sim ply
argue that women are helped or hurt by capitalist econom ic
developm ent in general, or by any aspect of it. Instead, any
m aterial change in an economy m ust be analyzed from m any
different positions to try and determine its net benefit or cost to
women as a group. Of course, "women as a group" is a problematic
term in itself, so it should be noted that in scholarship pertaining
to women and developm ent, m ost of the attention is paid to
women in the poorer classes or socio-econom ic groups, such as
rural, factory, and service workers or the wives and daughters of
such workers. This is because, as Feldman (1992) points out, m ost
w om en in developing nations are m em bers of these poorer
classes, and also because poor women are the m ost vulnerable to
negative economic changes.
In addition to the problem s that surround generalizing
about a category called "women,"2 there are also difficulties in
measuring the effects of economic, political, or societal changes on
women's status. This is because sex-specific data from developing
2 Or "Third-World women," or "poor Third-World women," etc.
3
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countries are very difficult to com e by— even the general
economic data that are available have been gathered for, at best,
the last couple o f decades. Also, there is no agreed-upon measure
of "women's status." For example, growth o f the female labor
force participation rate can be the resu lt of the decreasing
discrim ination against women, or increased desperation am ong
them (more on this below). And while more years of schooling for
women is certainly a positive in and of itself, if men's schooling is
increasing at an even faster rate, then is wom en's status
improving or declining? Despite the problems of data availability
and measurement, however, feminists continue to address current
topics in developm ent from their perspectives, illustrating that
these issues are not gender neutral.
In the last decade or so, in response to the debt crisis and
worldwide recession of the 1980s, the topic of adjustm ent has
been at the fo refro n t of developm ent literature. B roadly,
structural adjustment could mean any economic policy or group of
policies aimed at changing the structure of the economy, such as
shifting resources from one sector to another. However, when
econom ists discuss adjustment, they are referring most often to
neoliberal adjustment. These policies ordinarily include fiscal and
m onetary restraint, an emphasis on m arket mechanisms in the
allocation of resources, and a general opening of the economy to
in tern atio n al trad e and investm ent. N eoliberal ad ju stm en t
4
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generally refers to two types o f policies: stabilization and
structural. The former stress balance of paym ents equilibrium at
the expense of growth, while the latter em phasize growth as well
as balance o f payments goals. These policies can be implemented
by a governm ent on its own initiative, but they are very often
executed in developing countries due to conditions set by the
In te rn a tio n a l M onetary Fund, the W orld B ank, and other
international lending and aid agencies (Elson 1995).
Criticism s of stabilization and structural adjustm ent policies
and co n d itio n ality 3 are not lim ited to those o f feminists, but they
are often based on similar issues. Figueroa (1987), for example,
finds that Peru's contractionary policies of the early 1980s had
p a rtic u la rly n eg ativ e effects on the h e a lth , ed u c atio n ,
em ploym ent, and income levels of "vulnerable groups," including
women and children. Stabilization policies that low er real incomes
w ill obviously hurt those in the lower classes m ost,4 and because
women are disproportionately poor, it is clear that such policies
w ill affect m ore women than men. In addition, as it has been
argued by Elson (1989), Tanski (1994), and others, changes in
incom es, prices, working conditions, and governm ent spending
that arise from such policies are likely to negatively affect women
3 "Conditionality" refers to the practice of international lending and aid
agencies of offering aid or loans to developing nations only after certain
conditions are met, such as their adoption of neoliberal economic reforms.
4Assuming a fall in incomes that is proportionate or regressive.
5
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to a greater extent than they will affect men in the sam e class.
This is because wom en are generally the household budgeters,
they work more hours than do men on average (when both paid
and unpaid work is considered), they depend on social services to
a greater degree than do men, and they are often overrepresented
in public employment.
While there is m uch disagreement between m ainstream and
fem inist econom ists over the necessity of austere stabilization
policies, there is not m uch disagreem ent as to these policies’
effects on women in the labor market. Several studies of
stabilizing countries provide evidence that such policies and their
resu ltan t hard econom ic tim es are indeed particularly harsh on
fem ale workers. For exam ple, in Holt's (1994) work on M exico
and M ontecinos' (1994) study of Chile, the authors find that in
both cases the increased fem ale labor force participation rates
follow ing reforms in these countries were due to the "added-
w orker effect" (where secondary earners increase their tim e in or
enter the workforce due to lower household incomes). They also
find that the jobs women were forced to take were generally
undesirable, such as dom estic service jobs or positions requiring
urban migration. In an examination of Lima, Peru, Tanski (1994)
finds that women there suffer from higher unem ploym ent during
tim es of economic dow nturns, and that they also tend to have
low-wage occupations if they are fortunate enough to find work.
6
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Both m ainstream and fem inist econom ists recognize that
during economic downturns, a rising rate of increase in fem ale
labor force participation is m ost likely due to the "added-worker
effect" mentioned above; therefore, neither group of economists is
likely to see this increase in female participation as a positive sign
for women's status. However, mainstream economists tend to at
least imply that reforms that increase com petition in the labor
m arket during these times are good for wom en, in that they
increase the jobs available to them. Edwards and Roberts (1984,
310), for exam ple, state that "a reduction in the protection of
workers, i.e., a reduction in employee benefits such as job security
and an increasing reliance on part-time, tem porary, or 'flexible'
labor . . . may tend to benefit women." Fem inist economists, on
the other hand, tend to suggest that governm ent involvem ent is
needed in the labor m arket to protect (especially fem ale)
employment and incomes. One such scholar is Hatem (1994), who
explains how the shrinking public sector and the deregulation of
Egypt's labor m arket in the 1980s hurt women disproportionately
in a time of economic hardship.
But beyond stabilization, many fem inist scholars argue that
even structural adjustment policies that promote economic growth
and eventually increase incom es can and often do negatively
affect women, while m ainstream economists assert what is good
for the adjusting economy is good for women. The latter argue
7
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that jobs women lose in the public and/or protected sectors
through neoliberal reform w ill be replaced by jobs in the
unprotected private sector, and there will be more and/or better
quality jobs for women (as well as men) since the economy will
grow faster as it becom es more efficient through adjustm ent.
Fem inist economists point out, however, that because women are
often segregated in the workforce, policies that promote resource
shifts between sectors hurt women when these resources flow out
of sectors in which women are employed and into sectors in which
women are either not em ployed or are em ployed in less attractive
jobs.
In the Philippines, as Floro (1994) illustrates, the shift from
agricultural production for domestic m arkets to production for
export m arkets resu lted in a reduction in w om en's relativ e
em ployment in agriculture, but did not result in their increased
em ploym ent in other sectors. Manuh's (1994) work on fem ale
employment in the public and informal sectors of Ghana provides
evidence that public sector cutbacks affected fem ale public sector
em ployees disproportionately. Although surveys indicated that
few form er governm ent em ployees rem ained unem ployed for
long, they also show ed that many had gone to work in the
inform al sector at low er wages. In both of these countries, the
structural adjustm ent program s were considered successful in
terms of growth in per capita gross domestic product. Therefore,
8
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fem inist literature on structural adjustm ent suggests a possible
"lose-lose" situation fo r wom en in ad ju stin g countries
contractionary policies th at lower real incom es hurt wom en
relatively m ore than m en, and policies th at actually prom ote
economic growth can widen the gap between m en's and women's
positions in the economy.
M ost o f the w ork on structural adjustm ent and women's
em ployment in Latin A m erica has focused on the crisis years,
since data for those years (roughly 1982 to 1985) have been
available for some tim e. However, structural adjustm ent (as
opposed to stabilization) program s for m ost L atin A m erican
countries were not instituted until the m id 1980s (S. Edwards
1995). Since these program s involve some lag time, only recently
have data become available for use in analyzing how women's
employment is being affected by these policies. As censuses are
generally only conducted every ten years and take some years to
be published, this recent availability of data is especially true for
this study since I rely on census data w henever available in order
to offer the m ost com prehensive view possible.
Studies that have been done on w om en and structural
adjustm ent in Latin A jnerica have generally concentrated on
particular sectors o f econom ies, or on fem ale labor force
participation rates and fem ale-m ale w age d ifferen tials. For
exam ple, S klair's (1988) bibliography and (1993) w ork on
9
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maquiladoras, or export-oriented assembly plants, illustrate the
substantial amount of research being done on that sector. Other
sectors that have gained attention due to the importance of female
labor in them include the Chilean fruit export sector (Barrientos
1997) and the fresh flower industry in Peru (Barrig 1994). While
female em ploym ent in each o f these sectors is im portant, it
accounts for a small (albeit growing) percentage of all female
employment in these countries.
Studies that focus on fem ale labor force participation rates
include Gindling and Berry’s (1992) work on Costa Rica, which
illustrates that the fem ale participation rate increased quickly
during the years of crisis, declined slightly with recovery, but
then continued its secular upw ard trend during adjustm ent.
Gindling (1992) also finds that m ale-fem ale wage differentials
increased during crisis but then decreased w ith recovery.
Tardanico (1993) also discusses the rising participation of women
in his work on structural adjustm ent and the labor m arket in
Costa Rica, and in his (1996) work on the capital city San Jose, he
provides a gender analysis of broad sectoral and occupational
status changes as well as of wage differentials.
Labor force participation rates and wage differentials are
certainly indicators of how adjustm ent is affecting wom en's
employment. R elatively rapid rates of increase in participation
com bined with higher wage differentials suggest th at low er-
10
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skilled secondary earners are entering the w orkforce to add to
household incom es. Slower rates of increase in participation
combined with constant or lower wage differentials indicate a
more secular trend of increasing female participation. In either
case, however, participation rates and wages differentials do not
tell what is happening in the overall structure of employment that
is driving the relative increase in jo b s available to women;
therefore, participation rates and wage differentials are only (at
most) half of the story.
This study adds to the cumulative knowledge on the subject
of structural adjustm ent and its effects on women's em ploym ent
in Latin America by offering an analysis o f five economies at two
points in time. In this way I provide a broad view of the changes
in the structure of em ploym ent in these countries, and how
w om en's em ploym ent was affected by them . A lso, by
concentrating on women's share of total em ploym ent rather than
their participation rates, I am able to em phasize changes in
women's position in the workforce relative to m en's. Finally,
including five countries and their structural adjustm ent programs
permits me to explore the mainstream and fem inist econom ists'
debate regarding the neoliberal nature of reform s and their
effects on women in the workforce. Although all of the countries
in my sample engaged in some type of reform in the 1980s, the
degree to which their policies were neoliberal vary, and this
1 1
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allow s me to exam ine the possible rela tio n sh ip of reform
orthodoxy to changes in w om en's relative em ploym ent. But
before reporting my findings, I turn in the next chapter to a
discussion of the methods and data used in this analysis.
1 2
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CHAPTER 2
METHODS AND DATA
M ethods
To explore how structural adjustm ent policies of the 1980s
affected w om en's em ploym ent in Chile, C osta Rica, Ecuador,
M exico, and Venezuela, I m ust first describe the relative changes
that occurred in women's em ployment; I begin my analysis of
each country w ith such a description.5 For a given wage structure
and level o f total labor dem and, an increase in the relative
dem and for fem ale labor can occur for three reasons: first, a
change in the industrial distribution that favors a sector or sectors
that em ploy(s) m any women; second, a shift in the occupational
distribution w ithin industries that favors "w om en's jobs;" and
finally, an integration or feminization of "men's jobs." Of course,
one distribution m ay change in such a way to increase women's
relative em ploym ent while another changes to decrease it, the net
effect being dependent on how large each change is. Therefore,
when analyzing changes in the female proportion of employment,
5 I refer to women's relative employment throughout this study as I am
interested not in the absolute changes in women's employment, but only in
the changes in women's employment relative to men's. For example, while
women's absolute employment grew in every country in this study, men's
employment grew faster than women's in Mexico, so women's
relative employment fell (as shall be seen).
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there are three distributions to be examined — the industrial
distribution, the occupational distribution w ithin industries, and
the sex distribution within occupations. In this study I explore
changes in these distributions for Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
M exico, and V enezuela, from approxim ately 1980 to 1990,
depending on data availability.
To clarify , a change in the industrial d istrib u tio n of
em ploym ent will affect the overall occupational distribution and
the sex d istrib u tio n of the w orkforce, even h o ld in g the
o cc u p atio n al d istrib u tio n w ith in in d u stries and th e sex
distribution w ithin occupations constant. This is because if
industries th at em ploy relatively many w om en (perhaps in
"women's jobs") grow at the expense of industries that employ
relatively few , then the proportion of women in the w orkforce
will increase even without either an increase in the proportion of
"women's jobs" within industries or relatively more women taking
"men's jobs." Similarly, changes in the occupational distribution
within industries will affect the overall occupational distribution
and the overall sex distribution, even holding the sex distribution
w ithin occupations constant. If the occupational distribution
within an industry changes to favor more "women's jobs," then the
proportion of these jobs and o f women in the w orkforce will
increase, holding everything else constant.
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It is inform ative then to consider the relative contributions
o f changes in the industrial distribution, in the occupational
distribution within industries, and in the sex distribution w ithin
occupations to changes in the overall sex d istrib u tio n o f
employment. To estim ate these relative contributions, I calculate
the overall sex distribution had only the industrial distribution
been allowed to vary, and attribute this to the in d u strial
distribution change. I then subtract this change from the change
in overall sex distribution had both the industrial distribution and
occupational distribution w ithin industries varied (but the sex
distribution w ithin occupations rem ained constant) and ascribe
this to the change in occupational distribution w ithin industries.
Finally, I subtract the change had only the industrial distribution
and occupational distribution within industries varied from the
total change, and attribute this to the change in the sex
d istrib u tio n w ithin o ccu p atio n s.6 In this way, I attribute total
changes in the fem ale proportion of em ploym ent in these
co untries to changes in th eir industrial d istrib u tio n s, the
o ccu p atio n al d istrib u tio n s w ith in in d u stries, and the sex
distributions within occupations.
6 I use this method because the three changes calculated by allowing only
one distribution (industrial, occupation within industry, and sex within
occupation) to vary at a time while holding the other two constant would
not sum to the actual total change in women's relative employment due to
the interactive nature o f the distributional changes.
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As I alluded to briefly in the last chapter, this method offers
a better explanation as to how structural adjustm ent affects
women's relative em ploym ent than does an analysis o f fem ale
labor force participation. This is because, as Durand (1975, 33)
illustrates in his com parison o f census data from o v er 100
countries, w om en's em ployment is m ore sensitive than m en's to
"the kinds of em ploym ent opportunities available to them .'' For
example, w ithin an economy, the probability that a w om an w ill
participate in the labor force is related to factors such years of
schooling, the existence or number of young children at home, and
household incom e. However, the average o f all of these factors
may be sim ilar in two countries yet they can have very different
female labor force participation rates. W hat accounts fo r the
difference are the types of jobs considered appropriate for women
to hold and the size of these occupations relative to total
em p lo y m en t.
There can be little doubt that structural adjustment policies
will affect w om en's labor force participation to the ex ten t that
they change household incom es, but the relationships betw een
women's em ploym ent and other factors such as education and
fertility are less clear. It could be argued, for example, that in a
given econom y w om en are lik ely to pursue m ore years of
education and have fewer children in re s p o n s e to their having
increased em ploym ent opportunities. On the other hand, it is easy
1 6
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to see that if a sector that employs many women grows quickly
relative to other industries, or an occupation that is considered a
"women's job" becom es more im portant in one or more sectors,
women's relative employment overall is likely to increase. Even
the sex mix of occupations is affected by shifts in the structure of
em ployment, through changes in the types of goods or services
being produced, the size and nature of firm s em ploying the
w orkers, and the speed at which the occupation is grow ing
relative to o th er jobs. T herefore, my analysis avoids the
com plications of analyzing factors related to women's labor force
participation by observing a more direct and less questionable
relationship— one between relative shifts in the structure of total
employment and changes in women's relative employment.
Structural adjustm ent has undoubtedly contributed to the
sectoral, occupational, and sex mix shifts through, for exam ple,
changes in public sector expenditures and in the volume and
com position of international trade; therefore, I explore these
re la tio n sh ip s (b etw een in d u stria l, o ccu p atio n al, and sex
distributions and economic policies) in Costa Rica and M exico
closely, and then briefly in Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela. I chose
the two countries to study in more depth because Costa Rica was
the country in which women's relative em ploym ent increased the
most, and M exico was the only country in which women's relative
em ploym ent decreased during the decade. To investigate the
17
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links betw een p o licies and em ploym ent, I use d etailed
occupational distributions along with other inform ation such as
trade data, governm ent financial statistics, and scholarly work on
adjustm ent policies to illu strate how stru ctu ral adjustm ent
policies affected women's relative employment in these countries.
Unfortunately, there are many variables not included in this study
due to space and time lim itations that would undoubtedly help
explain the differences between countries in the level of and
changes in wom en's relative em ploym ent. Among the most
im portant of these are the level of national incom e, income
distribution, and the level of and changes in w ages and
unem ploym ent (overall and also women's relative to m en's).
Therefore, I should clarify that I do not attem pt to identify every
factor that affected women's relative employment, I only seek to
explain how structural adjustm ent policies m ay have contributed
to changes. I conclude my study by roughly ranking the
countries' structural adjustm ent policies as to the degree of their
neoliberalism, and considering how this m ight be associated with
changes in women's relative employment.
D ata
It is often difficult to obtain data from different countries
that are appropriate for comparison and this is especially true for
data from developing countries. One of the contributions of my
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study, then, is the mobilization of reasonably comparable data by
industry, occupation, and sex for two dates in five countries. The
raw data used for the analyses o f the d istributional shifts
described above are employment by industry, occupation, and sex,
as reported by the International L abor Office (various years), for
years as close to 1980 and 1990 as possible. These data are
collected by the ELO from either com plete censuses or sam ple
(household or labor force) surveys; w henever possible, I use
census data. The source and years o f the employment data and
the ages included are summarized below for each country (Table
2 . 1).
Some problem s with data availability are apparent, the first
being the different time periods of analysis. Fortunately, as shall
be seen, the changes th at o ccu rred in w om en's rela tiv e
employment in Costa Rica and Ecuador were larger than those in
Mexico, Chile, and Venezuela. Because the changes occurred over
a shorter tim e period in Costa Rica and Ecuador, it is likely that
my analysis only underestim ates the differences betw een these
two countries and the other three. The difference betw een the
changes in V enezuela and Chile also appear to be large enough not
to be only the effect of there being two more years in Venezuela's
tim e period.
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TABLE 2.1. EMPLOYMENT DATA:
YEARS, SOURCES, AND AGES INCLUDED
SOURCE OF AGES INCLUDED IN
EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT
COUNTRY YEARS DATA DATA
CHILE 1982 LFSS 15+
1992 LFSS 15+
COSTARICA 1984 CENSUS 12+
1992 HSS 12+
ECUADOR 1982 CENSUS 12+
1990 CENSUS 8+
M EX IC O 1980 CENSUS 12+
1990 CENSUS 12+
VENEZUELA 1981 HSS 15+
1993 HSS 15+
Note: LFSS = Labor Force Sample Survey, HSS = Household Sample Survey.
On the sources of data, Chile does not report its census data
by industry, occupation, and sex, but it does report labor force
sam ple surveys in this form at; therefore these surveys are used.
No census data are available from Costa Rica for the 1990s, so the
1992 household sam ple survey is used. H ow ever, because
household sample surveys from the early 1980s are not reported
in a com parable format to the 1992 household sample survey, the
1984 census is used for com parison. An aggregation of the 1984
census in a manner sim ilar to the 1983 household sam ple survey
indicates the two sources are reasonable substitutes.7 The change
in ages included in the Ecuadorian data from 1982 to 1990 is m ost
7 See Appendix A.
20
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likely not a significant problem for comparison, considering the
(presum ed) small size of the 8-12 age group relative to total
e m p lo y m e n t.8
To m ake the data of the five countries reaso n ab ly
com parable and to m inim ize the effects of m ore precise
categorization in the later years, I adjusted the data to elim inate
the categories of "Not Adequately Defined by Industry" and "Not
C lassifiable by Occupation." Therefore, workers categorized by
industry but not occupation are categorized by the occupational
distribution of their sex for that industry. Sim ilarly, workers
categorized by occupation but not industry are distributed by the
industrial distribution of their sex for that occupation. W orkers
not categorized by industry or occupation are excluded. In all
co u n tries for all dates, the unem ployed w ithout previous
em ploym ent are elim inated because they cannot be categorized
by industry or occupation. Unfortunately, it is impossible to treat
the unem ployed with previous em ploym ent consistently because
they are either reported within the em ploym ent num bers, or
sep arately (but not by occupation w ithin industry). The
unem ployed with previous employment are therefore included in
the em ployment numbers for Mexico in 1980, and for both years
8 Unfortunately, Ecuador does not report its employment data by age in fine
categories. The economically active age group in which the 8-12
population would be included, 0-14, was about 4% of the total economically
active population in 1990 (as reported by the International Labour Office in
1996). It can, however, probably be safely assumed that the distribution of
employment in this age range is concentrated in the upper ages.
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in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In the data for Mexico in
1990 and for Chile in both years, all unem ployed are elim inated
because they are reported separately. The armed forces of all
countries are excluded as they are reported only by Mexico.9
Detailed occupational distributions for Costa Rica, M exico,
and Venezuela are also used. Because Costa Rica changed its
occupational categories between the 1986 and 1987 household
surveys, I use data from the 1987 and 1991 surveys as reported
by the International Labor Organization (1994). The time period
these distributions refer to is a therefore a subset of the 1984 to
1992 period; for this reason, the direction o f changes in the
detailed occupational distributions is em phasized rather than the
m agnitude. The occupational categories also changed in M exico
between 1980 and 1990, but the detailed distributions from the
censuses (INEGI 1980 and 1990) are the only ones available. The
change in categories m akes comparison difficult and im precise,
but the data are still useful in some cases. Due to the problems
and adjustm ents ex p lain ed here, my fin d in g s should be
considered only careful estimates for each country, and it should
be noted that while general comparisons betw een countries are
possible, precise ones are not.
Another caveat is necessary. Because women are generally
overrepresented in the inform al w orkforce, there are w ell
9 See Appendix B for adjusted data and the percentages of total employment
imputed or eliminated in each country.
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founded concerns expressed in the literatu re regarding the
inclusion or exclusion of inform al em ploym ent in reported data.
Although the d ata I use officially include such em ploym ent, I
m ust acknow ledge that cultural and so cietal pressures can
influence (i.e., inhibit) some wom en's reporting of their w ork.
Some women m ay not report inform al w ork for fear of being
taxed on their earnings, for exam ple, or to avoid em barrassing
their husbands who m ight be perceived as being unable to
support a family.
In an attem pt to assess the ex ten t and effect o f such
underreporting, I turn to the International Labor O rganization's
categorization by "Employment Status" of the same data I use in
my study (ILO various years), but in w hich em ploym ent is
classified by "em ployer or ow n-account w orker," "em ployee,"
"unpaid fam ily worker," or "unclassified" instead of by industry,
occupation, and sex. Although em ployer or own-account w orkers,
unpaid fam ily w orkers, and unclassified w orkers are n o t all
necessarily engaged in inform al em ploym ent, nor are all
employees form ally employed, such categorizations can be used to
estim ate form al and informal em ploym ent. For example, if the
reported data do not show rela tiv ely low percen tag es of
occupations likely to be largely inform al (such as sales and
agricultural jobs) categorized as em ployee, or high percentages of
fem ale workers (relative to m ale w orkers) classified as unpaid
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fam ily and unclassified workers, then there would be cause for
serious concern. Fortunately for my study, all of the countries'
data show significantly low er percentages of such occupations
categorized as em ployee and also generally show higher
percentages o f fem ale workers being classified as unpaid family
and unclassified workers relative to male workers. Therefore, it
appears that inform al work is widely reported, and while some
underreporting o f female inform al employment is likely, I believe
the overall effect of it to be small on my study.
Given these lim itations, I now turn to a discussion of
changes in w om en's relative em ployment in Costa Rica and the
relationship betw een these changes and structural adjustm ent
policies. In chapter four I explore these changes and relationships
in Mexico and make comparisons with Costa Rica. I then briefly
discuss possible extensions o f my findings in C osta Rica and
M exico to C hile, Ecuador, and Venezuela in chapter five, and
summarize my findings for all five countries. Finally, in chapter
six I conclude my study w ith a discussion of the degree of
neoliberalism in structural adjustm ent policies in each country
and changes in women's relative employment.
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CHAPTER 3
COSTARICA
In this chapter I begin with a description and analysis of the
distributional changes in industries, occupations w ithin industries,
and sex within occupations for Costa Rica from 1984 to 1992. I
then turn my attention to the structural adjustment policies of the
period and explore how these policies contributed to the
distributional changes described in the first section. As shall be
seen, although state em ploym ent as a p ercen tag e of all
em ploym ent decreased somewhat during adjustm ent, the Costa
Rican governm ent did not withdraw from the econom y in a
traditionally neoliberal m anner. Instead, through industrial
policies th a t prom oted particular sectors, the governm ent
continued its involvem ent in the economy, although in a less
direct way. The moderate nature of economic reform appears to
have co n trib u ted to the rapid growth of w om en's relative
employment in Costa Rica from 1984 to 1992.
Statistical Analysis of Women's Relative Employm ent
The percentage of the labor force that was fem ale in Costa
Rica increased from 22.1% in 1984 to 29.7% in 1992 (Table 3.1).
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TABLE 3.1. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE
AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE:
COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992
A .. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1984
i. CHANGE DUE TO INDUSTRIAL
DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
FEMALE 22.1%
MALE 77.9%
FEMALE 1.9%
MALE -1.9%
B. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1992
ii. CHANGE DUE TO
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN INDUSTRIES
FEMALE 29.7%
MALE 70.3%
FEMALE 0.2%
MALE -0.2%
iii. CHANGE DUE TO SEX DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN OCCUPATIONS
FEMALE 5.5%
MALE -5.5%
C. TOTAL CHANGE (B - A) iv. TOTAL CHANGE (i + ii + iii)
FEMALE 7.6%
MALE -7.6%
FEMALE 7.6%
MALE -7.6%
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
The changes in the distributions of the labor force by industry, by
occupation w ithin industry, and by sex w ithin occupation all
contributed p o sitively to women's relativ e em ploym ent. The
increase was p rim arily due, how ever, to the changing sex
distribution within occupations that accounted for about 5.5 of the
total 7.6 percentage point change. The industrial shifts accounted
for an increase of about 1.9 percentage points, and a very small
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increase (0.2 of a percentage point) can be attributed to the
changing mix of occupations within industries. In what follows, I
discuss the changes in each distribution: sex within occupations
(Table 3.2), industrial (Table 3.3), and occupation within industry
(Table 3.4).
TABLE 3.2. FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS
AND OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS
(BOTH SEXES, IN PERCENTAGES):
COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OCCUPATIONAL
OCCUPATION OF OCCUPATION DISTRIBUTION
1984 1992 CHANGE 1984 1992
1. PROF/TECH 42.8 45.6 2.8 10.7 10.1
2. ADM/MGR 15.7 23.8 8.1 3.2 2.8
3. CLERICAL 48.4 50.9 2.5 8.0 8.0
4. SALES 22.7 37.0 14.3 9.2 10.9
5. SERVICE 54.9 57.5 2.6 12.6 15.2
6. AGRCLTRL 2.3 5.0 2.7 31.8 23.1
7.8.9. PROD/
TRANS 14.0 21.5 7.5 24.6 29.8
TOTAL 22.1 29.7 7.6 100.0 100.0
Occupational distributions may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ELO (various years, 1998-2000).
The largest contribution to the increase in the proportion of
the labor force th at was fem ale w as the shift in the sex
distribution changes in occupations (Table 3.2). W hile there were
significant increases in the proportion of w orkers that were
female in all of the occupational categories, in the two largest
categories — agricultural and production — the changes were
about 2.7 and 7.5 percentage points respectively. In the next
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three largest occupational categories — service, professional, and
sales — the increases were about 2.6, 2.8 and 14.3 percentage
points respectively. The increase in the proportion of women
holding sales jobs was the largest relative increase in all of the
occupations.
TABLE 3.3. PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992
1984 1992
CHANGE
1. AGRCLTR 33.3 24.2 -9.1
2. MINING 0.2 0.1 -0.1
3. MFRING 15.1 19.0 3.9
4. UTILITIES 1.3 1.3 -0.1
5. CONST 6.0 6.2 0.1
6. COMMERCE 12.8 16.8 4.0
7. TRANS 3.0 4.7 1.7
8. BUS SERV 3.0 3.6 0.6
9. CSPSERV 25.2 24.1 -1.1
TOTAL 100.0 100.0 0.0
Columns may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
The second largest contributor to the increase in women's
relative em ploym ent was changes in the industrial distribution
(Table 3.3). The shift away from the agricultural sector in which
the principle occupations were the most m ale dominated, toward
the manufacturing and commerce industries in which women held
a greater (but not necessarily large) percentage of the main jobs
favored women's relative employment slightly. As can be seen,
the principle changes in the labor force distribution by industry
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from 1984 to 1992 were a relative decrease in the agricultural
sector (about 9 percentage points), and increases in the commerce
and manufacturing industries (about 4 percentage points each).
The principle occupational category of the agricultural sector
in 1984 was agricultural occupations (93% of w orkers in this
industry from Table 3.4), w hile in the commerce industry the
principle categories were sales and service jobs (about 59% and
16.5% of workers in the industry respectively, from Table 3.4). In
1984 men held almost 98% of agricultural job, but only about 73%
of sales and 45% of service jobs (Table 3.2). In manufacturing, the
main occupational category was production, accounting for about
71% of workers in the industry (Table 3.4). While men accounted
for approximately 85% of production workers in 1984, this was
still a sm aller percentage o f men than were in agricultural
occupations (Table 3.2). The manufacturing industry also had a
larger percentage of w orkers in the m ore h eav ily fem ale
categories of clerical, sales, and service jobs (about 6% of workers
each) than did the agricultural sector (Table 3.4).
Finally, the smallest contributor to the increase in women's
relative em ploym ent was the net effect of occupational shifts
w ithin industries. A lthough there were m odest changes that
m ight have increased women's relative em ployment in three out
of four of the largest industries, they were almost totally offset by
significant shifts favoring m ale employment in the m anufacturing
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TABLE 3.4. OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY
1984
INDUSTRY TOTAL
(PERCEN TAG ES):
COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4.
PROD/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD /
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 100.0 0.5 1.6 0.5 02 0.8 9 3 3 2.8
2. MINING 100.0 1.7 4.2 2.8 1.6 4.2 5.8 79.7
3. MFRING 100.0 4.2 4.5 6.1 6.6 6 3 1.1 71.1
4 . UTILITIES 100.0 14.0 3.6 24.2 0.7 10.7 0.6 46.2
5. CONST 100.0 10.1 0.6 1.4 0.2 1.8 0.2 85.6
6. COMMERCE 100.0 2.1 5.9 7.5 59.0 16.6 0.7 8.2
7 . TRANS 100.0 5.7 4.7 24.3 3 2 7.4 0.3 5 4 3
8. BUS SERV 100.0 28.0 6.0 42.8 7.0 113 0 3 4.4
9 . CSPSERV 100.0 31.0 3.3 13.8 0.9 33.4 1.3 163
1992
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2-
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD /
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 100.0 0.5 0.6 0.8 0.1 1.1 91.3 5 3
2- MINING 100.0 3.5 42 . 15.4 0.0 7.6 8.6 60.7
3. MFRING 100.0 4.1 3.3 4.8 5.4 5.6 0 3 76.4
4 . UTILITIES 100.0 15.4 2.9 22.8 0.0 13.6 13 43.8
5. CONST 100.0 6.4 12 Z 8 0.2 1.3 0.3 87.9
6. COMMERCE 100.0 2.2 5.6 8.2 562 19.4 0.7 7.7
7. TRANS 100.0 2.5 2.6 15.2 32 8.8 0.4 67.3
8. BUS SERV 100.0 34.0 5.8 30.7 2.8 19.3 3.0 4 3
9. CSPSERV 100.0 28.6 2.7 13 2 0.6 38.4 2.8 13.6
CHANGE FROM 1984 TO 1992
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD /
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.0 -1.0 0.4 -0.1 0.3 -22 21
2. MINING 0.0 1.8 0.0 12.6 -1.6 3.4 2.8 -19.0
3. MFRING 0.0 -0.1 -1.2 -1.3 -12 -0.9 -0.6 5.3
4. UTTLTIES 0.0 1.4 -0.6 -1.4 -0.7 2.9 0.8 -2.4
5. CONST 0.0 -3.8 0.6 1.4 0.0 -0 3 0.0 23
6. COMMERCE 0.0 0.1 -0.3 0.6 -21 2.8 0.0 -0.4
7. TRANS 0.0 -3.2 -2.1 -9.1 0.0 1.4 0.1 13.0
8. BUS SERV 0.0 6.0 -0.2 -12.1 -42 7.8 2.6 0.2
9. CSPSERV 0.0 -2.4 -0.6 -0.5 -0.3 5.1 1.6 -29
Rows may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
sector (the third largest industry). In the agricultural sector,
there was a decrease of about 2 percentage points in the m ost
30
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m ale-dom inated category o f agricultural occupations and an
increase of about 2.5 percentage points in production jobs (Table
3.4). As has been stated, these occupations w ere also male
dominated, but were less so than agricultural jobs (Table 3.2). In
the com m unity/social/personal (CSP) services sector, there were
decreases of about 2 percentage points in professional jobs and 3
percentage po in ts in production jobs. A corresponding 5
percentage point increase occurred in service jobs, which had a
larger percentage of w om en than eith er o f the decreasing
occupational categories (Table 3.2). In the com m erce sector a
decrease of about 2.7 percentage points in sales jobs (about 23%
female in 1984 from Table 3.2) was accounted for by an almost
equal increase in service occupations (about 55% female in 1984
from Table 3.2).
All of these shifts would have summed to a significant
relative increase in women's employment had it not been for the
o ccu p atio n al s h ift fa v o rin g men th a t o c c u rre d in the
manufacturing sector. Small decreases in the more heavily female
managerial, clerical, sales, and service jobs were accounted for by
an increase of approxim ately 5 percentage points in the male-
dominated production occupations (Table 3.4). This shift largely
offset the changes favoring fem ale employment and resulted in a
net increase of only one-fifth of a percentage point attributed to
occupational changes w ithin industries.
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The shifts that significantly increased women's relative
employment in Costa Rica from 1984 to 1992, then, were those in
the sex mix o f occupations and in the industrial distribution of
employment. The increases in the percentage of women holding
every occupation (but especially agricultural, production, and
sales positions), and the relative shifts o f employment out of the
agricultural industry and into the m anufacturing and commerce
sectors were the primary reasons for the increase in women's
relative em ploym ent. As shall be seen in the next section,
structural adjustm ent appears to have contributed to these
changes.
Structural Adjustm ent and Women's Relative Employment
Like m any Latin Am erican countries, the Costa Rican
government had for two decades before the debt crisis promoted
import substitution industrialization (ISI) by implicitly subsidizing
capital-intensive m anufacturing through protectionist policies.
Since the 1950s the governm ent had also m ade large public
investments in health care, education, and other social programs,
and through these investments and progressive wage policies had
succeeded in substantially decreasing incom e inequality among its
citizens and enhancing their health and education. Over time, ISI
policies began to reinforce the growing public sector since the
capital-intensive m anufacturing sector eventually became unable
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to absorb the better educated and highly skilled w orkforce as the
gains from ISI began to decrease. Partly due to this and partly
due to increased demand fo r public services, the governm ent
continued to expand, accounting for approximately tw enty percent
of the labor force in 1980 (Tardanico 1993, 521). U ntil shortly
before the econom ic crisis of the early 1980s, typically favorable
international prices for traditional exports such as coffee and
bananas made it possible for ISI and the governm ent sector to be
subsidized by gains from the trade in these goods.
By the late 1970s, the oil shocks, extreme fluctuations in the
terms of trade, and civil w ars in neighboring countries were
negatively affecting the small open economy of C osta Rica. The
terms for external financing w ere easy at the time, however, and
the governm ent initially attem pted to m aintain its citizens'
standard o f liv in g through expansionary econom ic policies
financed by additional foreign borrow ing. In the face of
inflationary pressure and a grow ing fiscal deficit, along with a
plunging exchange rate and a debt service that was 8.6 percent of
GNP, it was generally accepted by late 1981 that this borrowing
strategy w ould not work indefinitely. A new p resident was
elected in 1982, and with along with President A lberto Monge
Alvarez cam e a new econom ic team dedicated to neoliberal
economic reform .
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The stabilization phase o f reform was fairly rap id and
effective in C osta Rica. By the end of 1983, the fiscal deficit was
reduced from 14.3 percent of GDP in 1981 to 3.4 percent (Nelson
1990, 184), the official and free-m arket exchange rates were
equalized at a level that reduced both inflation and capital flight,
and w hile som e negotiations regarding the public external debt
were still in process, agreements that covered a significant portion
of the debt had been concluded. The structural adjustm ent phase
of reform proved more difficult. W ith the deficit, inflation, and
unem ploym ent under control, policym akers and business leaders
questioned the necessity of drastic structural reform such as
reducing public em ployment or substantially reducing agricultural
subsidies. A lthough the governm ent did succeed in im plem enting
some policies that were aim ed at neoliberal adjustm ent, these
reform s w ere m oderate.
N eoliberal policies in addition to the stabilization policies
outlined above included a slowdown that began in the early 1980s
of the grow th in public expenditures, trade liberalization in 1986,
and the freeing the interest rates in 1990 (Edwards 1995, 61 and
279). H ow ever, for Costa R ica's small open economy w ith an
average trade to GDP ratio for 1980 to 1982 of more than 127
percent (N elso n 1990, 172), the prom otion of in tern atio n a l
tourism and o f nontraditional exports (defined as exports to
m arkets outside Central A m erica of goods other than coffee,
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bananas, sugar, cotton, and a few others) that began in the early
to mid 1980s w ere possibly the m ost im portant structural
adjustm ent policies of the decade. For reasons that w ill be
discussed later, these policies can only loosely be categorized as
neoliberal.
The limited financial sector reforms began late in the period.
Therefore, I w ill not discuss these policies, as their effects on
women's em ploym ent would most probably not be apparent by
1992. However, as shall be seen, the policies that led to the
increase in and changing composition o f international trade, the
growth of tourism , and the cutbacks in the public sector alm ost
certain ly affected the growth and allocation of w om en’s
employment. Changes in the export sector led to a small increase
in women's relative employment in agricultural jobs, and a large
in crease in w om en's relativ e em p lo y m en t in p ro d u ctio n
occupations. In the tourism industry, women gained ground
especially in sales and service jobs. Finally, the relative shrinking
of the public sector contributed to the slower growth of women's
employment in professional and clerical jobs. I now discuss each
of these policies and their consequences in turn.
Trade Liberalization and Nontraditional Export Promotion
Two categories of trade-related policies were instituted in
the early to mid 1980s in Costa Rica — those that were to increase
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trade in general and those that w ere to promote nontraditional
exports specifically. The former included basic trade liberalization
policies such as a decrease in the average tariff from 92 percent in
1985 to 16 percent in 1991 (S. Edwards 1998), a reduction in the
coverage of nontariff protectionist measures, and a devaluation of
the colon. T hese liberalization m easures are consistent with
neoliberal economic policies because they lower barriers to both
im ports and ex p o rts and en co u rag e co m p etitio n in the
international m arketplace.
In an effort to protect the econom y from fluctuating world
prices of traditional exports, the C osta Rican governm ent also
attem pted to diversify exports by im plem enting several policies
designed to promote the export of nontraditional goods. Policies
implemented to encourage the export o f specific goods, however,
differentially benefit producers of these products and give these
firm s a com petitive advantage; for this reason, such policies are
not traditionally neoliberal. One such policy instituted in Costa
Rica was a tax exem ption on profits, machinery, and intermediate
inputs for exporters of nontraditional goods. Another incentive
was the issuance to some exporters of a tax-credit certificate
( Certificado de Abono Tributario or CAT) that was worth up to 20
percent of the firm 's nontraditional exports and could be traded
on the stock exchange. Free-trade zones (FTZs) were also
designated, and along with the tax exem ptions mentioned above,
36
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firm s in such zones enjoyed on-site in sp ectio n o f im ported
interm ediate inputs, but firms in FTZs were not issued CATs (Clark
1998, 87). Many of these tax breaks began to be phased out in
the early 1990s, but they were still in effect during the time
period of this study (Clark 1995, 198-199).
TABLE 3.5. TRADITIONAL AND NONTRADITIONAL EXPORTS AS
A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL GOODS EXPORTS:
COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992
Export 1984 1992
Traditional Exports 60.1 39.9
Nontraditional Exports* 42.8 57.2
Total Goods Exports 100.0 100.0
♦Nontraditional exports of Costa Rica include those goods other than coffee,
bananas, beef, and sugar that are sold to markets outside Central America.
Source: Banco Central de Costa Rica (1997).
These policies, focused on the prom otion of exports and
especially of nontraditional exports, were successful in Costa Rica.
The value of total exports rose from approxim ately 1.26 to 2.58
billion US dollars from 1984 to 1992 and the relative value of
nontraditional exports also increased (Table 3.5). The volume of
goods exports also more than doubled from 1985 to 1992 (CEPAL
1995, 506-506), indicating that the growing value o f exports was
not due only (if at all) to th eir higher p rices. Among
nontraditional exports, the value of m anufactured goods increased
37
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from about 275 m illion to 618 m illion US dollars from 1983 to
1992. Exports of agricultural nontraditional goods (including
ornam ental plants and flow ers, roots and root vegetables, and
pineapple and melon) also flourished; the value o f these exports
increased from about 33 m illion to 194 million US dollars from
1983 to 1992. The value of agroindustrial nontraditional exports
such as fresh and frozen fish and shrimp, and canned fruits and
fru it pastes, also increased significantly in the same tim e period,
from under 8 million to more than 33 million US dollars (Carrera
1995, 20).
A lthough n o n trad itio n al agricultural and ag ro in d u stria l
exports were growing rapidly, total agricultural exports actually
declined as a percentage of all goods exports (due to the
d ec reasin g im portance of tra d itio n a l ex p o rts). In 1982,
agricultural exports accounted for about 59 percent of the value of
all goods exports, w hile m anufacturing exports accounted for
about 41 percent. By 1992, the value of manufacturing exports as
a percent the total goods exports had risen to 46 percent, and
agricultural exports had dropped to 54 percent. Again, changes in
the volume of key agricultural exports suggest that this decrease
in relative value was not due only to declining international prices
o f agricultural products. The volume of coffee exports, for
exam ple, grew only by a m ultiple of 1.6 from 1982 to 1992, and
3 8
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the volume of beef exports actually declined (United N ations
1986, 1995).
To see what effect the increase and changing composition of
exports may have had on women's em ploym ent, it is useful to
look at a more detailed distribution of occupations. Unfortunately,
detailed occupational distributions for the export sector only do
not exist. However, the ratio of employment in the nontraditional
m a n u fa ctu rin g e x p o rt se c to r to to ta l em p lo y m en t in
manufacturing was estimated to be 22.2 percent in 1989, and the
same ratio in the agricultural sector was a much smaller, but still
significant, 6.6 percent (Carrera 1995, 55). This suggests that if
the percentage of fem ale w orkers increased in occupational
categories in which jobs related to nontraditional exports w ould
be included, we can conclude that the growth in these exports
m ost likely contributed to the increase in women's relativ e
em ploym ent. As I discuss below, the percentage of w om en’s
employment in these types of occupations did indeed increase.
As stated in chapter two, detailed occupational distribution
data appropriate for comparison also do not exist for the years
1984 to 1992 (the years used in chapter three); therefore, since
data from a subset of this period — 1987 to 1991 — are used
below, I concentrate on the direction of changes rather than the
magnitude. As can be seen (Table 3.6), the percentage of fem ale
workers in occupational categories that would include jobs related
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to exports, and especially nontraditional exports, increased in this
time period. It is also interesting to observe what percentage of
all workers in each category were women in 1987 and 1991 to
determ ine if w om en's em ploym ent was grow ing proportionately
w ith the occupation, or if som e jo b s w ere becom ing m ore
integrated or fem inized.
Although the increase in the percentage of fem ale workers
who were farm workers is not likely to have been very large even
for the longer tim e period of 1984 to 1992, it is significant given
the relative decrease in total em ploym ent in the agricultural
industry that was observed in the last section (from about a third
of the workforce to less than a quarter). It follows then, that this
occupation m ust have drawn — and indeed did draw — m ore
female workers into it relative to male workers. This comes as no
surprise considering the finding in the last section that the fem ale
percentage of total em ployment in agricultural occupations rose
from 1984 to 1992. However, it is im portant to recall that farm
w orkers are n o t the only ag ric u ltu ral occupations; o th er
occupations in this category include farm managers, farm ow ners,
fishers, fo rest w orkers, and loggers. N one of these other
occupations grew significantly as a percentage of female w orkers
during this tim e period (ILO 1994).10
10 In fact, only did forest workers and loggers increase at all as a
percentage of female workers, by 0.02%.
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TABLE 3.6. PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS
AND FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
EXPORT RELATED OCCUPATIONS:
COSTA RICA 1987 AND 1991
Occupation 1987
Percentage of All
Female Workers
1991 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1987 1991 Change
Farm workers 3.9 4.1 02 5.9 15 1.6
Food and
drink
processors
2.2 2.6 0.4 27.8 35.8 8.0
Spinners,
weavers, and
dyers
0.6 1.3 0.7 53.4 74.1 20.7
Fabric
machinery
workers
0.4 1.1 0.7 26.5 43.5 17.0
Source: calculated from ILO (1994).
It appears, then, that the agricultural jobs that w ere created
during the decade w ere more likely than before to be taken by
women, although the vast m ajority of all agricultural jobs (around
95 percent from Table 3.2) were still held by men in 1992. That
this increase in relativ e wom en's em ploym ent in agricultural
occupations was related to the growth of the nontraditional export
sector is supported by the estim ate that 28 percent of agricultural
production (versus packing) workers in the nontraditional export
sector were w om en in 1989 (Carreras 1995, 5 1 ).11 As these
agricultural exports becam e more im portant, it follow s that
11 If we include packing workers, the percentage female increases to 36%.
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w om en's re la tiv e em p lo y m en t in ag ric u ltu ral occupations
increased.
A nother occupation that drew a greater percentage of
fem ale w orkers during this time period was food and drink
processors, and the percentage of total workers in this occupation
that was fem ale also grew significantly. M any C osta Rican
agricultural and agroindustrial exports involve som e processing,
and many of these exports grew at a faster rate than total exports.
Exports o f prepared and preserved fruits (including juices), for
example, rose in volume from 7,949 to 38,928 m etric tons from
1982 to 1992, and prepared and preserved vegetables increased
from 1,274 to 5,091 m etric tons (United Nations 1986, 1995).
Again, since the occupational distributions are not for the export
sector only, it is impossible to determine how much of the growth
in food and drink processing jobs was due to increases in exports
specifically, but there can be little doubt that the processed food
export growth contributed to a greater demand for these types of
w orkers.
The tax exemption on and on-site inspection of intermediate
products for exporters mentioned above encouraged the growth of
assembly plants or maquiladoras in Costa Rica, the vast majority
of which were engaged in clothes assembly. Total clothing exports
increased in value by a multiple of more than 6.5 from 1982 to
1992, from around 9.1 to 69.4 million US dollars (United Nations
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various years); a significant p o rtio n o f the in crease in
nontraditional m anufactured exports was therefore due to the
growth in exports of apparel and textiles (Clark 1995, 183). As a
result, occupations related to apparel and textile production such
as spinners, weavers, and dyers, and fabric machinery workers,
grew as a percentage of female workers. The most drastic change
in these occupations, however, was not ju st the increase in the
num ber o f jo b s, but that the fem ale percentage o f fabric
machinery workers and of spinners/weavers and dyers increased
substantially — significantly integrating the form er occupation
and changing the latter into a female dominated job — in ju st four
years. M a q u ila d o ra s throughout Latin America are known for
their largely female workforces and those in Costa R ica are no
exception — it is estim ated that 82 percent of C osta Rican
maquiladora workers were female in 1984 (Schoepfle and Perez-
Lopez 1994, 135). As in the agricultural sector, where increases
in exports of specific goods increased w om en's relative
employment in agricultural occupations overall, it follows that as
exports of processed foods and apparel grew, women's relative
employment in production occupations overall would increase.
The findings regarding exports are consistent with the more
general results in the first section of this chapter: the increase in
total exports and the shift in the relative volume of manufactured
versus agricultural exports most likely contributed to the overall
43
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relative em ploym ent decline in the agricultural sector and the rise
in the m anufacturing sector (in which women were more likely to
be em ployed com pared to agriculture); the relative increase in
specific ex p o rts appears to have spurred the creatio n o f
occupations w ithin these sectors that women were more likely to
hold; and the direction of change in the sex m ix of key export-
oriented occupations was toward integration or fem inization. The
fact that the em ploym ent in the export sector accounted for a
sm aller percentage of agricultural workers than of m anufacturing
w orkers is also consistent with the sm aller increase in the
percentage of agricultural jobs held by women in 1992 relative to
production jobs (Table 3.2). The evidence suggests, then, that
successful export prom otion (and especially that of nontraditional
goods) contributed to the small increase in wom en's relative
em ploym ent in agricultural jobs, and the larger increase in
women's relative em ploym ent in production occupations in Costa
Rica.
International T ourism Sector Incentives
Tourism , both dom estic and international, has been an
im portant econom ic activity in C osta R ica since the 1960s.
Building on this history and the growing interest in nature-based
or "eco-" tourism in North America and W estern Europe, the Costa
Rican governm ent began in the mid 1980s to offer substantial
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incentives for investm ent in tourism -related projects. Hotels and
other tourism -related firm s received benefits such as a tw elve
year incom e tax exem ption on undistributed profits, accelerated
depreciation for some assets, and exemptions from taxes or tariffs
on the purchase of goods or equipm ent necessary for tourism
business. The incentives varied depending on the type of
enterprise; car rental com panies, for exam ple, had a different
incentive schem e than did w ater transportation firm s or airlines.
Incidentally, restaurants w ere initially allow ed to participate in
the program, were disallow ed in 1986, and were allowed again in
1991 (Coffey 1993, 87). To qualify for benefits, investors were
required to offer a detailed business plan that included a m arket
analysis, an estim ate of local and foreign em ploym ent, projected
earnings, and m uch more inform ation. This requirem ent, along
with the fact that large projects were preferred, favored foreign
investment (Coffey, Irwin, and Urban 1998, 212-214).12
The incentive program was a success, m easured in terms of
investm ent in the tourism sector, the num ber of the tourists
visiting Costa Rica (especially from North A m erica and Europe),
and tourist expenditures. Approximately 218 m illion US dollars
were invested in hotels under the incentive program from 1986 to
1991 (Coffey, Irw in, and U rban 1998, 214), and other tourism -
related firm s grew rapidly in size and number as well. In the
12 The Institute) Costariccense de Turismo (ICT) estimated that 95 percent of
hotels were foreign-owned in 1995.
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same time period, the number of international tourists increased
from about 273,000 to 505,000, and tourist expenditures grew
from approximately 117 million to 337 m illion US dollars (Banco
Central de Costa Rica 1997, 7). By 1991, international tourism had
become Costa Rica’ s third largest foreign exchange earning activity
(Place 1991, 187).13 This success, it should be noted, cannot be
attributed to strictly neoliberal policies, since (as in nontraditional
export prom otion) the policies directed tow ard tourism gave
differential treatm ent to particular investors in a particular sector.
Turning again to the detailed occupational distribution from
1987 to 1991, it can be seen that some occupations that would
include tourism -related jobs grew as a percentage of fem ale
employment (Table 3.7). Occupations that would be affected by
increases in to u rism include "other o ffice w orkers in
transportation" (defined below Table 3.7), sales assistants/street
vendors, and hotel service workers. Again, these data are not for
the tourism sector only, but it is likely that the increase in tourism
during this tim e period contributed to the growth of these
occupations.
As can be seen (Table 3.7), all of these occupations grew as a
percentage of total female employment. Although "other office
workers in transportation" would include those not related to
tourism as w ell, the fact that five air- and forty w ater-
13 By 1993, it had become the largest source of foreign earnings (Campbell
1999, 535).
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transportation com panies became new participants in the tourism
development incentive program from 1987 to 1991 (Coffey, Irwin,
and Urban 1998, 213) suggests that the overall growth in this
clerical occupation can be attributed partly to the increase in
tourism and the related incentives. Sim ilarly, the occupation of
sales assistants/street vendors would include jobs both related
and unrelated to tourism , but the growth of tourism and tourist
areas would alm ost certainly affect the relative increase in these
types of jobs as concession stands and shops that catered to
tourists increased in number (Honey 1999, 172; Chant 1992, 92).
TABLE 3.7 PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND FEMALE
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
TOURISM RELATED OCCUPATIONS:
COSTA RICA 1987 AND 1991
Occupation
Percentage of All
Female Workers
1987 1991 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1987 1991 Change
Other office
workers in
transpor
tation*
1.3 2.2 0.9 58.4 43.0 -15.5
Sales
assistants/
street vendors
7.3 8.1 0.8 33.7 39.4 5.7
Hotel service
workers 3.3 4.2 0.9 44.1 48.5 4.4
*Other office workers in transportation refers to transportation office
workers that were not civil servants, bookkeepers, cashiers, typists,
stenographers, operators of other office machinery, inspectors, postal
carriers, messengers, telephone operators, or telegraph operators.
Source: calculated from ELO (1994).
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These findings again illustrate in more detail the general
results outlined in the beginning of this chapter. The increase in
the importance of tourism is consistent with the relative growth of
em ploym ent in the com m erce and transportation sectors (Table
3.3). The occupational categories that would include the jobs
exam ined above (clerical, sales, and service) com prised a
significant proportion of em ploym ent in these sectors. Sales and
service occupations were the tw o largest occupational categories
in the com m erce sector in 1992 (about 56 and 19 percent,
respectively), w hile clerical occupations com prised about 15
percent of occupations in the transportation sector (Table 3.4) that
same year.
In the jobs outlined above, the clerical job ("other office
workers in transportation") becam e a larger percentage of female
workers, but men's em ployment in this period grew even faster so
women becam e a sm aller percentage of w orkers holding this
occupation. As w ill be seen in the next section, the relative
increase in this clerical occupation was offset by decreases in
other, public sector related, clerical jobs. As is also illustrated in
the next section, there was increasing job segregation by sex —
favoring men in some cases and women in others — in many
clerical positions, as there was here in "other office workers in
transportation." Taking this into account, the changes discussed
here are consistent with the constant share of total em ploym ent
48
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that clerical occupations accounted for in 1984 and 1992, with the
slight increase in the percentage of all clerical positions that were
held by women (Table 3.2).
The sales occupation of sales assistants/street vendors and
the service occupation of hotel service workers, however, not only
becam e larger percentages of women's em ploym ent, but the
grow th of w om en’s em ploym ent in these occupations also
outpaced men’s. These findings are also consistent with those in
the statistical analysis; both sales and service occupations
increased their shares of total employment, and women held a
greater percentage of these jobs in 1992 than they did in 1984
(Table 3.2). The results here suggest that Costa Rica’s tourism
in v estm en t incentive p o lices instituted in the m id 1980s
co n trib u ted to the re la tiv e ly faster grow th o f w om en’s
em ploym ent in sales and service occupations. These policies,
together with the public sector reform policies outlined in the next
section, also contributed to the slower grow th in w om en's
em ploym ent in clerical positions.
Public Sector Reform
In an effort to reduce the fiscal deficit, the Costa Rican
governm ent reduced public expenditures, both as a percentage of
gross dom estic product and in real absolute term s, during the
years of crisis (Table 3.8); as a result, total wages and salaries of
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public em ployees fell significantly. As a percentage o f total
employment, however, public em ploym ent decreased only slightly
(if at all) during the crisis years, never deviating far from 19 or
20 percent from 1980 to 1983 (Gindling and Berry 1992, 1602).14
This suggests, of course, that the C osta Rican governm ent
controlled its public sector w age bill through wage austerity
rather than by reducing the number of public em ployees.15
The austerity of the crisis years did not last long however,
and public expenditures in general — as well as w ages and
salaries of public employees — recovered to their pre-crisis levels
within a few years of the successful stabilization efforts, and then
continued to rise (Table 3.8). As a percentage of GDP, however,
public expenditures remained fairly stable after 1985, at about
the same levels as those of the pre-crisis years; public wages and
salaries as a percentage of total public expenditures also stabilized
after 1987, but at levels lower than before the crisis. So while the
crisis did not inspire Costa R ica to reduce public sector
em ploym ent in absolute terms during this time period, the
slowdown in its growth (com pared to the few decades before
1980) resulted in a decrease from its size in 1980 relative to the
14 This percentage may not have decreased at all, as the data from different
sources indicate.
15 This holds even after accounting for the higher unemployment rates of
1981 to 1983.
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private sector. Public sector employment had decreased to about
16 percent of total em ploym ent by 1991 (Tardanico 1993, 521).
I TABLE 3.8. CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TOTAL EXPENDITURES AND
EXPENDITURES ON WAGES AND SALARIES:
COSTA RICA 1980 TO 1992
Year
Real GDP
(1990
prices,
mlns of US
dollars)
Gov't Exp as
% of GDP
Wages and
Salaries as
% of Gov't
Exp
Gov't Exp
(1990
prices,
mlns of US
dollars)
Gov't Exp
on Wages
and
Salaries
(1990
prices,
mlns of US
dollars)
1980 4499 25.1 44.4 1129 501
1981 4397 21.0 45.5 923 420
1982 4077 18.4 43.0 750 322
1983 4193 23.6 36.8 990 364
1984 4530 22.8 34.4 1033 356
1985 4562 21.8 35.7 995 355
1986 4815 26.4 30.1 1271 383
1987 5044 27.2 36.1 1372 496
1988 5218 24.5 42.1 1278 538
1989 5513 26.1 42.4 1439 611
1990 5709 25.6 42.9 1462 627
1991 5838 24.8 41.4 1448 600
1992 6290 23.9 40.1 1503 602
Total
percentage
change
1980 to 1992
39.8 33.1 20.1
Source: Calculated from IMF IFS and GFS (various years).
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To observe how the slowdown in the growth of the public
sector affected wom en's relative em ploym ent, it is useful once
again to turn to the more detailed occupational distributions from
1987 and 1991. Only two occupations in this distribution w ould
be entirely com posed of public sector em ployees: directors o f
public adm inistration and public adm inistration civil servants.
O ther occupations of which public em ployees would com prise a
significant proportion include postal carriers and m essengers;
telephone and telegraph operators; doctors, dentists and nurses;
professors and teachers; and lawyers and judges. For the sam e
reasons as in the preceding analysis of changes in the export
sector, it is interesting to observe the change in the percentage of
female em ploym ent in each of these occupations, as well as the
percentage of each occupation that was fem ale in each survey
y e a r.
As can be seen (Table 3.9), the direction of change for the
percentage of all fem ale workers in jo b s related to the public
sector is prim arily negative. The exception to this is the case of
directors of public adm inistration, in w hich there was a slight
increase in the percentage of all fem ale w orkers holding these
jobs notwithstanding a small decrease in the female percentage of
total em ploym ent in the occupation. A m ore significant change
occurred in civil servant occupations, in which the percentage of
all female w orkers decreased to about h alf of its 1987 level in
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1991; this decrease coincided with a significant loss in women's
relative employment in this occupation as well. This suggests that
the slowdown in the growth of public expenditures affected the
growth of lower status occupations to a greater extent than it did
the growth of higher status jobs in the public sector.
TABLE 3.9. PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS
AND FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN SELECTED
PUBLIC SECTOR RELATED OCCUPATIONS:
COSTA RICA 1984 AND 1992
Occupation
Percentage of All
Female W orkers
1987 1991 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1987 1991 Change
Directors of
public
administration
0.2 0.3 0.1 26.6 26.0 -0.6
Civil servants
in public
administration
2.4 1.2 -1.2 31.1 25.9 -5.2
Postal carriers
and
messengers
0.2 0.1 -0.1 9.6 2.5 -6.1
Telephone and
telegraph
operators
0.3 0.2 -0.1 43.2 72.8 29.6
Doctors,
dentists, nurses 3.7 3.3 -0.4 61.5 62.6 1.1
Professors and
teachers 8.1 7.9 -0.2 71.5 73.4 1.9
Lawyers and
judges 0.6 0.4 -0.2 43.0 26.4 -16.6
Source: Calculated from ILO (1994).
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The same appears to be true in occupations that would be
significantly but not entirely comprised o f public workers. C osta
Rica's postal service and telephone com pany are publicly ow ned
enterprises, and the co untry's health care and ed u catio n al
(prim ary and secondary) system s are public with m arg in al
private com ponents. M ost four-year universities are public, and
of course, the legal sector is also prim arily public. Therefore,
these occupations include postal ca rrie rs and m essengers;
telephone and telegraph operators; doctors, dentists and nurses;
professors and teachers; and judges and lawyers. I turn my
attention first to the clerical jobs (postal workers and m essengers,
and telephone and telegraph operators) as there is a com plication
with the aggregation of professionals into the chosen categories,
which I will discuss below.
Total em ploym ent in the category of postal workers and
messengers actually increased by 3.9 percent from 1987 to 1991
(ILO 1994), but the percentage of all fem ale workers in these
occupations and the percentage of to tal em ploym ent in the
occupation that was female both declined. Total em ployment of
telephone and telegraph operators, on the other hand, declined by
49 percent during the same time period. Therefore, although
there was an increase in the percentage of total em ploym ent in
the occupation that was female, this did not translate into an
increase in the percentage of all fem ale em ploym ent in the
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occupation (Table 3.9). In fact, absolute female em ploym ent in
both of these occupational categories fell from 1987-1991, by 67.9
percent in the case of postal workers and messengers, and by 13.9
percent in the case of telephone and telegraph operators (ILO
1994). The cutbacks appear not only to have reduced the level of
fem ale em ploym ent in these jobs, how ever, but to also have
increased the level of occupational sex-segregation. W hether this
was due to em ployee choice or to em ployer choice (increased
opportunities in the private sector versus discrim inatory hiring
and layoffs) cannot be determ ined by these data, but som e
evidence o ffered by o th er research ers supports the la tte r
(Gindling 1993, 290; Tardanico 1996, 97).
Turning to the professions m entioned above, a com plication
in analyzing the changes in w om en’s em ploym ent in these
categories exists because o f the aggregation of sex-segregated
occupations into occupational categories, especially in the cases of
doctors, dentists and nurses; and teachers and professors.16 These
com binations of occupations make it im possible to attrib u te
changes to shifts in either the occupational distribution or the sex
mix within the aggregation. In the case of doctors, dentists and
16 While data confirming the sex-segregated nature of these occupations
are difficult to come by, Kozlow-Rodriquez (1997, 323) states that "roughly
10 percent of Costa Rican obstetricians are women." Likewise, Nunez (1997,
305) finds that "women... account for about one-third of all [academic]
personnel" at the Universidad Nacional in Heridia. While both of these
scholars refer to only a small portion of doctors and academic occupations,
respectively, they offer some evidence that sex-segregation exists in these
occupations.
5 5
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nurses, for exam ple, one cannot distinguish w hether the female
percentage of total em ploym ent in this occupational category
increased due to an increase in the proportion of nurses
employed, or because relatively more women became doctors and
dentists, or both. A likely scenario, however, is that the cutbacks
in m edical services shifted health care duties from doctors to
nurses, resulting in the increase in women's relative employment
in this category. In education, falling salaries for (mostly male)
highly educated university personnel may have prompted them to
find positions in other (private) sectors, while (m ostly female)
prim ary and secondary teachers would not have had as many
options. Finally, the category of law yers and judges became
prim arily male over this time period, for reasons that are not
clear.
O verall, clerical jobs (civil servants; postal carriers and
m essengers; telephone and telegraph operators), and to a lesser
extent, professional occupations (doctors, dentists, and nurses;
professors and teachers; lawyers and judges) w ithin the public
sector appear to have become relatively more scarce for women,
w hile wom en w ith m anagerial positions in the public sector
(directors of public adm inistration) fared better. Although the
results in the first section of this chapter (which include private
sector occupations as well, Table 3.2) indicate that women's
employment grew in all three of these occupational categories, it
5 6
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can be observed that women in m anagerial positions did better
than in the other two categories.
Except for the rather drastic change in the relatively small
category of lawyers and judges, the data indicate that in general,
the slow dow n in the growth of public em ploym ent affected
nonprofessional and nonm anagerial wom en to a greater extent
than it affected professional and m anagerial women in the public
sector. Again, the findings regarding the public sector are
consistent with the results in the last section, although changes in
the private sector w hich are not exam ined here m ake this
som ew hat d ifficu lt to discern, especially in the case of the
occupational distribution within the CSP services sector.
There can be little doubt, however, that the slowdown in the
growth of the public sector contributed to the shift in overall
employment out of the CSP services sector, in which significantly
female occupations were prominent. (Y et the negative effect this
industrial shift would have had on women’s relative employment
was overshadow ed by the larger shifts out of the agricultural
sector discussed above). In the occupational distribution of this
sector (Table 3.4), it can be observed th at professional,
managerial, and clerical occupations decreased in favor of service
occupations, w hich include such personal service jobs such as
hairdressers, barb ers, porters, and housekeepers. This is
co n siste n t w ith the general slow dow n of p u b lic sector
57
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expenditures since these personal service jobs w ould be prim arily
in the private sector. It is also consistent with the small increase
in women’s relative em ploym ent due to occupational distribution
changes within industries, as women hold a larger percentage of
service jobs than of professional, managerial, or clerical positions
(Table 3.2).
Finally, changes in the sex mix of these occupations are
difficult to determ ine in the case of professionals, although the
shifts in these aggregations are consistent with the sm all increase
in the percentage of professionals that are female that was seen in
the last section (Table 3.2). The change was insignificant in the
case of directors of public adm inistration, while wom en gained
ground in m anagerial positions overall. H ow ever, in clerical
occupations, the trend in the public sector was tow ard increasing
job segregation by sex. For civil servants in public adm inistration
(the largest clerical occupation examined above) and for postal
carriers and messengers, the change was in favor o f men's relative
em ployment. For telephone and telegraph operators it favored
w om en's relativ e em p lo y m en t. O verall, w om en's relativ e
employment in clerical jobs increased, but as was seen in the last
section (Table 3.2), this in crease was the sm allest in the
fem inization or in teg ratio n o f occupations. T he evidence
presented here suggests, then, th at cutbacks in public sector
em p lo y m en t c o n trib u te d to slo w er g ro w th in w om en's
58
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em ploym ent in professional and clerical occupations (relative to
other occupations).
Conclusions
W omen's relativ e em ploym ent grew rapidly in Costa Rica
from 1984 to 1992. International trade policies that successfully
prom oted n o n trad itio n al exports contributed to the relativ e
decrease of em ploym ent in the agricultural sector and the relative
increase in the m anufacturing sector, and also contributed to the
increase in dem and for fem ale w orkers in ag ricu ltu ral and
production occupations. R elative increases in com m erce and
transportation sector em ployment were most likely due in part to
tourism investm ent incentives, which may have also contributed
to the relative grow th for wom en in sales and service jobs.
Cutbacks in public sector expenditures, however, led to slow er
grow th in w om en's professional and clerical em ploym ent and a
decrease in relativ e em ploym ent in the CSP services sectors
o verall.
The rapid grow th in w om en's em ploym ent in C osta Rica
from 1984 to 1992 m ust therefore be attributed prim arily to the
grow th of low er-status occupations such as fab ric m achinery
workers, food and drink processors, and sales assistants and street
vendors. The slow er growth o f professional, m anagerial, and
clerical jobs in general, in addition to the more m odest increases
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of the percentage of women holding professional and clerical jobs,
made women's gains in these occupations marginal. It appears
that trade and tourism policies and public sector reform increased
w om en's relativ e em ploym ent overall, but they also shifted
resources into sectors in which women were employed in less
attractive occupations.
Are women in the workforce better or worse off in Costa
R ica since these policies were im plem ented? Although the
relative growth in women's employment was largely in low-status
occupations, women gained ground in all occupational categories;
this suggests that women in the workforce were helped by the
policies explored here. However, it must be noted that the policies
that appear to have increased women’s relative em ployment —
n o n trad itio n al ex p o rt prom otion and tourism in v e stm en t
incentives — were not traditional neoliberal policies. Insofar as
they created private sector as opposed to public sector jobs these
policies may loosely be considered neoliberal, but the m ost
traditional neoliberal policy — the slowdown of public sector
grow th — affected wom en's relative em ploym ent prim arily
negatively. It m ight be said more accurately, then, that the gains
made by women in the workforce in Costa Rica from 1984 to 1992
were due to the m oderate nature of Costa Rica's neoliberal
reforms. Had the public sector cutbacks been more severe, or had
there been no industrial policies to promote employment creation
60
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in other sectors, there can be little doubt that the outcom e for
women in the w orkforce of Costa Rica would have been much
worse. This hypothesis is supported by my analysis in the next
chapter, in w hich I offer evidence that the m ore traditionally
neoliberal policies of Mexico were at least partly responsible for
women workers there doing much worse than they did in Costa
Rica.
6 1
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CHAPTER 4
MEXICO
As shall be seen, w om en's relative em ploym ent in Mexico
decreased from 1980 to 1990. As it did in C osta Rica, the
industrial distribution of em ploym ent in Mexico changed in such a
way as to favor women's em ploym ent, but this is where the
similarity between the two countries ends. W hereas in Costa Rica
the sex m ix o f occupations and the occupational distributions
w ith in in d u strie s ch an g ed to in crease w o m en 's relativ e
em ploym ent, women lost ground in a few key occupational
categories and the occupational distributions w ithin industries
shifted in favor of men in Mexico. It appears that the country's
lack of em ploym ent creating policies during structural adjustment
was at least partly responsible for female workers' relative losses.
Statistical Analysis of Women's Relative Em ploym ent
The percentage of the Mexican labor force that was female
declined from 25.9% in 1980 to 23.9% in 1990 (Table 4.1). The
change due to industrial shifts was positive for wom en and would
have resulted in a 2.7 percentage point increase in the proportion
fem ale had industrial been the only d istrib u tio n al changes.
6 2
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TABLE 4.1. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
A. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1980
i. CHANGE DUE TO INDUSTRIAL
DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
FEMALE 25.9%
MALE 74.1%
FEMALE 2.7%
MALE -2.7%
B. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1990
ii. CHANGE DUE TO
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES W ITHIN INDUSTRIES
FEMALE 23.9%
MALE 76.1%
FEMALE -2.2%
MALE 2.2%
iii. CHANGE DUE TO SEX DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES W ITHIN OCCUPATIONS
FEMALE -2.5%
MALE 2.5%
C. TOTAL CHANGE (B - A) iv. TOTAL CHANGE (i + ii + iii)
FEMALE -2.0%
MALE 2.0%
FEMALE -2.0%
MALE 2.0%
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
However, this hypothetical gain was m ore than offset by the
negative effects of changes in the m ix of occupations w ithin
industries and in the sex distribution of occupations. The change
in the sex d istribution within occupations had the g reatest
negative effect on women's relative em ployment, decreasing their
share by tw o and a half percentage points. O ccupational
distribution changes w ithin industries also decreased w om en's
relative em ploym ent; their contribution was about negative 2.2
6 3
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percentage points for the net decrease of two percentage points. I
will discuss each of these distributional changes in turn, beginning
with shifts in relative employment by industry.
It is apparent that a shift away from the agricultural
industry, in which the principle occupations were dominated by
men, tow ard the commerce and service industries, in which
women held a significant percentage if not most of the principle
occupations, w ould have favored wom en's relative em ploym ent
had these been the only changes. The principle shifts in the labor
force distribution by industry from 1980 to 1990 were a relative
decrease in the agricultural sector (by about 9 percentage points)
and increases in the commerce (6 percentage points) and service
(5.4 percentage points) industries (Table 4.2).
TABLE 4.2. PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
1980 1990 CHANGE
1. AGRCLTR 32.7 23.5 -9.2
2. MINING 3.7 1.2 -2.5
3. MFRING 18.1 20.3 2.2
4. UTILITIES 0.9 0.7 -0.2
5. CONST 8.9 7.2 -1.7
6. COMMERCE 11.5 17.5 6.0
7. TRANS 4.9 4.8 -0.1
8/9. SERVICES 19.4 24.8 5.4
TOTAL 100.0 100.0 0.0
Columns may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
64
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Not surprisingly, the principle occupational category in 1980
of the agriculture sector was agricultural occupations (alm ost 91%
of w orkers in this industry from Table 4.4), w hile in the
com merce industry the larg est category was sales occupations
(about 57% of workers in this industry from Table 4.4), and in the
service industry the largest categories were professional, service,
and clerical occupations (30% , 30%, and 20% of workers in this
industry, respectively (Table 4.4)). In 1980, men held alm ost 90%
of the agricultural jobs, but women held alm ost 70% of service,
45% of clerical, 40% of professional, and 33% of sales positions
(Table 4.3) Again, this sh ift away from the agricultural sector
with its m ale-dom inated occupations toward industries with more
integrated and fem ale-d o m in ated jobs w ould have favored
w om en's em ploym ent had the m ix of occupations w ithin
industries and the sex distribution of occupations not changed.
Sex distribution changes w ithin occupations, however, did
not favor women's relative em ploym ent (Table 4.3). There were
significant decreases in the fem ale percentage of the two largest
occupational categories, production and agricultural jobs, and also
in service occupations. W hile there were increases in the
percentage of professional, m anagerial, and clerical jobs being
held be women, it is apparent that these were outweighed by the
decreases in the larger production and agricultural occupational
categories, and by the size of the decrease in the fem ale
6 5
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percentage of the sm aller services category. The net result, then,
of changes in the sex distribution of occupations, was a negative
2.5 p e rc e n ta g e p o in t co n trib u tio n to w om en's re la tiv e
em p lo y m en t.
TABLE 4.3. FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS
AND OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS
(BOTH SEXES, IN PERCENTAGES):
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OCCUPATIONAL
OCCUPATION OF OCCUPATION DISTRIBUTION
1980 1990 CHANGE 1980 1990
1. PROF/TECH 38.8 43.2 4.3 8.8 11.0
2. ADM/MGR 16.0 19.3 3.4 1.3 2.5
3. CLERICAL 43.7 53.5 9.8 11.1 9.8
4. SALES 32.1 32.0 -0.1 8.9 12.1
5. SERVICE 69.9 56.3 -13.6 8.6 8.0
6. AGRCLTRL 12.3 3.6 -8.7 30.2 23.0
7.8.9. PROD/
TRANS 15.4 12.5 -2.9 31.1 33.6
TOTAL 25.9 23.9 -2.0 100.0 100.0
Occupational distributions may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
Changes in the occupational distributions within industries
also contributed to the decrease in the proportion of the
workforce that was fem ale (third panel of Table 4.4). All of the
following occupational shifts in the largest industries were toward
"m en's jobs" and had a negative effect on women’s relative
employment. In the agricultural industry (the largest industry in
1980 and the second largest in 1990), there was a 4.6 percentage
point increase in agricultural occupations, which had the low est
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percentage of women in both 1980 and 1990, at the expense of
clerical and production occupations. In the next largest sector, the
services industry, there was about a 12 percentage point decrease
in service positions, which had the highest percentage of women
in 1980 and the second highest in 1990. In the third largest
industry, m anufacturing, there were sig n ifican t decreases in
professional and clerical jo b s, occupations that also have a
significant proportion of women. Finally, in the fourth largest, the
commerce industry, there was a decrease in clerical jobs. The
decreases in the significantly female occupations w ithin the
m anufacturing and com m erce sectors were prim arily accounted
for by increases in production jobs, which were predominantly
m ale.
The industrial shifts that would have favored wom en,
therefore, were outweighed by the changes in the occupational
distribution changes w ithin industries and in the sex mix of
occupations. The shifts in relative em ploym ent out of the
agricultural sector and into the commerce and services industries
would have increased women’s relative em ploym ent had women
not lost ground in production, agricultural, and service jobs, and
had occupational shifts within industries not favored men. The
prim ary occupational distribution changes that appear to have
had a negative effect on women's relative employment were the
percentage decreases of service jobs in the services sector, and of
67
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clerical occupations in many sectors. In the next section, I turn to
a discussion of the relationship of these changes to M exico's
structural adjustm ent policies.
T A BLE 4.4. O C C UPATIO NAL D IST R IB U T IO N OF TO TAL E M PL O Y M E N T IN INDUSTRY
1980
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1 .
PROD/TECH
(P E R C E N T A G E S ):
M E X IC O 1980 AND 1990
2. 3. 4.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRICLTR 100.0 0.5 03 1.6 0.8 1.0 90.8 4.9
2. MINING 100.0 4.0 3.1 24.8 27.1 1.1 0.4 393
3. MFRING 100.0 9.5 2.0 1X9 3.7 X2 0.8 68.9
4. UTILITIES 100.0 23.4 3.2 31.0 3.1 XO 0.2 37.1
5. CONST 100.0 53 0.8 4.9 0 3 7.0 0.7 80.7
6. COMMERCE 100.0 13 3.0 173 5 7 3 11.9 1.4 7.6
7. TRANS 100.0 1.0 1.2 16.1 1.9 1.0 1.1 77.7
8/9. SERVICES 100.0 30.2 1.3 19.7 1.0 29.9 0 3 17.7
1990
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRICLTR 100.0 0.7 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.6 95.4 2.2
2. MINING 100.0 9.4 1.8 14.0 1.0 6.1 0 3 67.2
3. MFRING 100.0 4.7 2.8 7.3 5.8 X9 1.8 74.6
4. U TILm ES 100.0 10.6 23 26.9 1.1 4.7 0 3 54.1
5. CONST 100.0 3.9 1.3 X4 0.1 1.1 0.3 90.9
6. COMMERCE 100.0 2.9 3.8 10.1 58.3 1X6 0.3 11.9
7. TRANS 100.0 3.1 XI 19.1 1.1 8.0 0.3 66.3
8/9. SERVICES 100.0 35.5 3.9 20.0 2.0 18.0 0.3 20.3
CHANGE FROM
INDUSTRY
1980 TO 1990
TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
X
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRICLTR 0.0 0.1 0.1 -1 3 -0.4 -0.4 4.6 -23
2. MINING 0.0 5.4 -1.4 -10.9 -26.1 5.0 0.1 27.9
3. MFRING 0.0 -4.8 0.9 -5 3 X I 0.6 1.0 5.6
4. U TILm ES 0.0 -1X8 -0.8 -4.1 -X I 2.7 0.2 17.0
5. CONST 0.0 -1.4 0 3 -2 3 -0.4 -5.9 -0 3 10.2
6. COMMERCE 0.0 1.5 0.8 -7.2 1.0 0.7 -1.1 4.4
7. TRANS 0.0 X I 0.9 3.1 -0.8 7.0 -0.8 -11.4
8/9. SERVICES 0.0 5.3 2.6 0.4 1.0 -11.9 0.0 2.6
Rows may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
68
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Structural Adjustment and Women's Relative Employment
The general pattern of M exico's economic policies for the
decades fro m W orld W ar II u n til the late 1970s was not
drastically different from Costa R ica's. The M exican governm ent
engaged in im port substitution industrialization and m ade large
and increasing investments in the health, education, and general
welfare of its citizens. At first, investm ent in im port substitution
industries w as private and financed by ISI itself; that is, the
policies led to substantial rents w hich were used to finance these
industries' own expansions. However, as these gains began in the
1970s to slow , the governm ent began to increase its own
investments in industry and also in social programs in an effort to
avert a slowdown in em ployment and incomes; these investm ents
were largely financed by foreign debt (Aspe 1993, 126-129;
Nelson 1990, 92-95).
The im m anent econom ic crisis and subsequent recovery
were com plicated by the discovery of large oil reserves in Mexico
in the late 1970s, which the governm ent used to ju stify its
increased foreign borrowing. The oil boom of 1978 therefore only
served to postpone and deepen the looming economic crisis, which
was fin ally recognized as being unavoidable w hen in 1980
international oil prices began to fall and U.S. interest rates began
to rise.17 From 1980 to 1982, the fiscal deficit grew from three to
17 "The tightening of U.S. monetary policy [was] the most immediate source
of Mexico's debt-service squeeze" (Nelson 1990, 97).
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15 percent of GDP, the market exchange rate of the peso lost two-
thirds o f its value relative to the dollar, and consum er prices
doubled (IMF IF S 1996). In August of 1982, the crisis became
in te rn a tio n a lly reco g n ized w hen the M exican governm ent
declared it could not m eet its debt-service obligations and began
the process of rescheduling with primary creditors. By the end of
the year a new president had been inaugurated, and a period of
stabilization and adjustm ent associated w ith de la M adrid had
begun (Nelson 1990, 97).
The stabilization policies enacted in 1983 included deep cuts
in governm ent expenditures, a large devaluation of the peso, the
tightening of dom estic credit to the private sector (made possible
p artly by the nationalization o f the banking system ), and
increases in trade restrictions to remedy the trade deficit (Nelson
1990, 98-105). For the next two years, it appeared that these
m easures were working, although slowly. By the end of 1984, the
fiscal deficit had been reduced to approxim ately seven percent of
GDP, inflation was decreasing (although still high), and there was a
substantial trade surplus. However, w ith the Septem ber 1985
earthquakes, another fall in oil prices in 1986, and the 1987
collapse of the M exican Stock Market, M exico found itself again in
econom ic crisis. To address this new situation, additional
stabilization policies were enacted that included wage and price
agreem ents with labor and firm s in leading sectors, and the
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governm ent also made a renew ed com mitment to the austerity
measures that had already been in place.
Along with these stabilization policies, the governm ent also
began to im plem ent drastic and sweeping policies w ith goals of
promoting recovery based on sustainable economic growth. These
policies included the liberalization of international trade — a
reversal of one of the initial stabilization policies — and the
privatization of most of the over 1000 state-owned firm s. Both of
these program s began in 1984 and continued throughout the
decade (S. Edwards 1995, 184; Nelson 1990, 104). Two other
important neoliberal policies were reforms in the agricultural and
financial sectors. Changes in agricultural law toward privatization
had taken place in 1980, b u t the momentum of the general
liberalization of this sector picked up in 1983 (Gates 1996, 45;
M artelo 1996, 127). In the financial sector, although the banks
that had been nationalized were not re-privatized until 1991 and
1992 (S. Edwards 1995, 192), general rationalization of domestic
bank credit began with the tightening of the stabilization period.
In addition to these traditional neoliberal policies, the governm ent
also changed its allocation of (declining) resources earm arked for
social and economic development, devoting more of them to social
program s and to private sector transportation, com m erce, and
tourism at the expense of agriculture.
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These policies are consistent w ith the changes in the
distribution of em ploym ent by industry that were explored in the
statistical analysis in the last section (the decrease in relative
employment in agriculture and the increases in the commerce and
services sectors). However, those findings illustrated that changes
in the industrial distribution would have led to an increase in
women's relative em ployment had there been no changes in the
occupational distribution within industries or in the sex mix of
occupations. These latter changes, of course, are less direct effects
of policy than are shifts in the industrial distribution. Therefore,
w hile some o f the following results may seem counterintuitive,
they will be explained as I explore the policy effects in more
d e tail.
The policies m entioned above had a m ixed effect on
women's relative employment in Mexico. Agricultural reform led
to relatively (and absolutely) few er women being em ployed in
agricultural jobs, and trade liberalization contributed to women's
d eclin in g re la tiv e em ploym ent in p ro d u ctio n o ccu p atio n s.
P riv atizatio n co n trib u ted to the d ecrease in the rela tiv e
im portance of clerical occupations overall, but appears to have
indirectly increased women's relative em ploym ent in professional
jobs by freeing up governm ent resources for social program s.
Trade liberalization seems also to have encouraged the growth of
m anagem ent positions, perhaps particularly for women, and to
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have offset som e o f the decrease in relativ e em ploym ent in
clerical occupations caused by privatization. C hanges in the
allocation of credit and of governm ent resources for developm ent
underscored these changes, w ith more funds being devoted to
sectors that were perceived as having potential for sustainable
private-sec tor grow th such as com merce, tourism , and particular
agricultural goods, and few er being ap p lied to su b sid izin g
unprofitable agricultural crops and public enterprises.
A nother im p o rtan t facto r in the decrease in w om en's
relative em ploym ent during this period w as m ost lik ely the
general poor perform ance of the economy. U nlike C osta Rica,
Mexico never really recovered from the 1982 crisis, and therefore
som e wom en probably experienced the "d iscouraged w orker
effect" of recession/depression and left the w orkforce because it
w as im possible fo r them to find em ploym ent. T his effect
probably especially contributed to the relativ e (and absolute)
drop in women's em ploym ent in service positions. This decrease
can be considered a result of the structural adjustm ent policies to
the extent that these policies failed to generate growth and create
jo b s to absorb these w orkers whose services were no longer
demanded by the shrinking m iddle class.
I now turn to each of these policies in turn. Specifically, I
w ill discuss agricultural reform , international trade liberalization,
and changes in the public sector including privatization. W ithin
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these discussions I will explore changes in the level and allocation
of governm ent resources and credit rationalization, as these
policies were part of the larger structural adjustm ents in the
agricultural, international trade, and public sectors. Although, as
stated, the outcomes of these policies were m ixed, the evidence
suggests that their net effect was a decrease in women’s relative
employment in M exico from 1980 to 1990.
A gricultural Reform
D iscussion of the changes in the agricultural sector is
com plicated by the com plex history of land reform in Mexico.
W hile some policies im plem ented in the 1980s affected both
ejidos and private farms, other reforms were directed at the ejido
system in particular (which accounted for approxim ately two-
thirds of cropland in Mexico (Heath 1992, 695-696) and is defined
later in this discussion). First, I will consider policies that affected
the entire agricultural sector, then I will discuss changes in the
ejido system, and finally I will explore how these changes affected
women's relative em ploym ent.
T he co m b in atio n o f the cu tb ack s in g o v ern m en t
expenditures, the rationalization of the allocation of government
resources, and liberalization of price controls in agriculture
affected the sector severely. In an effort to m eet the urban
demands for cheap food and also support rural households, the
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M exican go v ern m en t had since the 1970s been h ea v ily
subsidizing unprofitable crops, either directly or by cheap loans
through the Banco Nacional de Credito Rural (BANRURAL). W ith
the neoliberal reforms, such subsidies were reduced drastically, as
were loans to the agricultural sector. Total public expenditures
dropped about 25 percent in real terms from 1982 to 1990, and
public expenditures allocated to the agricultural sector decreased
from about six percent of this total to only three percent in the
same time period (IMF IFS 1990; IMF GFS various years). There
was also a 54 percent decrease in credit to the agricultural sector
in real terms from 1981 to 1987; this figure includes credit from
both public banks and the nationalized commercial banks (Calva
1991, 109). The percentage o f public credit received by
agriculture declined from about 23 percent of the total in 1982 to
about 10 percent in 1986 (IMF GFS various years). Along with the
decreases in public investment in and credit for agriculture was
the concentration of the remaining funds in producers perceived
as being potentially profitable, as opposed to those needing
subsidies to survive.
Official prices for agricultural products were allowed to fall
in the mid 1980s for a number of reasons. First, with M exico's
joining the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), there
was in tern atio n al pressure for the governm ent to d ecrease
protection of all dom estic goods, including agricultural goods.
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Also, inflation was skyrocketing again, which made any policy that
artificially raised prices and added to inertial inflation politically
unpopular (except of course with agricultural producers, but they
were becom ing few er and fewer). Finally, the overall neoliberal
nature of the adjustm ent n ecessarily m eant a decrease in
governm ent p rice m anagem ent, as the governm ent hoped to
encourage a g ric u ltu ra l producers to sta rt producing m ore
profitable crops. M oves toward a m ore free-m arket orientation
also included a decrease that began in the late 1980s in
agricultural bureaucracy, such as significant personnel cuts at
BANRURAL and the central agricultural insurance agency (Gates
1996, 49).
Changes affecting the ejido system in particular were also
occurring. Briefly, the ejido system was introduced by Article 27
of the 1917 C onstitution and allow ed for the farm ing and the
inheritance of farm ing rights to ejid o parcels, but not for the
actual private ow nership of such parcels. In theory, ejidos were
com m unal farm s m ade up of m any of these parcels, but in
actuality, parcels were usually worked by individual households.
In 1979, the UA IM (unidades agroindustriales para la mujer)
program was introduced, which allowed a collective of fifteen or
more women to be granted an ejid o plot. W hile male e jid o
farm ers or e jid a ta r io s were each granted a plot, 15 or more
women shared one plot. Not surprisingly, such UAIMs were not
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able to sustain the m em bers, but at least could be a supplemental
source of income to them (M artelo 1996, 119-121).
Two im portant changes occurred in the 1980s that affected
ejidos and UAIMs in particular. First, laws regarding private
sector involvem ent in this sector were liberalized in 1980, and
jo in t ventures between private investors and ejidatarios began to
be encouraged (Gates 1996, 45). Although few of these joint
ventures were officially registered as of 1988 (H eath 1992, 698),
this was an im portant step toward the privatization of ejidos.
Second, the m assive decreases in public credit and personnel at
BANRURAL affected this sector differentially. This is especially
true of UAIMs, which lost access to credit due to both the general
decrease in available funds and the emphasis on profitability as a
prerequisite for loans. The personnel cuts at BANRURAL
elim inated the UAIM specialists, and while the bank’s policy was
to treat men and wom en equally, women w ere obviously at a
disadvantage in com peting for credit due to the sm all size of their
plots and their lack o f positive-profit histories and collateral
(M artelo 1996, 127).
The overall effect of this liberalization o f the agricultural
sector was a decrease in the number of hectares devoted to the
grow th of staple crops m aize and beans, and increases in the
num ber of hectares devoted to wheat, sorghum, and export crops
(Barkin 1990, 18-20). These shifts reflected the relative price
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changes and the decrease in subsidies for, public investm ent in,
and credit to producers of staple crops. Small private farmers and
ejidatarios had produced a disproportionate am ount of the staple
crops because small farms were more likely to be dependent on
public credit than larger private farms, and BANRURAL often
m ade the production of staple crops a requirem ent for loans.
W ith the decrease in the funds available for public credit, small
farmers and ejidatarios were no longer constrained to producing
maize and beans, but many also did not have the technology to
produce the more capital-intensive wheat or sorghum, or the size
and profit m argins to face fluctuating prices for export crops.
Therefore, many small producers, private and ejidatarios , found it
more profitable to either sell their farms (in the case of private
farmers) or to produce agricultural goods only for subsistence and
seek employment off the farm (Barkin 1990, 19).
These changes in the agricultural sector are consistent with
the overall changes that were explored in the last section. Falling
relative prices for staple crops and a corresponding increase in
grains requiring less labor for production led to a decrease in
relative (and absolute) em ploym ent in the agricultural sector;
how ever, the faster decrease in women's em ploym ent in the
sector compared to men's still needs to be explained. Women's
relative employment seems to have decreased in the agricultural
sector for three reasons. First, women are more likely in Mexico
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to work on sm all, fam ily farms than on large, capital-intensive
ones (W ilson 1985, 1023). When m any sm all farm s found it
unprofitable to continue production for the m arket, it follows that
women w ould becom e a sm aller percentage o f agricultural
workers overall. Second, UAIMS, as discussed earlier, were at a
particular disadvantage when public investm ent and credit were
decreased since they had been historically unprofitable. Because
by law all ejidos established after 1972 had to have at least one
UAIM, the actual number of UAIMs probably did not decrease in
the 1980s. H ow ever, m ale control of UAIM plots (which was
illegal but tolerated by authorities, and was a problem for women
even before the crisis) probably increased during the decade as
m ore UAIMs eith er were unable to gain credit or found it
unprofitable to produce for the m arket (M artelo 1996, 127).
Third, the growth of maquiladoras in agricultural areas gave some
rural women another option for employment (M artelo 1996, 122).
Therefore, it is not difficult to see why women's em ploym ent in
the agricultural sector fell by an even greater percentage than did
m en's.
The detailed occupational distributions of the M exican
census changed from 1980 to 1990, making com parison in some
sectors, including this one, difficult. However, aggregating several
occupations in each year gives a rough estim ate of what happened
to women's em ploym ent in agriculture (Table 4.5). As can be
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TABLE 4.5. PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE EMPLOYMENT
AND FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN
SELECTED AGRICULTURAL OCCUPATIONS:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
Occupation
Percentage of All
Female Workers
1980 1990 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1980 1990 Change
M anagers,
adm instrtrs,
supervisors
in agricultrl
activities*
0.1 0.0 -0.1 6.8 4.8 -2.0
Farm ers and
agricultural
workers**
14.1 3.1 -11.0 12.4 3.4 -9.0
Foresters,
hunters,
trappers
fishers
0.2 0.1 -0.1 8.4 2.2 -6.2
W orkers in
production of
agricultural
and seafood
products*
0.0 02 0.2 19.6 28.2 8.6
Source: Calculated from 1980 and 1990 censuses.
* Zeros refer to numbers less than 1/20 of a percent.
** Includes "Other agricultural workers" in both censuses.
seen, the percentage o f total female em ploym ent decreased in
every agricultural occupational category except that of "workers
in production of agricultural and seafood products," and the same
is true of the percentage of these occupations held by women. It
should be noted that the decrease in the category "m anagers,
adm inistrators, supervisors in agricultural activities" was m ost
likely due to the cutbacks in agricultural bureaucracy mentioned
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above, which also led to a decrease in clerical jobs in the
agricultural industry. This decrease in clerical jobs contributed to
the overall decrease in that occupational category seen in the last
section. These fin d in g s suggest th at the reform s in the
agricultural sector contributed to the shift in the industrial
distribution of em ploym ent out of the agricultural sector, to the
decrease in the percentage of clerical occupations in that sector,
and to the decline in women's relative em ployment in agricultural
occupations.
Trade Liberalization
As part of the initial stabilization policies to reduce domestic
consum ption, de la M adrid's ad m in istratio n had increased
protectionist policies to discourage im ports but devalued the peso
to encourage exports. After Mexico's negotiations for joining the
GATT in 1985, however, drastic international trade liberalization
policies were enacted. The average tariff (weighted) decreased
from 16.4 to 10.5 percent from 1985 to 1990, and the maximum
tariff was reduced from 100 to 20 percent. There was a virtual
elim ination of quotas, and the percentage of im ports subject to
perm its fell from 100 percent in 1983 to about 14 percent in
1990 (Aspe 1993, 157-158).
In addition to these policies, several export incentive
program s were also introduced beginning in 1985. The first of
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these p ro g ram s im plem ented was PIT E X (Programa de
Importacion Temporal para la Prodduccion de Articulos de
E x p o r ta c io n ), which allowed firms that exported at least ten
percent of their production to avoid paying tariffs on interm ediate
and capital goods. Another such program was DIMEX (Derechos de
Importacion para la Exportacion) w hich sim ilarly allow ed
exporting firm s to avoid im port licenses on their inputs; and
finally, ALTEX (Empresas Altamente Exportadora) sim plified
export-im port processes for businesses that joined (Zabludovsky
1989, 184, 189-190n). Although a few industries still rem ained
protected by im port licensing, the export incentives were neutral
in that they did not prom ote particular exports (such as
nontraditional or manufactured exports) over others. The goal of
these policies was to counter anti-export bias and encourage
exports in general.
One of the results of these trade liberalization policies was
that the volume of goods exports increased by a multiple of more
than 1.3 from 1980 to 1990 (CEPAL 1995). However, it should be
noted that the increases in volume were m uch greater in and
following years of large devaluations of the peso, which suggests
that these devaluations probably had a greater positive effect on
the volume of exports than did the trade liberalization and export
prom otion polices. These devaluations had the effect of lowering
the price of M exican products on the world market; due to this
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and the changing com position o f exports that will be discussed
below, the value of goods exports rose by about 60 percent in real
terms from 1980 to 1990 (IMF IFS 1993).
Trade liberalization and export prom otion policies did not
ju st increase the volume and value of exports but, along with
relativ e p ric e changes, also co n trib u ted to the changing
composition of exports (Table 4.6). Significant changes in
TABLE 4.6. VALUE OF GOODS EXPORTS BY SECTOR AS A
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL VALUE OF GOODS EXPORTS:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
Change in
Sector 1980 1990
percentage
of total
Agriculture 9.7 9.3 -0.4
Mining and quarrying 67.1 37.1 -29.9
Food/beverages/tobacco 4.9 3.0 -1.9
Manufacturing:
intermediate goods 11.1 20.1 9.0
Manufacturing:
metals and machinery 5.2 26.9 21.7
Other manufacturing:
mostly nondurable
consumer goods
1.9 3.5 1.6
Total 100.0 100.0 0.0
Source: CEPAL (1995).
contributions o f particular sectors to the value of total exports
were the decrease in mining and quarrying and the increase in
metal and m achinery manufacturing. Of course, the former can be
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explained primarily by the drop in oil prices in the 1980s, and the
latter appears to be related to the grow th and changing
com position of the m a q u ila d o ra (or export-oriented assem bly)
industry in Mexico.
Em ploym ent in maquiladoras in 1980 was only a little more
than one-half of one percent of total M exican em ployment, but
growth in this sector has been dynamic. By 1990, employment in
m a q u ila d o r a s had increased by a m ultiple of three, and had
become alm ost two percent of total employment in Mexico (Sklair
1993, 63 and 241; ENEGI 1980, 1990). M aquiladoras had before
liberalization been exem pt from many tariffs and licenses, but the
new policies relaxed various restrictions such as the tw enty
percent (on average) lim it of domestic sales and made this type of
production more attractive. Therefore, the growth of these plants
was undoubtedly bolstered by the export prom otion policies.
While all types of m aquiladora employment increased during the
1980s, the fastest grow ing sector in term s of em ployees added
was transportation equipm ent m anufacturing, the next larg est
in c re a se in em p lo y m e n t was the e le c tro n ic co m p o n en ts
m anufacturing sector, and the slow est grow ing of the large
m a q u ila d o r a sectors was the clothing assem bly sector (Sklair
1993, 70). The change in the relative contributions of the
manufacturing sectors to the value of total goods exports overall is
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consistent with these shifts and the growth in the m a q u ila d o ra
sector.
Two other employment patterns pertaining to m aquiladoras
should be noted before examining the effects of these trade
liberalization policies on women's employment overall. First, male
operatives (as opposed to technicians and adm inistrative staff)
were being hired at a much faster rate in the 1980s than ever
before in the m aquiladoras . As stated in my discussion of Costa
Rica, m a q u i l a d o r a s are known fo r their largely fem ale
workforces, and this holds true for M exico as well. However,
about 77 percent of operatives in m aquiladoras were female in
1980, but by 1990 this percentage had dropped to less than 61
percent (Sklair 1993, 167 and 241). This was partly due to the
rapid grow th of the transportation equipm ent m anufacturing
plants mentioned above, in which men hold a higher percentage of
operative jobs than in many other types of maquiladoras (Sklair
1993, 177). Other possibilities for the increase in men's relative
em ployment in these plants include the exhaustion of the fem ale
labor force in maquiladora areas, or simply the lack of other
better paying jobs for men due to the economic downturn.
The other em ploym ent pattern in m a q u ila d o r a s w orth
noting is the increase in technical and administrative staff as a
percentage o f total em ployment in the sector from under 15
percent in 1980 to over 19 percent in 1990 (Sklair 1993, 207 and
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241). I w ill discuss the decrease in relative em ploym ent in
clerical positions overall in the next section, but the fact that
relative em ploym ent in these p o sitio n s i n c r e a s e d in the
m a q u ila d o r a sector may have contributed to the increase in
women's relative employment in this occupational category (Table
4.3). The same may be true of m anagerial jobs, which increased
slightly in relativ e im portance over the decade w hile the
percentage of these jobs held by women increased slightly as well.
It may be that because the m aquiladora sector is dom inated by
female operatives, clerical and m anagerial positions are m ore
likely to be filled by women in this than in other sectors.
However, I m ust emphasize that these contributions to changes in
clerical and m anagerial occupations w ould be small, considering
maquiladora em ploym ent is only about two percent of M exican
employment overall, and about 80 percent of m aquiladora jobs
were production jobs in 1990 (Sklair 1993, 241).
The effects of the growth and changing composition of total
exports (produced both by m aquiladoras and by other firms) on
the production occupational category, however, are likely to have
been significant. Again, because the categorization changed in the
detailed occupational distributions betw een the 1980 and the
1990 census, they are not helpful in determ ining what types of
production jobs became relatively more or less important over the
decade. H ow ever, the 1990 distribution divides production
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workers into ten categories, and shows that more than 23 percent
of all p ro d u ctio n w orkers (in clu d in g supervisors, artisan s,
workers, m achine operators, and unskilled workers) were engaged
in metal or m achinery manufacture in that year; it also indicates
that 92 percent of these workers were men (INEGI 1990). W hile
it cannot be determ ined how much production jobs grew in this
area from 1980 to 1990, it can at least be concluded that this
sector was very im portant in 1990.
TABLE 4.7. PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS
AND FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN
SELECTED PRODUCTION OCCUPATIONS:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
Occupation
Percentage of All
Female W orkers
1980 1990 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1980 1990 Change
Supervisors,
inspectors,
etc. in
production
0.4 i.l 0.7 13.8 15.6 1.8
Artesans and
workers
(including
machine
operators)
16.1 14.0 -2.1 17.8 15.2 -2.6
Assistants
and unskilled
workers
0.9 2.3 1.4 8.9 11.5 2.6
Source: Calculated from 1980 and 1990 censuses.
A ggregating the detailed occupational distributions from
1980 and 1990 to make them com parable indicates production
occupations overall stayed constant as a percentage of all fem ale
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employment, but that the female percentage of such occupations
decreased (Table 4.7). While the fem ale percentage of the two
sm aller o ccu p atio n s (su p erv iso rs/in sp ecto rs/etc. in production
and assistan ts/u n sk illed w orkers) in creased slightly, wom en
became a sm aller percentage in the m uch larger category of
artisans/w orkers for a net decrease in the fem ale percentage of
production w orkers overall. Again, these findings are consistent
with the more general findings in the last section. It appears that
trade lib eralizatio n and export prom otion contributed to the
relative increase in employment in the m anufacturing sector and
in production occupations overall. H ow ever, as much of the
growth in exports was in metal and m achinery manufacturing, a
m ale-dom inated sector, men's em ploym ent in production jobs
increased faster than women's, resulting in a decrease in women's
relative em ploym ent in production jobs. Changes in the ratio of
ad m in istra tiv e and technical s ta ff to o p erativ es in the
maquiladora sector, however, may have made a small contribution
to the increases in women's relative em ploym ent in clerical and
m anagerial jobs.
Public Sector Reform and Privatization
In 1983, M exico reduced its public expenditures by 17
percent in real term s; the reduction in expenditures minus
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interest payments was even larger at almost 38 percent (Table
4.8). Interest payments grew as the decade wore on, and because
TABLE 4.8. CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES INCLUDING
AND LESS INTEREST PAYMENTS:
MEXICO 1980 TO 1990
Gov't Exp
Less Int
Real GDP Gov't Exp Payments
(1990 Interest Less (1990
prices, Paym ents Interest prices,
mlns US Gov't Exp as as % of Pm ts as % mlns US
Year dollars) % of GDP Gov’ t Exp of GDP dollars)
1980 208336 16.8 10.0 15.1 31470
1981 224892 19.3 14.3 16.5 37183
1982 223654 28.9 14.7 24.6 55064
1983 214267 25.0 35.9 16.0 34337
1984 222006 22.9 33.5 15.2 33804
1985 227760 24.9 37.0 15.7 35663
1986 219210 28.8 50.8 14.2 31027
1987 223279 30.9 59.6 12.5 27886
1988 226061 27.5 59.0 11.3 25485
1989 233630 22.7 54.6 10.3 24104
1990 244012 19.5 46.4 10.5 25575
Total
percentage
change
1980 to 1990
17.1 -18.7
Source: Calculated from IMF IFS and GFS various years.
the M exican governm ent had dedicated itself to fiscal and
monetary restraint, this meant that less funding was available for
subsidies and credit, public enterprises, and social program s.
However, in 1984, Mexico began selling off its small and medium
89
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sized public firm s, and by 1990 had also sold several large
enterprises, each worth m ore than 100 m illion US dollars (S.
Edwards 1995, 172). In 1980, there were 1,155 state-ow ned
firms; by Septem ber of 1989, there were only 389 (V era 1996,
95). One of the results of these privatizations was that the
governm ent was able to devote a sm aller percentage o f its
available resources to subsidizing unprofitable state firm s and a
greater percentage to social program s.
In 1980, about 40 percent of governm ent expenditures less
interest paym ents was spent on health, education, social security
and w elfare com bined, w hile about 35 percent was spent on
econom ic affairs and services to the ag ricu ltu ral, energy,
m anufacturing, and other sectors. By 1990, 54 p ercen t of
governm ent expenditures less interest paym ents was being spent
on the social programs m entioned above, while the percentage
devoted to econom ic affairs had dropped to around 27 percent
(Table 4.9). Therefore, while expenditures on social program s
were not growing as fast as GDP, they were at least still increasing
even w hile governm ent ex p en d itu res less in terest paym ents
decreased (T able 4.8). The M exican governm ent w as able to
achieve this by reallocating expenditures toward social program s
at the expense of government support for firms, including state
e n te rp rise s.
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TABLE 4.9 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES ON SOCIAL
PROGRAMS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS:
MEXICO 1980 TO 1990
Gov't Exp Gov’ t Exp
Year
Gov’ t Exp
on Health
(1990
prices,
mlns US
dollars)
Gov’ t Exp
onEdu -
cation
(1990
prices,
mlns US
dollars)
on Social
Security
and
Welfare
(1990
prices,
mlns US
dollars)
on
Health,
Edu, SS
and Wlfr
as % of
Gov't Exp
Less Int
Prats
Gov’ t Exp
on Eco
nomic
Affairs
(1990
prices,
mlns US
dollars)
Gov't Exp
on Eco
nomic
Affairs as
%of
Gov't Exp
Less Int
Pmts
1980 839 6292 5593 40.4 10906 34.7
1981 807 7890 6386 40.6 15781 42.4
1982 845 8446 6825 29.3 16093 292
1983 647 5872 5489 35.0 20517 59.8
1984 768 6282 4836 35.2 13808 40.8
1985 783 6541 5484 35.9 14533 40.8
1986 797 5755 5187 37.8 11884 38.3
1987 797 5752 4714 40.4 8547 30.7
1988 831 5625 4741 43.9 6315 24.8
1989 833 6431 5267 52.0 7835 32.5
1990 879 6797 6139 54.0 6946 27.2
Total
ercentage
change
180 to 1990
4.8 8.0 9.8 -36.3
Source: Calculated from IMF IFS and GFS various years.
Along with this growing em phasis on social programs came a
44 percent increase in governm ent expenditures on w ages and
salaries. This increase appears to have contributed to an increase
9 1
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in women's relative em ploym ent in the professions overall. In
fact, the only professions that becam e a significantly larger
percentage of all fem ale em ployment from 1980 to 1990 w ere
those related to the public sector: professionals and specialists in
the social sciences (such as economists and public accountants),
professionals and specialists in the life sciences (such as doctors
and nurses), and teachers (Table 4.10). The female percentage of
TABLE 4.10: PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS
AND FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN
SELECTED PUBLIC SECTOR RELATED OCCUPATIONS:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
Occupation 1980
Percentage of All
Female W orkers
1990 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1980 1990 Change
Professionals
in the social
sciences
0.6 1.5 0.9 20.7 31.8 11.1
Professionals
in the life
sciences
0.6 1.1 0.5 22.6 28.5 5.9
Specialists/
technicians
in the social
sciences
0.7 2.0 1.3 41.7 46.7 5.0
Specialists/
technicians
in the life
sciences
3.1 3.9 0.8 69.5 72.6 3.1
Teachers 6.8 9.9 3.1 57.2 60.3 3.1
Source: calculated from the 1980 and 1990 censuses.
these occupational categories also increased, which is consistent
with increases in expenditures on social programs as women tend
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to be overrepresented in the public sector, and especially in
health, education, and welfare occupations.
These changes are reflected in the overall changes in
w om en's relative em ploym ent in the professions that w ere
illustrated in the last section. Professional occupations grew as a
percentage of total em ployment, and the fem ale percentage o f
workers holding professional jobs increased as well. The changing
com position of governm ent expenditures, with more funds being
devoted to social programs and fewer being allocated to state and
other firm s, undoubtedly contributed to this (absolute and
relative) increase in professional jobs for women in Mexico.
On the other hand, privatization appears to have contributed
to the relative decrease in clerical jobs overall, while increasing
th eir im portance to women. D etailed data regarding the
occupational com position of layoffs or "no-grow th" policies in
privatized firms are not available, but there is inform ation that
suggests that such layoffs and policies would have affected clerical
w orkers disproportionately.18 First, union power, although eroded
by threats of firm bankruptcies and closures if privatizations were
not possible, was a significant com plicating factor in the
p riv atizatio n of m any enterprises (S anchez, et al. 1993).
T h erefore, in secto rs w here p ro d u ctio n occupations w ere
18 "No-growth" policies were a way to gain employee support for
privatization by promising no or few layoffs at the time of privatization in
exchange for an understanding that there would be no additional
employees hired for some period of time.
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unionized and clerical positions were not, agreem ents regarding
layoffs or no-grow th would have favored production jobs. A lso,
due to this declining power of unions, m anagem ent in many cases
was able to successfully de-unionize adm inistrative and clerical
positions in firm s w here they had been organized prior to
privatization efforts (Teichm an 1996, 156).
Although the category of clerical occupations overall became
relatively sm aller from 1980 to 1990, women became a greater
percentage of clerical workers. The reasons for this are unclear
but one possibility was mentioned in the previous section on trade
liberalization — perhaps the clerical jobs that were rapidly being
created in the fem ale-dom inated maquiladoras were even m ore
likely in this than in other types of firms to be filled by women.
A nother (related) p ossibility is that because low -level public
enterprise occupations tend to pay better and be perceived as
being higher status than com parable private sector jo b s ,19 a
relative shift in clerical jobs into the private sector would tend to
low er the wages and status of such occupations and therefore they
would be more likely to be filled by women.
Along w ith the lack of data regarding public enterprise
em ploym ent and layoffs, another com plication regarding clerical
occupations is a large category of "other office workers" w hich
19 This seems to be the case in many Latin American countries, as
illustrated by many o f the works on women's pay and employment in a
volume edited by Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos (1992).
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declined significantly as a percentage of total em ploym ent from
1980 to 1990 (Table 4.11); the increases in other categories,
TABLE 4.11. PERCENTAGE OF ALL FEMALE WORKERS AND
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN
SELECTED CLERICAL OCCUPATIONS:
MEXICO 1980 AND 1990
Occupation 1980
Percentage of All
Female W orkers
1990 Change
Female Percentage of Total
Employment in Occupation
1980 1990 Change
Department
heads,
supervisors,
etc.
0.5 2.4 1.9 19.5 28.0 8.5
Secretaries,
typists, etc.
8.2 11.6 3.4 92.7 93.9 1.2
Bookkeepers,
etc.
2.3 3.8 1.5 40.7 50.5 9.8
O perators of
office
machinery
0.2 0.6 0.4 39.7 51.6 11.9
Library,
archive
workers
0.2 0.8 0.6 14.2 20.6 6.4
Other office
workers
7.0 22 -4.8 31.4 44.0 12.7
Source: calculated from the 1980 and 1990 censuses.
therefore, may be due in part only to better categorization in
1990. Even accounting for this category, however, clerical jobs as
a percentage o f all female em ployment grew from 1980 to 1990
due to the increase in the percentage of all clerical jobs being held
by women, which offset the decrease in the relative size o f the
occupational category overall (Table 4.3). Although the data are
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insufficient to draw definite conclusions, there is evidence to
suggest that these changes in clerical occupations were related to
the privatization efforts of the 1980s in Mexico.
Conclusions
There is one more important reason why w om en's relative
employment in Mexico declined from 1980 to 1990 that has not
been addressed yet. The reason it has not been examined is
because the decline in the female percentage of personal service
workers m entioned briefly above was not due to a particular
structural adjustm ent policy. It was instead due to an absolute
and relative decrease in domestic work occupations in Mexico,
which accounted for about 5 percent of all em ploym ent and more
than 17 percent of female employment in 1980. By 1990, less
than 3 percent of all workers were domestic w orkers, and less
than 12 percent of fem ale workers held dom estic work jobs.
Because w om en were about 89 and 97 percent of domestic
workers in 1980 and 1990 respectively, this decrease in domestic
work occupations is reflected in the declining percentage of
women in personal service occupations overall (Table 4.3).
A decrease in the relative importance of dom estic work for
women could be interpreted two ways: the decrease is good for
female workers if it is due to their obtaining better jobs, and it is
bad if it is due to their losing their jobs and not being able to find
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others. If women's relative em ploym ent in other low-skill jobs is
increasing faster than the decrease in domestic workers, then a
decreasing p ercen tag e of fem ale w orkers in dom estic w ork
probably indicates m ore choices of work for wom en w ith few
skills. However, in Mexico, women's relative employment in other
occupational categories that would include low-skill jobs — such
as production and agriculture — was decreasing. Along w ith the
difficult econom ic tim es that M exico was experiencing, which
would decrease dem and for dom estic help by the m iddle class,
this indicates that fem ale dom estic workers were m ost likely
being pushed out of their jobs rather than being draw n into
others. A gain, this finding can only be considered a result of
M exico's structural adjustm ent policies in that they failed to
create either the econom ic grow th to m aintain dem and for
dom estic w orkers, or alternative jo b s for such w orkers when
demand for their services decreased.
A gricultural reform , trade liberalization, and public sector
reform had m ixed effects on wom en's relative em ploym ent, but
the net result of these and the decline in domestic work jobs was
a decrease in women's relative em ploym ent. The relative losses
fem ale w orkers experienced in production occupations due to
trade liberalization, in agricultural jobs due to agricultural reform,
and in service occupations due to the decrease in dem and for
dom estic w orkers outw eighed the gains made in professional
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occupations due to public sector reform and in clerical jobs due to
privatization. There can be little doubt that fem ale w orkers in
M exico w ere relativ ely worse o ff after structural adjustm ent,
especially fem ale workers in low er-status occupations. The lack
of effective em ploym ent-creating structural adjustm ent policies
appears to have affected fem ale w orkers disproportionately in
Mexico from 1980 to 1990.
Comparisons to Costa Rica
Dom estic w ork occupations becam e a smaller percentage of
female em ploym ent in Costa Rica from 1987 to 1991, as they did
in M exico from 1980 to 1990. As stated above, this can be
interpreted two ways. In M exico, the evidence suggests that this
was due to a large decrease in dem and for domestic w orkers due
to declining incom es in the m iddle class, but in Costa R ica the
situation was quite different. It appears that in Costa R ica the
declining im portance of dom estic w ork jobs for fem ale w orkers
may have been due to low -skilled fem ale workers having m ore
options for em ploym ent due to international trade and tourism
related job growth. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that
in Costa Rica, all workers in dom estic work occupations stayed an
almost constant percentage of all em ployment, and men becam e a
greater percentage of domestic workers. Also, whereas in M exico
the absolute num ber of (both male and female) dom estic workers
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declined, fem ale em ploym ent in dom estic work jobs only grew
m ore slowly than in other occupations in Costa Rica. Finally,
women's relative em ploym ent in other low -skill jobs such as
fabric m achinery w orkers, ag ricu ltu ral w orkers, and street
vendors increased in Costa Rica. That the relative demand for
domestic workers did not seem to change significantly, along with
the increase in women's relative em ploym ent in other low -skill
jobs, supports the idea that the declining importance of domestic
work jobs for fem ale workers in Costa Rica was most likely due to
low-skilled female workers being drawn into other jobs, instead of
being pushed out of domestic work.
From these analyses of w om en's em ploym ent and its
relationship to structural adjustm ent policies, there appear to
have been three m ajor differences in the two economies that help
explain why w om en's relative em ploym ent grew in Costa Rica
while it declined in Mexico during adjustment. First, and perhaps
m ost im portantly, the Mexican economy simply did not perform
as well as C osta Rica's during the 1980s. Costa Rica's gross
domestic product increased by about 40 percent in real terms
from 1980 to 1990, while M exico's only increased by about 17
percent. Although Costa Rica's population growth rate was higher
than Mexico's over the period, per capita gross domestic product
increased by alm ost 2 percent in Costa Rica but fell by about 5
percent in M exico (IMF IFS 1999). It is likely that the more
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severe econom ic dow nturn of Mexico was responsible for the
decrease in the absolute and relative em ploym ent of domestic
workers. Considering the percentage of fem ale workers that held
domestic work occupations in Mexico in the 1980s, this had a
significant effect on women's employment overall.
Also, M exico's debt service was a m uch greater percentage
of its gross dom estic product and governm ent expenditures than
was Costa Rica’s. M exico's government was therefore unable or
unwilling to continue subsidizing em ploym ent (in agriculture,
im port substitution industries, and state-ow ned enterprises) at
the same level it had before the crisis, while Costa Rica did not
face such severe budget constraints. Related to this withdrawal of
the Mexican government from its economy as opposed to the Costa
Rican governm ent's continued involvem ent is the last m ain
difference between the two countries — C osta Rica's m ore
aggressive em ploym ent-inducing policies and M exico's m ore
traditional neoliberal policies. E xam ples of these include
international trade liberalization and export prom otion in Mexico,
which sought only to counter anti-export bias while in Costa Rica
it actually created bias in favor of nontraditional exports through
tax exem ptions and credits, and C osta R ica's prom otion of
international tourism projects.
Mexico's more laissez-faire policies were undoubtedly partly
due to the severe contraction of funds available for economic
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developm ent projects and the need to protect tax revenues, but
there is evidence as w ell that there existed real ideological
differences in M exican and Costa R ican policym akers. For
instance, M exican president de la Madrid appointed to his cabinet
several people w ith whom he had worked at the treasury of the
Central Bank w here he had been a conservative leader (Nelson
1990, 98). The M exican government, far from resisting pressure
from creditors and international lending agencies for economic
reform, im plem ented the neoliberal policies explored here, among
others, w ith little hesitation. Costa Rica's Assembly, on the other
hand, resisted m any neoliberal m easures after stabilization was
achieved, going to such an extreme in once case as to implement
an im port-reduction policy to ensure an aid and loan package,
only to reverse the policy once the funds had been received
(Nelson 1990, 187-188). It appears the M exican governm ent
attem pted to red u ce the social cost o f adjustm ent through
increased spending on social programs, whereas the Costa Rican
governm ent tended to internalize public opposition to reform.
M y analysis suggests that women in the workforce did
relatively better in Costa Rica than they did in Mexico during
adjustm ent. W om en's share of total em ploym ent as well as of
each occupational category grew in Costa Rica, although much of
the job growth was in lower-status occupations. In Mexico, the
percentage of total employment that was fem ale fell, and Mexican
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women tended to lose the m ost ground in occupational categories
that w ould include low er-skilled w orkers. W hile this rapid
growth of fem ale employment in low-skill jobs in Costa Rica may
have reflected a growing necessity for women to work outside the
home due to the lower incomes of much of the 1980s, there is no
reason to believe with the m ore severe downturn in M exico that
this necessity w ould be any less pressing there. Given this, there
can be little doubt that the women in the workforce of Costa Rica
were relatively better off than those in Mexico in the 1980s.
W ere the differences in the structural adjustm ent policies of
Costa Rica and Mexico responsible for the different patterns of
change in w om en's relative em ploym ent in each country? It
appears that they were contributing, but certainly not the only,
determ inants. Som e of the other d eterm inants have been
mentioned here, such as economic growth and the level of funding
available for econom ic and social d ev elo p m en t p ro jects.20
However, there are other factors I have not had the opportunity
to explore here, such as culturally-determ ined sexual divisions of
labor. These m ight have helped explain why I found in this
analysis that export-orientation in agriculture led to relatively
more women being employed in those occupations in Costa Rica,
w hereas in M exico it led to relatively few er wom en being
em ployed. A long with these other determ inants, however, Costa
20 I am making the simplistic assumption that debt-service is given, and
not a policy choice.
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Rica's more moderate and less traditional approach to neoliberal
reform does appear to have contributed to the increase in
women's relative employment, whereas in M exico, the laissez-
faire approach appears to have contributed to the decline in
women's relative em ploym ent there.
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CHAPTER 5
EXTENSIONS AND COMPARISONS
In this chapter I briefly describe the changes in wom en's
relative em ploym ent and the econom ic policies of Chile, Ecuador,
and V enezuela in the 1980s. I also explore whether or not the
rela tio n sh ip s b etw een p o lic ie s and w om en's em p lo y m e n t
suggested by my analyses of Costa Rica and Mexico appear to be
consistent w ith the policies and changes in the other three
countries. As shall be seen, the effects of privatization and
changes in public expenditures on women's relative em ploym ent
appear to be similar from country to country. Trade liberalization,
on the other hand, did not result in a consistent pattern of change
among the countries. N otw ithstanding what m ay have been
suggested by the findings in Costa Rica and Mexico, there also does
not seem to be any observable relationship between the rate of
economic growth and women's relative employment in the other
three countries. Finally, I end the chapter with a sum m ary and
comparison of changes in women's relative employment in all five
countries.
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Chile
Statistical Analysis of Women's Relative Em ploym ent
The percentage of the labor force that was female in Chile
increased from 30.4% in 1982 to 31.7% in 1992 (Table 5.1). The
changes in the distributions o f the labor force by occupation
w ithin industry, and by sex w ithin occupation co n trib u ted
positively to w om en's relative em ploym ent; however, changes in
the industrial distribution offset these increases somewhat. The
TABLE 5.1. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE:
CHILE 1982 AND 1992
A. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1982
FEMALE 30.4%
MALE 69.6%
i. CHANGE DUE TO INDUSTRIAL
DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
FEMALE -2.1%
MALE 2.1%
B. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1992
FEMALE
MALE
31.7%
68.3%
ii. CHANGE DUE TO
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN INDUSTRIES
FEMALE
MALE
2.3%
-2.3%
iii. CHANGE DUE TO SEX
DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
WITHIN OCCUPATIONS
FEMALE 1.1%
MALE -1.1%
C. TOTAL CHANGE (B - A)
FEMALE
MALE
1.3%
-1.3%
iv. TOTAL CHANGE (i + ii + iii)
FEMALE
MALE
1.3%
-1.3%
Source: Calculated from ILO (1998-2000).
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net change in wom en's relative em ploym ent was therefore 1.3
percentage points. To better understand the principle forces of
the change in each argument, I now exam ine the detail of the
shifts in each distribution — sex within occupation (Table 5.2),
occupational within industry (Table 5.3) and industrial (Table 5.4).
TABLE 5.2. FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS
AND OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS (BOTH SEXES):
CHILE 1982 AND 1992
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OCCUPATIONAL
OCCUPATION OF OCCUPATION DISTRIBUTION
1982 1992 CHANGE 1982 1992
1. PROF/TECH 52.2 53.0 0.8 7.7 8.3
2. ADM/MGR 13.2 20.5 7.3 2.0 3.8
3. CLERICAL 42.8 45.7 2.9 12.8 13.8
4. SALES 39.1 47.2 8.2 12.7 11.4
5. SERVICE 70.8 70.0 -0.8 12.4 12.9
6. AGRCLTRL 4.5 10.0 5.5 16.5 18.2
7.8.9. PROD/
TRANS 17.2 12.5 -4.7 35.9 31.6
Occupational distributions may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (1998-2000).
The changes in the sex mix of occupations contributed
positively to the increase in the female proportion of the labor
force in Chile (Table 5.2). As can be seen, the largest occupational
categories in 1980 were production (about 36% of the work force),
agricultural (alm ost 17%), clerical, sales (alm ost 13% each), and
service (about 12%). Although there was a negative relative
change of 4.7 percentage points for women in production jobs,
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there were increases in women's relative employment in clerical,
agricultural and sales occupations of about 3, 5.5 and 8 percentage
points respectively. The net result of these changes was an
increase in women's relative employment of a little more than one
percentage point.
The increase in w om en's relative em ploym ent due to
changes in the distribution of occupations within industries was
almost entirely due to the decrease of almost 24 percentage points
in the production occupations of the CSP services sector (third
panel of Table 5.3). As these occupations were male dominated
(about 85% male from Table 5.2) and this sector was very large
(about 38% of the work force in 1982 from Table 5.4), the effect
was significant. This decrease corresponds with increases in two
female-dominated occupations: about 11 percentage points in the
service jobs and about 7.5 percentage points in professional
positions.
We also see in Table 5.3 that a small change in favor of
women occurred in the agricultural industry where there was a
decrease in agricultural occupations, which were about 95% male
in 1982 (Table 5.2). Similarly for men, a small relative increase
occurred for them in the com merce industry, as there was a
decrease of about 10 percentage points in the significantly female
sales occupational category. Approximately half of this decrease
was accounted for by increases in the more heavily m ale
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TABLE 5.3: OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY
1982
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
I.
PROD/TECH
(PERCENTAGES)
CHILE: 1982 A N D 1992
2. 3. 4.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCL.TR 100.0 0.3 0.1 0 3 0.0 0.3 97.6 1.2
2. MINING 100.0 4.4 1 J 11.8 0.0 3.5 0.4 78.6
3. MFRING 100.0 2.8 3 3 12.6 23 3.0 0 3 75.8
4. UTILITIES 100.0 10.9 0.8 39.0 0.0 4.0 13 44.1
5. CONST 100.0 6.9 3.6 7.4 0.2 23 0.1 79 3
6. COMMERCE 100.0 0.4 3.7 9.6 69.7 9.3 0.1 73
7. TRANS 100.0 0.7 2 3 19.5 0.6 2.2 0.0 74.7
8. BUS SERV 100.0 12.4 3.4 70.6 5.6 5.2 0.4 23
9. CSPSERV 100.0 16.8 1.4 12.7 0 3 25.8 1.4 41.6
1992
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 100.0 0.6 0.5 1.2 0.0 0 3 96.5 0.8
2. MINING 100.0 11.2 1.0 10.7 0.0 1.0 0.3 75.9
3. MFRING 100.0 3.0 5.3 13.8 2.3 1.8 0.1 73.7
4. U TILm ES 100.0 13.9 0.3 34.5 0.0 7.4 1.9 42.0
5. CONST 100.0 2.6 3.3 6.6 0.0 1.6 0.0 85.8
6. COMMERCE 100.0 0.6 6.4 13.7 59 3 10.9 0.1 9.2
7. TRANS 100.0 1.7 4.8 19.4 0 3 3.7 0.0 69.8
8. BUS SERV 100.0 14.2 6.4 53.3 6.9 14.8 1.0 3.3
9. CSPSERV 100.0 24.4 2.8 15.4 0.2 36.7 2.7 17.7
CHANGE FROM 1982 TO 1992
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.0 0.2 -1.1 -0.4
2. MINING 0.0 6.7 -0.3 -1.1 0.0 -2.5 -0.1 -2.7
3. MFRING 0.0 0.2 2.1 13 0.0 -1.2 -0.2 -2.1
4. UTILITIES 0.0 3.0 -0.5 -4.4 0.0 3.3 0.7 -2.1
5. CONST 0.0 -4.3 -0.3 -0.7 -03 -0.6 -0.1 6.2
6. COMMERCE 0.0 0.3 2.7 4.1 -10.5 1.6 -0.1 1.9
7. TRANS 0.0 1.1 2.5 -0.1 -0.2 1.5 0.0 -4.9
8. BUS SERV 0.0 1.8 3.1 -17.3 1.3 9.6 0.7 0.9
9. CSPSERV 0.0 7.6 1.4 2.7 0.0 10.9 1 J -23.9
Rows may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (1998-2000).
m anagerial and production occupations. These sm aller shifts,
however, largely offset each other and the changes in favor of
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women in the CSP services sector dom inated the resu lts of
occupational distrib u tio n changes w ithin industries. T he net
result was an increase of women’s relative em ployment o f about
2.3 percentage points.
This increase, however, was largely compensated for by the
industrial distribution changes over the decade that favored men.
The shift out of CSP services, w here few er than h alf o f the
workers w ere in the m ost m ale-dom inated occupations, and into
the m anufacturing, construction, and agricultural sectors, w here
far more than half of the workers w ere in male-dom inated jobs,
resulted in about a 2 percentage p o in t decrease in w om en's
relative em ploym ent. Table 3.4 illustrates the prim ary industrial
shifts out of the CSP service sector and into the m anufacturing,
construction, agricultural, and business service industries.
W hile Table 5.3 shows that in 1982 the largest occupational
category in the CSP services industry was production (w hich was
about 83% m ale in 1982, from T able 5.2), this occupational
category accounted for less than half of the w orkers in this
industry. The next three largest occupational categories, services,
professional, and clerical (which com bined accounted for m ore
than half of the workers in the industry) all had a significant if
not a high proportion o f women. On the other hand, 76% of
w orkers in the m an u factu rin g in d u stry and 80% in the
construction sector were in production occupations (T able 5.3),
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while 98% o f w orkers in the agricultural industry w ere in
agricultural o ccu p atio n s.21 Therefore, this shift out of a sector
dominated by significantly female occupations into one dom inated
by male jobs obviously favored men's relative employment.
TABLE 5.4. PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
CHILE 1982 AND 1992
1982 1992 CHANGE
1. AGRCLTR 16.2 18.0 1.8
2. MINING 1.9 1.8 -0.1
3. MFRING 12.7 17.1 4.4
4. UTILITIES 0.9 0.5 -0.4
5. CONST 2.9 7.1 4.2
6. COMMERCE 17.3 17.8 0.5
7. TRANS 6.3 7.0 0.7
8. BUS SERV 3.7 5.1 1.4
9. CSPSERV 38.1 25.6 -12.5
TOTAL 100.0 100.0 0.0
Columns may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (1998-2000).
The net result of these industrial distribution changes that
favored men's relative employment, combined with the changes in
the occupational distribution within industries and the sex m ix of
occupations that favored women's relative employment, w as an
increase in the proportion of the Chilean w orkforce that was
female from 1982 to 1992 of 1.3 percentage points.
21 I also mentioned a small increase in the business services industry,
which has as its largest occupation clerical workers. This occupation is not
heavily dominated by either sex, so the increase here at the expense o f
community/social/personal services would not favor either sex
significantly.
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Structural A djustm ent and Women's Relative Employment
Chile's distinction is that it was the earliest reformer in Latin
America; the policies pursued in the 1980s were continuations of
extrem e neoliberal reform s that began in the 1970s under a
m ilitary regim e that lasted until 1989. In the 1980s, C hile
continued its orthodox neoliberal structural adjustm ent, w hich
included p o lic ie s such as p u b lic secto r wage re s tra in t,
devaluations, a decrease in tariff and nontariff m easures, tax
reform, financial m arket reform, labor m arket reforms, and the
continued privatization o f state-ow ned enterprises (S. E dw ards
1995, 60). From 1980 to 1990, Chile's per capita gross dom estic
product grew by 14 percent in real term s and governm ent
expenditures as a percent of gross dom estic product decreased
from about 28 to 20 percent (IMF IFS 1995). The volume of goods
exports increased about 90 percent during this time period, with
the fastest grow th in value occurring in agricultural exports
(CEPAL 1995).
From the analyses of Costa R ica and Mexico, it m ight be
expected that privatization in Chile would lead to an occupational
distribution change within industries away from clerical work, but
that the fem ale percentage of clerical workers would increase.
Turning back to the statistical analysis (Table 5.2), this does not
seem to have been the case for Chile from 1982 to 1992. The
female percentage of clerical workers did increase, but so did the
1 1 1
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percentage of clerical workers overall as a percentage o f total
employment. This may be because by the early 1980s the pace of
privatization was slow ing considerably; between 1974 and 1978
approxim ately 553 com panies w ere privatized, w hereas betw een
1984 to 1990 about 80 were sold (S. Edw ards 1995, 186).
However, it is interesting to note that this later round of
privatization included many fin an cial in stitu tio n s and public
utilities (S. Edw ards 1995, 190), and the business services and
utilities sectors did have relative decreases in clerical occupations
(Table 5.3).
The decrease in public expenditures as a percentage of gross
domestic product suggests that Chile may have pursued a public
sector em ploym ent policy of slower growth. It appears that this
policy had the e ffe c t of sig n ific an tly d ecreasin g rela tiv e
employment in the CSP services sector (Table 5.4). If the effects
of this were sim ilar to those of Costa Rica, we would expect to find
slow or negative growth in professional and clerical occupations
for women in Chile. Professional occupations do appear to have
grown slowly for women in Chile (Table 5.2), but as stated above,
clerical o ccu p atio n s becam e a g reater p ercen tag e o f to tal
em ploym ent and the percentage o f these jobs held by wom en
increased as well. Apparently, these cutbacks affected production
workers in the CSP sector disproportionately, as their percentage
112
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of total em ploym ent in this sector decreased dram atically (Table
5.3).
Trade liberalization and the growth of agricultural exports in
Chile may have follow ed a pattern sim ilar to Costa Rica's, as
w om en's re la tiv e em p lo y m en t in a g ric u ltu ra l occupations
increased significantly in Chile from 1982 to 1992 (Table 5.2).
The contribution of fem ale preparers and packers, for example,
has been recognized as extrem ely important in the success of the
fru it export industry in Chile (Barrientos 1997, 71). Finally,
considering the economic growth of Chile, the relative decreases in
personal service occupations overall and in such jobs within the
services sector that w ere observed in M exico w ould not be
expected to be seen here. It is no surprise then that there was a
relative increase in personal service occupations in the services
sector (Table 5.3) and overall (Table 5.2) in Chile from 1982 to
1992.
Ecuador
Statistical Analysis of W omen's Relative Employm ent
The percentage of the labor force that was female in Ecuador
increased from 20.5% in 1982 to 26.4% in 1990 (Table 5.5). The
changes in the distributions of the labor force by industry and by
sex within occupation contributed positively to women's relative
employment, but there was no net change due to shifts in the
113
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TABLE 5.5. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE
AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE:
ECUADOR 1982 AND 1990
A. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1982
i. CHANGE DUE TO INDUSTRIAL
DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
FEMALE 20.5%
MALE 79.5%
FEMALE 1.3%
MALE -1.3%
B. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1990
ii. CHANGE DUE TO
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN INDUSTRIES
FEMALE 26.4%
MALE 73.6%
FEMALE 0.0%
MALE 0.0%
iii. CHANGE DUE TO SEX DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN OCCUPATIONS
FEMALE 4.6%
MALE -4.6%
C. TOTAL CHANGE (B - A) iv. TOTAL CHANGE (i + ii + iii)
FEMALE 5.9%
MALE -5.9%
FEMALE 5.9%
MALE -5.9%
Source: Calculated from ILQ (various years, 1998-2000).
occupations within industries. The net increase was prim arily due
to the changing sex distribution within occupations that accounted
for about 4.6 of the total 5.9 percentage point change; the
industrial shifts accounted for the remaining increase of about 1.3
percentage points. Each distributional shift is discussed below —
sex distribution w ithin occupations (Table 5.6), industrial (Table
5.7), and occupational within industries (Table 5.8).
114
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The largest contribution to the increase in the proportion of
the labor force that was fem ale was sex distribution changes of
occupations (Table 5.6). W hile there were significant increases in
the p ro p o rtio n of w orkers th at w ere fem ale in all of the
o ccu p atio n al categ o ries, in th e tw o larg est ca te g o rie s
agricultural and production — the changes were about 5 and 3.3
percentage points resp ectiv ely . In the next th ree largest
occupational categories — sales, service and professional — the
increases were from about 30% in 1982 to 37% in 1990, from 57%
to 61%, and from 38% to 41% in 1990, respectively.
TABLE 5.6. FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATION
AND OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS
(BOTH SEXES, IN PERCENTAGES):
ECUADOR 1982 AND 1990
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OCCUPATIONAL
OCCUPATION OF OCCUPATION DISTRIBUTION
1982 1990 CHANGE 1982 1990
1 . PROF/TECH 37.8 40.9 3.1 10.1 10.6
2. ADM/MGR 14.5 24.7 10.2 0.6 0.8
3. CLERICAL 41.4 46.2 4.8 6.7 6.6
4. SALES 29.9 37.0 7.1 9.4 12.7
5. SERVICE 56.7 61.4 4.7 9.3 10.3
6. AGRCLTRL 7.5 12.5 5.0 35.1 31.7
7.8.9. PROD/
TRANS 10.9 14.2 3.3 28.9 27.4
TOTAL 20.5 26.4 5.9 100.0 100.0
Occupational distributions may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
The second largest contributor to the increase in women's
relative em ploym ent was industrial shifts (Table 5.7). The shift
115
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away from the agricultural and m anufacturing sectors in which
the principle occupations were dominated by men, toward the CSP
services and com m erce industries in which w om en held a
significant percentage if not m ost of the principle occupations,
favored w om en's relative em ployment. The principle changes in
the labor force distribution by industry from 1982 to 1990 were
relative decreases in the agricultural sector (about 3 percentage
points) and the m anufacturing industry (about 1 percentage
point), and increases in the commerce (about 3 percentage points)
and CSP service (about 1.5 percentage points) industries (Table
5.7).
TABLE 5.7. PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
ECUADOR 1982 AND 1990
1982 1990 CHANGE
1. AGRCLTR 35.2 32.2 -3.0
2. MINING 0.3 0.7 0.4
3. MFRING 12.9 11.8 -1.1
4. UTILITIES 0.6 0.4 -0.2
5. CONST 7.1 6.2 -0.9
6. COMMERCE 12.2 15.0 2.8
7. TRANS 4.6 4.2 -0.4
8. BUS SERV 2.0 2.7 0.7
9. CSP SERV 25.1 26.8 1.7
TOTAL 100.0 100.0 0.0
Columns may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
As can be seen (Table 5.8), the principle occupational
category in 1982 o f the agricultural sector w as agricultural
116
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occupations (98% of w orkers in this industry), while in the
m anufacturing sector the principle category was production
occupations (88% of workers in the industry). In 1982 men held
alm ost 93% of agricultural jobs and about 88% of production
occupations (Table 5.6). In contrast, the largest category of
occupations in the commerce industry was sales (74% of workers
in this industry), and in the CSP service sector, professional,
service, and production jobs accounted for about 33%, 29%, and
23% of workers, respectively (Table 5.8). O f these principle
occupations in the commerce and CSP services sectors, women
held 60% of service, 42% of professional, and 30% of sales
positions (Table 5.6).
Finally, although there were a few significant changes in the
occupational distribution of the largest industries that might have
affected w om en's relative em ploym ent, they almost com pletely
offset each other. In the agricultural sector, slightly more than
half of the decrease in the most m ale-dom inated category of
agricultural occupations was accounted for by an increase
production jobs, which were also m ale dom inated (Table 5.8).
M ovem ent of the other half of the decrease into the other
categories, how ever, would have led to a small increase in
women's relative employment, as would the small increase (about
1.5 percentage points) in service jobs that was mostly at the
expense of professional occupations in the CSP service sector.
117
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TABLE 5.8. OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TO TA L EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY
1982
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
(PERCENTAGES):
ECUADOR 1982 AN D 1990
2 3. 4.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD /
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 100.0 03 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.4 9 8 a 0.9
2. MINING 100.0 11.7 1.5 8.0 o a 5.0 0.2 73 a
3. MFRING 100.0 2.6 1.3 4.3 ia ia 1.7 8 7 a
4 . UTILITIES 100.0 16.4 ia 22 4 0.6 5.1 0.7 53.4
5. CONST 100.0 5.4 o a 1.6 0.3 1.0 0.1 91.4
6. COMMERCE 100.0 1.7 0.6 7.3 73.9 10.7 0.8 5.0
7. TRANS 100.0 2.1 0.4 13.9 0.4 ia 0.1 8 ia
8. BUS SERV 100.0 29.1 3.6 51.4 3.6 8.6 0.2 3.6
9. CSP SERV 100.0 328 0.7 128 0.3 29.3 1.0 23.1
1990
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD /
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 100.0 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.1 o a 96.2 2.3
2. MINING 100.0 7.9 1.5 7 a ia 3a 1.2 77.6
3. MFRING 100.0 27 1.4 4.5 2a la 1.7 86.0
4. U TILm ES 100.0 17.2 21 28.6 2 0 7.1 3.0 40.1
5. CONST 100.0 5.6 o a ia 0.7 0.7 0.3 91.3
6. COMMERCE 100.0 1.4 0.8 5.0 80.4 7.0 1.1 4 a
7. TRANS 100.0 26 0.8 11.4 0.7 21 0.3 82.0
8. BUS SERV 100.0 2 8 a 3.9 43.6 3a 16.6 o a 3.7
9. CSP SERV 100.0 31.9 1.0 123 0.6 31.0 0.9 22.4
CHANGE FROM 1982 TO 1990
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1 .
PROD/TECH
2
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 -21 1.4
2. MINING 0.0 -3.8 0.0 -0.8 0.9 -1.5 1.0 4.2
3. MFRING 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.2 1.2 0.0 0.0 -1.6
4. UTILITIES 0.0 0.8 0.7 6.1 1.4 2.0 2.3 - 13a
5. CONST 0.0 0.2 0.0 -0.4 0.4 -0.3 0.2 0.0
6. COMMERCE 0.0 -0.3 0.2 -2.3 6.5 -3.7 0.4 -0.7
7. TRANS 0.0 0.5 0.4 -2.4 o a 0.5 0.2 0.5
8. BUS SERV 0.0 -0.8 0.3 -7.8 -0.1 8.0 0.3 0.1
9. CSP SERV 0.0 -1.0 0.3 -0.5 o a 1.7 - 0.1 -0.7
Rows may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: Calculated from ILO (various years, 1998-2000).
These m odest increases for women in two of the largest
sectors w ould have summed to a significant increase had it not
been for the decrease in the com m erce industry, where there
118
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were significant decreases in the two m ost fem ale-dom inated
(service and clerical) occupations, and a corresponding increase in
sales jobs, which had a smaller proportion of women. The net
effect, then, of the slight gains for women in the agricultural and
CSP service sectors and the losses in the commerce industry was a
very sm all gain in w om en's rela tiv e em p lo y m en t due to
occupational distribution changes w ithin industries. B ut as in
Costa Rica, the total change in women's relative em ploym ent in
E cuador resu ltin g from distributional changes in industries,
occupations within industries, and the sex mix of occupations was
considerable.
Structural A djustm ent and Women's Relative Em ploym ent
In contrast to Chile, most reforms in Ecuador did not occur
until after the tim e period of this study. However, moderate trade
liberalization began in the mid 1980s with a devaluation and a
drop in the (unweighted) average tariff from 50 percent in 1985
to 18 percen t in 1991-1992, and public expenditures were
reduced by about 20 percent in real terms from 1982 to 1986 (S.
Edwards 1995, 26 and 126). From 1980 to 1990, gross domestic
product increased by about 23 percent, but the population grew
slightly faster, so per capita gross domestic product fell by almost
three percent (IM F IFS 1995). Although public expenditures were
cut in the m iddle of the decade, public expenditures and lending
119
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minus repaym ents actually grew in real terms from 1980 to 1990
and were approxim ately 14.5 percent of gross domestic product in
both years (IM F IFS 1995). The volum e of goods exports
increased by about 80 percent during this tim e period, with the
fastest growth in value being in agricultural exports.
Ecuador's policies appear to have been m ore similar to Costa
R ica’s than M exico's in the 1980s, in th at there was no
privatization effort (S. Edwards 1995, 61), trade liberalization was
m oderate, and governm ent expenditures rem ained fairly constant
as a percentage of gross domestic product. It is interesting, then,
that the changes in women's relative em ploym ent in Ecuador
appear to have followed a similar pattern to those in Costa Rica.
As in C osta Rica, women became a greater percentage of every
occupation in Ecuador from 1982 to 1990 (Table 5.6), and growth
(in the actu al num ber of jo b s) was fa ste r in production,
agriculture, and sales occupations.
W hile there was no privatization effort, there may have
been a slowdown in public sector em ploym ent as there was in
Costa Rica, and this would explain the small relative decreases in
professional, clerical, and production occupations within the CSP
services sector, and a slight relative increase in personal service
occupations in Ecuador (Table 5.8). As stated, agricultural exports
w ere th e fa ste st grow ing exports during the 1980s, but
m anufactured exports (mostly nondurable consum er goods) other
120
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than m etals/m achines and interm ediate products also grew
rapidly (CEPAL 1995). This pattern of export growth appears
similar to Costa Rica's and may have contributed to the increase in
women's relative employment in agricultural and production jobs.
Finally, one obvious difference between Costa Rica and Ecuador is
that Ecuador's economy did not perform as well as Costa Rica's
during the 1980s. If this affected demand for domestic workers
in Ecuador, other service occupations must have increased since
service occupations o v erall increased, as did the fem ale
percentage o f such o ccu p atio n s. U nfortunately, detailed
occupational distributions are not available for Ecuador, so it is
impossible to explore further what occurred in this sector.
V enezuela
Statistical Analysis of W omen's Relative Employment
The percentage of the labor force that was fem ale in
Venezuela increased from 27.7% in 1981 to 31.5% in 1993 (Table
5.9). Changes in the industrial distribution of the labor force
(Table 5.10) and in the sex mix of occupations (Table 5.11)
contributed significantly to this increase, while changes in the
occupational distribution within industries had a minimal positive
effect on w om en’s relative em ploym ent (Table 5.12). The
increases due to shifts in the industrial distribution and the
changing sex mix of occupations were about 1.7 percentage points
121
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each, while the increase attributed to the changes in occupations
within industries was almost 0.4 of a percentage point.
TABLE 5.9. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR FORCE AND
CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHANGE:
VENEZUELA 1981 AND 1993
A. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1981
i. CHANGE DUE TO INDUSTRIAL
DISTRIBUTION CHANGES
FEMALE 27.7%
MALE 72.3%
FEMALE 1.7%
MALE -1.7%
B. SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
LABOR FORCE 1993
ii. CHANGE DUE TO
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN INDUSTRIES
FEMALE 31.5%
MALE 68.5%
FEMALE 0.4%
MALE -0.4%
iii. CHANGE DUE TO SEX DISTRIBUTION
CHANGES WITHIN OCCUPATIONS
FEMALE 1.7%
MALE -1.7%
C. TOTAL CHANGE (B - A) iv. TOTAL CHANGE (i + ii + iii)
FEMALE 3.8%
MALE -3.8%
FEMALE 3.8%
MALE -3.8%
Source: ILO (various years).
The principle shifts in the industrial distribution of the labor
force, out of the agricultural sector and into the com m erce and
business services sectors (Table 5.10), favored w om en's relative
employment over the decade. Ninety seven percent o f jobs in the
agricultural sector (Table 5.12) were agricultural occupations in
122
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1980, and these jobs w ere the m ost m ale dom inated o f all the
categories (T able 5 .1 1 ). T h erefore, m ovem ent out of the
agricultural sector w ould necessarily favor women’s em ploym ent.
The m ain occupations in the com m erce sector w ere sales and
service jobs (Table 5.12), which were approximately 29% and 56%
fem ale, respectively, in 1981 (T able 5.11). In the business
services in d u stry , the principle occupations w ere clerical,
professional, and service jobs (Table 5.12), all o f which were
female dom inated (Table 5.11).
TABLE 5.10. PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYMENT IN EACH INDUSTRY:
VENEZUELA 1981 AND 1993
1981 1993 CHANGE
1. AGRCLTR 14.8 10.6 -4.2
2. MINING 1.3 1.0 -0.3
3. MFRING 15.8 15.3 -0.5
4. UTILITIES 1.1 0.7 -0.4
5. CONST 8.9 9.3 0.4
6. COMMERCE 18.8 22.6 3.8
7. TRANS 7.4 6.4 -1.0
8. BUS SERV 4.7 6.6 1.9
9. CSP SERV 27.2 27.5 0.3
TOTAL 100.0 100.0 0.0
Columns may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: ILO (various years).
W om en gained ground in nearly all of the occupations,
although in two of the largest categories — professional and
service jobs — there were very small relative losses of less than a
percentage point each (Table 5.11). The largest relative gain for
women of m ore than 7 percentage points was in the rather small
123
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occupational category of m anagerial positions, while the larger
occupational categories of clerical and sales jobs had relative
increases in women's employment o f about 3.7 and 6.5 percentage
points respectively. These gains outw eighed the losses in
professional and service occupations, and the net result o f the
changing sex distribution of occupations was a contribution to the
increase in women's relative em ploym ent overall.
TABLE 5.11. FEMALE PERCENTAGE OF OCCUPATIONS
AND OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS
(BOTH SEXES, IN PERCENTAGES):
VENEZUELA 1981 AND 1993
FEMALE PERCENTAGE OCCUPATIONAL
OCCUPATION OF OCCUPATION DISTRIBUTION
1981 1993 CHANGE 1981 1993
1. PROF/TECH 54.9 54.3 -0.6 10.0 13.0
2. ADM/MGR 10.5 17.8 7.3 4.1 3.3
3. CLERICAL 54.4 57.1 2.7 11.8 10.8
4. SALES 29.1 35.6 6.5 13.0 17.2
5. SERVICE 56.4 56.0 -0.4 13.7 13.8
6. AGRCLTRL 3.0 4.1 1.1 14.9 10.6
7.8.9. PROD/
TRANS 10.4 10.7 0.3 32.6 31.2
TOTAL 27.7 31.5 3.8 100.0 100.0
Occupational distributions may not add to 100 due to rounding.
Source: ILO (various years).
The shifts in occupations w ithin the largest industries did
not significantly alter the percentage fem ale in these sectors
except in the manufacturing industry. In the largest sector, CSP
services, the increase of about 4 percentage points in professional
jobs was accounted for primarily by decreases in the clerical and
124
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service occupations (Table 5.12). All of these occupations were
about equal in their percentages female (Table 5.11); therefore,
this shift did not significantly affect the percentage of women in
this sector. In the commerce industry, an increase of about 7.7
percentage points in sales jobs corresponded with decreases in
m an ag erial, clerical, serv ice, and p ro d u ctio n occupations.
M anagerial and production jobs had a sm aller percentage of
women than did the sales category, while clerical and service
occupations had a greater percentage of women (Table 5.11). The
overall affect on the percentage of women in this industry was
negligible.
The only changes in occupational distributions that affected
wom en's relative em ploym ent, although slightly, were in the
manufacturing sector. About half of a 2 percentage point decrease
in (m ale-dom inated) m anagerial positions was accounted for by
an increase in (also male-dominated) production jobs (third panel
of Table 5.12), but the other one percentage point, combined with
another percentage point decrease in sales occupations were
accounted for by an approximate 2 percentage point increase in
the female-dominated professional occupational category. The net
effect of these changes in the occupational distributions within
industries were a slight contribution to the increase in women's
relative em ploym ent that resulted from all the distributional
changes.
125
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TABLE 5.12. OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TO TAL EM PLOYM ENT IN INDUSTRY
1981
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
(PERCENTAGES):
VENEZUELA 1981 AND 1993
Z 3. 4.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 100.0 0 3 0.0 0 3 0.0 0.9 97.0 1.6
2 . MINING 100.0 12.0 8.1 133 0.0 7 3 0.0 58.8
3. MFRING 100.0 3.0 7 3 10.0 3.6 3.4 0 3 72 3
4 . UTILITIES 100.0 7 3 4.6 25.6 2.1 7.4 0.3 52.6
5. CONST 100.0 5.0 5.4 4.8 0.1 1.9 0.0 S2.8
6. COMMERCE 100.0 0.9 5.8 93 62.8 1Z7 0.1 8.2
7 . TRANS 100.0 0.9 3.0 11.9 1.1 3.8 0.0 7 9 3
8. BUS SERV 100.0 17.2 7.4 50.7 8 3 123 0.0 4.1
9 . CSP SERV 100.0 28.4 2 3 153 0.5 34.6 1 3 16.9
1993
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
I . AGRCLTR 100.0 0.4 0.1 0.4 0.1 1.0 9 6 3 13
2 . MINING 100.0 19.6 7.7 13.8 0.4 6 3 0 3 52.1
3. MFRING 100.0 5.1 5.2 10.0 2.6 3.4 0.3 73.4
4 . UTILnTES 100.0 9.3 5.4 233 1.2 5.4 0 3 55.3
5. CONST 100.0 63 5 3 3.8 0.1 2 3 0 3 81.8
6. COMMERCE 100.0 13 3 3 7.7 70.4 10.9 0.1 5.9
7 . TRANS 100.0 3.2 2.2 9.7 1 3 3.6 0.1 79.7
8. BUS SERV 100.0 28.9 7.2 38.8 9.3 13.0 0 3 2.5
9. CSP SERV 100.0 32.2 1.9 13.4 0.6 33.8 1.0 17.2
CHANGE FROM 1981 TO 1993
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROD/TECH
Z
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.0 0 3 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.0 -0.4 -0.1
2. MINING 0.0 7 3 -0.4 0.3 0.4 -1.4 0.2 -6.6
3. MFRING 0.0 2.1 -1.9 -0.1 -1.0 0.0 0.0 0.9
4. UTILITIES 0.0 1.9 0.8 -2.3 -0.9 -zo -0.1 2.6
5. CONST 0.0 13 0 3 -0.9 0.1 0.4 0.1 -1.0
6 . COMMERCE 0.0 0.6 -Z 4 -1.8 7.7 -1.8 0.0 -Z3
7. TRANS 0.0 2.3 -0.9 -2 3 0.4 -0.2 0.1 0 3
8. BUS SERV 0.0 11.8 -0.2 -11.9 0.9 0.7 0 3 -1.6
9. CSP SERV 0.0 3.7 -0.7 -2.1 0.2 -0.8 -0.6 0.3
Rows may not add to totals due to rounding.
Source: ILO (various years).
126
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Structural A djustm ent and Women's Relative Em ploym ent
R eform s began late in V enezuela as w ell, but w ere
som ew hat m ore n eo lib eral than E cu ad o r's. A gain, trade
liberalization began in the mid 1980s and included devaluations
and reductions in tariffs, but Venezuela also reduced coverage of
quantitative restrictions. Privatization began in the late 1980s; by
1992, se v en ty -sev en o f approxim ately 125 pu b licly -o w n ed
enterprises had been sold (S. Edw ards 1995, 171). Public
expenditures were cut back in the m iddle of the decade, and
public sector w ages were restrained throughout the period (S.
Edw ards 1995, 26-27). Gross dom estic product increased in
Venezuela by about 10 percent from 1980 to 1990 in real terms,
but population grew much faster, so per capita gross domestic
product fell significantly. Again, although public expenditures
were cut in the m iddle of the decade, as a percentage of gross
domestic product they were approximately the same in 1980 and
1990 at about 22 percent (IMF IFS 1991). The volume of goods
exports increased by only about 17 percent from 1980 to 1990,
and the value of such exports fell. The largest decrease in relative
(and absolute) value was in mining exports (undoubtedly due to
declines in oil prices) and the largest increase in relative and
absolute value was in intermediate product m anufacturing (CEPAL
1995).
127
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V enezuela's ad ju stm en t experience was p erhaps m ore
sim ilar to M exico's than C osta Rica's, but had im portant
differences to M exico's as well. Similarities include Venezuela's
substantial trade liberalization, privatization, and experience of
negative economic growth over the decade (as m easured by per
cap ita gross dom estic product). An im p o rtan t difference,
however, was the sluggish growth in the volume of exports and
the negative growth of their value in Venezuela, as opposed to the
faster and positive grow th in the volume and value of goods
exports in Mexico. This may account for the relative stability in
the fem ale percentage of agricultural and production jobs in
Venezuela (Table 5.12).
Privatization m ay have contributed to the sh ift in the
occupational distributions out of clerical work in all but two
industries (Table 5.11), as it appears to have in M exico. Also
suggested by the analysis on M exico, the growth in professions
that occurred (Table 5.12) may have been due to privatization
w hich allowed V enezuela to concentrate m ore of its public
expenditures in social programs. Finally, the poor performance of
the Venezuelan economy does not appear to have had the same
effect on domestic workers that it seemed to in Mexico, and as the
percentage of all fem ale workers that held dom estic work jobs
rem ained constant from 1980 to 1991 (OECI 1981, 1990). All
service occupations as a percentage of total em ploym ent and the
128
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fem ale percentage o f such workers also rem ained approxim ately
constant from 1981 to 1993 (Table 5.12).
Summary of Changes
The policies and changes in women's relative employment in
Chile, Ecuador, and Venezuela have som e sim ilarities to the
patterns observed in Costa Rica and M exico. One particular
difference, however, is how economic grow th (or the lack of it)
affected w om en's relative em ploym ent, esp ecially in dom estic
service occupations. In Mexico, this category of workers declined
both absolutely and relatively during the decade, presumably due
to the decline in per capita gross dom estic product. However,
V enezuela also experienced negative econom ic growth, yet the
data show that these jobs did not become relatively less im portant
there. Ecuador's per capita gross domestic product also fell, but
the available evidence on all service occupations in this country
suggests that there was no significant decrease in the im portance
o f dom estic w ork overall, or there m ay even have been an
increase. The incorporation of variables not included here such as
th e level o f p e r cap ita incom e, in co m e d is trib u tio n ,
unemployment, and wages into the analysis w ould undoubtedly
be helpful in explaining this difference (and others) between the
countries.
129
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TABLE 5.13
SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTIONAL CHANGES
PERCENTAGE PO INT PERCENTAGE PO INT
INCREASE INCREASE
(DECREASE) IN (DECREASE) IN
FEM ALE FEM A LE
PERCENTAGE OF PERCENTAGE OF
COUNTRY EM PLOYM ENT COUNTRY EM PLO YM EN T
ZHII-E 13 COSTA R IC A 7.6
ZHANGE DUE TO: CHANGE D U E TO:
INDU STR IAL (2.1) IN D U S TR IA L 1.9
OCCUPATIONAL 23 O C C U PATIO N AL 0.2
SEX M IX 1.1 SEX M IX 5.5
ECUADOR 5.9 M EXICO (2.0)
ZHANGE DUE TO: CHANGE D U E TO:
IN D USTR IAL 13 IN D U S TR IA L
2.7
OCCUPATIONAL 0.0 O C C U PATIO N AL
(2.2)
SEX M IX 4.6 SEX M IX (2.5)
VENEZUELA 3.8
ZHANG EDUETO :
IN D U STRIAL 1.7
OCCUPATIONAL 0.4
SEX M IX 1.7
O V E R A LL AVERAG E CHANGE
IN FE M A LE % OF EMPLOYMENT: 4.1
AVER AG E CHANGE DUE TO:
IND U STRIAL
1.1
OCCUPATIONAL 0.1
SEX M IX 2.1
While it is apparent from these descriptions that the change
in women's relative em ploym ent in each country was unique,
there are some common patterns that can be observed. All of the
countries except Chile, for example, experienced decreases in their
agricultural industries as a percentage o f all em ploym ent, and
every co u n try had an increase in rela tiv e em ploym ent in
commerce (Tables 3.3, 4.2, 5.4, 5.7, 5.10). The large changes in
130
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every country (if they existed), but one sim ilarity in sm aller
changes is apparent. The percentage of clerical occupations in
every country decreased in five or more sectors as a percentage of
total employment in the sector (Tables 3.4, 4.4, 5.3, 5.8, 5.12), and
this was the m ost consistent occupational change within industries
across countries. Finally, it comes as no surprise to find that in
the countries th at experienced larger than average increases in
women's relative employment overall, Costa Rica and Ecuador, the
contribution of the changing sex-mix w ithin occupations to the
overall change was also large (T able 5.13). W ith these
descriptions and patterns in mind, I turn in the next chapter to
conclusions regarding of the relationship of changes in women's
relative em ploym ent to structural adjustm ent policies.
13 1
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CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSIONS
Did neo lib eral reform s help or hurt w om en in the
workforces of Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela in
the 1980s? It appears that a loose negative relationship between
the degree of neoliberalism in reform and the change in women's
relative em ploym ent may exist (Table 6.1). U sing privatization
efforts and reductions in public expenditures (as a percentage of
gross dom estic product) as rough proxies for the degree of
neoliberalism, it could be argued that Costa Rica's and Ecuador's
policies were the least neoliberal with no privatization efforts and
no or small decreases in public expenditures as a percentage of
gross domestic product. Chile's and M exico's policies were the
m ost neoliberal w ith substantial privatization program s and
significant cuts in public expenditures as a percentage of gross
d o m estic p ro d u c t.22 Venezuela fell in the m iddle, with a
significant privatization effort but little d ecrease in public
expenditures as a percentage of gross dom estic product. Of
22 In Mexico, the variable is "public expenditures minus interest
payments" because of the extremely large debt service Mexico faced. In
none of the other countries did interest payments exceed 12 percent of
public expenditures throughout the 1980s, whereas in Mexico it was about
60 percent by 1990 according to the IMF IFS and GFS, various years.
132
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course, the increases in w om en's relative em ploym ent w ere
greatest in C osta Rica and in Ecuador, the increase was smaller in
Chile and the change was negative in Mexico. The increase in
women’s relative em ployment in V enezuela was less than that of
Ecuador, and m ore than that of Chile. Within these categories of
degrees of neoliberalism , however, the pattern breaks down if it is
argued (as it could be) that Chile's reforms were m ore neoliberal
than Mexico's, or that Ecuador’s were less so than Costa Rica's.
TABLE 6.1: PRIVATIZATION, CUTS IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURES,
AND CHANGE IN WOMEN'S RELATIVE EMPLOYMENT
IN FIVE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES
Country and
Years of Analysis
Significant
Privatization?
Significant Cuts
in Public
Expenditures
(as a percentage
of gross domestic
product)?
Change in
Women's
Employment as a
Percentage of All
Employment
(in percentage
points)
Costa Rica
1984-92
No No +7.6
Ecuador
1982-1990
No No +5.9
Venezuela
1981-1993
Yes No +3.8
Chile
1982-1992
Yes Yes +1.3
Mexico
1980-1990
Yes Yes -2.0
Considering how complicated the effects of econom ic reform
on women's relative em ployment w ere in these countries, it is
133
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encouraging th at any kind of pattern is observable. A lthough by
no m eans conclusive, I believe the evidence presented in this
study does su p p o rt the idea that there is a loose inverse
relationship betw een the degree of neoliberalism o f econom ic
reform and increases in women's relative em ployment. However,
although th e re w ere some sim ilarities in the relatio n sh ip s
betw een the sp ecific policies m entioned above (public sector
reform and privatization) and wom en’s relative em ploym ent in
the five countries, the net effect was often different. Also, since
privatization and public sector reform appeared to affect women's
relative em ploym ent mainly through public sector clerical and
professional jobs, and the percentage of total em ploym ent in these
public sector occupations is relatively small, the net effect of these
policies also tended to be relatively sm all. T herefore, these
policies appear only to be indicators of the degree of neoliberalism
of economic policy in general and not, by themselves, the reasons
for differences in the changes in women's relative em ploym ent
am ong these countries.
The large changes in women's relative em ploym ent occurred
in different sectors and occupations in different countries. The
m ost significant changes tended to occur in low-skill jobs such as
farm w orkers, street vendors, assem bly w orkers, and dom estic
serv an ts. W om en made sig n ifican t gains in ag ric u ltu ra l
occupations in C hile, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, and in sales
1 3 4
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occupations in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Women had
significant losses in production jobs in Chile and M exico, and also
in service positions in Mexico. There did not appear to be
consistent patterns of economic grow th or policies to these
changes. Fast growing exports favored women in agricultural and
production jobs in Costa Rica and favored men in Mexico; falling
incomes hurt wom en in services in M exico b u t did not in
Venezuela; street vending, often associated with hard economic
tim es, increased relatively in Costa R ica for w om en while it
remained about constant in Mexico.
If there is some causal, inverse effect of neoliberal policy on
women's relativ e em ploym ent, I am unable to pinpoint the
specific m echanism by which this effect occurred for Chile,
Ecuador, and Venezuela. A closer look at the policies of these
countries would be necessary to confirm the pattern suggested by
my analysis of Costa Rica and Mexico. In these two countries, the
main difference appeared to be the em ploym ent protecting and
creating policies of Costa Rica relative to Mexico — it appears that
in those cases, a country that was less devoted to neoliberalism
was more likely to protect public sector em ploym ent (both in
social services and publicly-owned enterprises) and to promote
specific, em ploym ent-creating industries. This affected women's
relative em ploym ent positively in Costa Rica, as women met the
increased demand for mostly low-skilled workers. I believe that
135
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further research would support w hat my analysis suggests, that
wom en's relativ e em ploym ent is likely to increase faster in
countries in which neoliberal reform is m oderate.
136
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Steele, D. "Women's Participation Decisions and Earnings in Mexico." 1992.
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143
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APPENDICES
144
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APPENDIX A
COSTA RICA: COMPARISON OF HOUSEHOLD SURVEY AND CENSUS
TABLE A .l. COMPARISON OF 1983 HOUSEHOLD SAMPLE SURVEY
AND 1984 CENSUS BY INDUSTRY: COSTARICA
PERCENTAGE OF T O T A L
1983 1984 CENSUS 1983 1984 CENSUS
HOUSEHOLD SAM E HOUSHLD SAM E
SAM PLE 1984 AGGREGATION SAM PLE AGGREGATION
IN D U S TR Y SU R VEY CENSUS AS 1983 HSS SURVEY AS 1983 HSS
1. AG RCLTR 233,692 249,400 249,400 27.7 31.0
2. M IN IN G 138,458 1,549 107,595 16.4 13.4
3. M FRIN G IN C LU D E D IN 2 106,046
4. U T IL m E S 46,567 9,035 29,510 5.5 3.7
5. CONST 45,799 41,760 41,760 5.4 52
6. COMMERCE 147,975 87,555 87,555 17.5 10.9
7. TRANS IN C LU D E D IN 4 20,475
8. BUS SERV 209,611 20,267 196,360 24.8 24.4
9. CSPSERV IN C LU D E D IN 8 176,093
0. N O T
ADEQUATELY
DEFINED 5,074 82,246 82,246 0.6 10.2
UNEM PLOYED
W IT H NO
PREVIOUS
EM PLO YM EN T 16,637 9,767 9,767 2.0 12
TOTAL 843,813 804,193 804,193 100.0 100.0
It can be seen that the percentage of total em ploym ent in
m ost industries is sim ilar in the 1983 household sample survey
and the 1984 census. One exception is category 6, which was
nam ed "Commerce" in the 1983 survey and "W holesale, R etail,
Restaurant, Hotel" in the 1984 census. It can also be noted,
however, that the "Not adequately defined" category is m uch
larger in the 1984 census than it was in the 1983 survey. It is
probable that the broader category of "Commerce" was used to
145
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categorize m any w orkers that were in the "Not adequately
defined" category in 1984.
TABLE A.2. COMPARISON OF 1983 HOUSEHOLD SAMPLE SURVEY
AND 1984 CENSUS BY OCCUPATION: COSTA RICA
PERCENTAGE OF TO TAL
1984 CENSUS 1983 1984 CENSUS
1983 HOUSEHLD SAM E HSHLD SAM E
SAM PLE 1984 AGGREGATION SAMPLE AGGREGATION
OCCUPATIONS SURVEY CENSUS AS 1983 HSS SURVEY AS 1983 HSS
1. PROF/TECH 66890 79037 79037 7.9 9.8
2. AD M /M G R IN C LU D ED IN 3 23763
3. CLER IC AL 98399 58788 82551 11.7 10.3
4. SALES 113663 67993 67993 13.5 8.5
5. SERV 142449 93370 93370 16.9 11.6
6. AG RCLTRL IN C LU D ED IN
7.8.9. 239197
7.8.9. PROD/
TRANS 402565 178601 417798 47.7 52.0
0. NOT
C LASSIFIABLE
B Y OCCUPATION 3210 53677 53677 0.4 6.7
UNEMPLOYED
W ITH NO
PREVIOUS
EM PLOYM ENT 16637 9767 9767 2.0 12
TOTAL 843813 804193 804193 100.0 100.0
It can also be seen that the percentage of total employmen
is sim ilar in the 1983 household sample survey and the 1984
census in most of the occupations. The exceptions are "Sales" and
"Service" categories, which again, m ost likely included many of
workers included in the "Not classified" category in 1984.
146
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APPENDIX B
DATA ADJUSTMENT
Adjusted Data
As described in chapter 2, workers classified by industry
but not occupation are distributed by the occupational distribution
of their sex in that industry; those classified by occupation but not
industry are distributed by the industrial distribution of their sex
in that occupation, those classified by n either occupation nor
industry are elim in ated . The unem ployed w ith prev io u s
em ployment are included in the em ploym ent num bers for M exico
in 1980, and for both years in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
In the data for M exico in 1990 and for Chile in both years, all
unemployed are elim inated. The armed forces of all countries are
excluded. The adjusted data for each country are given beginning
on the next page.
147
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TABLE B .l. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
CH ILE 1982
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4 .
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 22700 200 0 300 0 300 21800 100
2. MINING 1000 100 0 800 0 0 0 100
3. MFRING 102175 2900 700 14000 3900 1400 0 79275
4. UTILITIES 2200 100 0 2000 0 0 0 100
S. CONST 1600 100 0 1200 200 0 0 100
S. COMMERCE 192103 600 2900 24500 139300 23400 0 1403
7. TRANS 14005 0 200 10600 400 700 0 2105
8. BUS SERV 37701 2500 500 30900 2000 1300 0 501
9. CSPSERV 522115 112300 3600 77300 300 230800 100 97715
TOTAL 895600 118800 7900 161600 146100 257900 21900 181400
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1. 2.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4 .
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 455405 1305 706 2006 0 1101 444785 5502
2. MINING 53447 2309 706 5616 0 1902 200 42715
3. MFRING 272096 7629 11490 32994 4700 10010 801 204472
i. UTILITIES 22739 2610 202 7722 0 1001 300 10904
5. CONST 82786 5722 3024 5014 0 1902 100 67024
5. COMMERCE 317834 1205 15824 24369 216200 23923 701 35613
7. TRANS 171261 1205 4132 25573 800 3303 0 136248
8. BUS SERV 72507 11143 3225 46933 4200 4404 400 2201
9. CSPSERV 599627 75643 12618 65695 2034 58830 15536 369269
TOTAL 2047700 108771 51926 215921 227934 106377 462824 873947
148
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TABLE B.2. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
CHILE 1992
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 91292 1050 0 3092 0 200 86340 610
2. MINING 3482 420 0 2302 0 90 0 670
3. MFRING 214295 4460 6240 36265 6300 1550 50 159430
i. UTILITIES 2852 80 0 2702 0 70 0 0
5 . CONST 7734 1020 310 5414 0 60 0 930
5. COMMERCE 369972 1840 17510 60602 240920 43140 0 5960
7. TRANS 33784 700 1940 20574 1130 2510 0 6930
8. BUS SERV 86462 8470 1960 60902 6400 8590 140 0
3 . CSPSERV 702297 191478 8850 110733 1642 375608 130 13856
TOTAL 1512170 209518 36810 302586 256392 431818 86660 188386
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 768810 3920 4190 6970 0 3960 743770 6000
2. MINING 83420 9270 880 6970 0 760 240 65300
3. MFRING 598940 20330 36920 75920 12200 13330 420 439820
i. UTILITIES 21910 3350 70 5850 0 1750 480 10410
5. CONST 330810 7890 10880 17040 0 5450 50 289500
S. COMMERCE 479240 3470 36620 55600 261830 49380 580 71760
7. TRANS 301400 5020 14290 44540 520 9880 90 227060
8. BUS SERV 157980 26290 13780 69380 10550 27480 2360 8140
9. CSPSERV 518430 106160 25370 77289 1156 72935 32880 202639
TOTAL 3260940 185700 143000 359559 286256 184925 780870 1320629
149
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TABLE B.3. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1 .
PROF/TECH
COSTA RICA 1984
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 7709 106 99 414 20 346 5446 1278
2. MINING 49 4 2 18 0 5 1 19
3. MFRING 32254 912 657 3558 1103 2442 56 23526
1 . UTILITIES 990 118 26 789 0 44 0 14
S . CONST 394 55 13 219 2 45 0 59
S. COMMERCE 28901 601 1357 4627 13915 7724 42 635
7. TRANS 2299 145 119 1701 111 187 1 34
8. BUS SERV 5197 942 154 3640 195 256 1 9
9. CSPSERV 89451 31770 1385 14151 367 41230 55 493
IOTAL 167243 34655 3813 29116 15713 52279 5602 26066
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 243892 1242 4043 817 531 1611 229767 5880
2. MINING 1632 24 69 30 27 65 97 1321
3. MFRING 82002 3872 4486 3403 6410 4977 1194 57660
X . UTILITIES 9007 1282 332 1632 70 1026 63 4602
S . CONST 45127 4563 258 424 72 788 109 38914
S. COMMERCE 67702 1427 4353 2645 43047 8279 677 7274
7. TRANS 20414 1151 956 3826 612 1485 78 12306
8. BUS SERV 17689 5464 1218 6153 1405 2386 71 990
9 . CSPSERV 101051 27239 4834 12062 1282 22316 2348 30969
FOTAL 588517 46263 20549 30992 53458 42932 234405 159918
150
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.4. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
COSTA R IC A 1992
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 17570 309 301 519 0 660 11934 3848
2. MINING 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3. MFRING 77229 1514 793 5257 2895 3600 250 62921
1. UTILITIES 1636 280 142 1029 0 185 0 0
5. CONST 1025 125 254 470 0 130 0 45
5. COMMERCE 72340 1332 3082 8961 39089 17820 158 1897
7. TRANS 5022 46 120 3386 370 975 0 125
8. BUS SERV 8271 2389 375 4735 334 437 0 0
7. CSPSERV 136943 43644 2125 19418 738 70496 198 323
rCTTA L 320036 49639 7192 43777 43426 94302 12540 69159
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
I.
PROF/TECH
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 242502 984 1325 1678 224 2236 225513 10541
2. MINING 1565 54 66 241 0 119 135 951
3. MFRING 127596 6900 5901 4530 8198 7796 723 93549
L UTILITIES 11892 1804 255 2053 0 1655 198 5926
5. CONST 65219 4092 537 1409 119 727 173 58163
5. COMMERCE 108597 2596 7004 5818 62674 17214 1168 12123
7. TRANS 45550 1219 1215 4302 1242 3453 207 33911
8. BUS SERV 30632 10848 1864 7196 736 7071 1152 1766
7. CSPSERV 122903 30737 4926 14973 808 29360 7163 34937
rOTAL 756455 59234 23092 42199 74001 69631 236431 251867
15 1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.5. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
ECUADOR 1982
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 59141 183 14 331 20 312 58105 177
2. MINING 509 61 12 199 0 13 1 223
3. MFRING 73089 1775 482 5715 763 553 238 63563
I. UTILITIES 1300 250 17 905 9 48 2 70
5. CONST 3416 525 34 1163 26 160 10 1498
S. COMMERCE 87661 1895 317 11255 61197 11623 143 1232
7. TRANS 5259 336 82 4074 124 228 9 405
8. BUS SERV 15068 2655 284 11457 375 213 20 64
J. CSPSERV 213849 77558 546 26697 468 105214 267 3099
DOTAL 459292 85237 1788 61795 62982 118363 58795 70331
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 728188 1835 283 706 168 2528 715319 6849
2. MINING 6984 814 101 400 21 362 14 5272
3. MFRING 215780 5698 3238 6707 3047 3215 4581 189295
1. UTILITIES 12121 1954 164 2105 69 638 93 7098
5. CONST 155729 8069 302 1429 400 1431 183 143914
5. COMMERCE 186356 2842 1300 8829 141279 17770 1967 12369
7. TRANS 97338 1837 376 10163 314 1339 62 83245
8. BUS SERV 30700 10648 1368 12057 1274 3705 58 1591
3. CSPSERV 347562 106734 3379 45057 1183 59335 5334 126541
TOTAL 1780757 140431 10511 87452 147756 90322 728111 576174
152
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.6. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AN D SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
ECUADOR 1990
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 131497 829 137 1238 199 569 125053 3472
2. MINING 2115 212 41 522 95 111 20 1114
3. MFRING 124555 3053 1085 7956 2791 960 808 107902
1. UTILITIES 2097 406 42 1192 74 231 59 93
5. CONST 4892 1033 98 1082 131 248 50 2250
S. COMMERCE 183886 2975 1187 14390 145804 15148 813 3571
7. TRANS 8049 731 333 5195 328 610 24 828
8. BUS SERV 30535 6414 1059 21084 1003 674 63 238
9. CSPSERV 364150 123807 2068 45430 1594 184983 740 5528
TOTAL 851776 139460 6051 98087 152019 203534 127631 124995
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 908563 4396 1084 1910 1247 4553 875049 20323
2. MINING 19389 1484 285 1024 159 639 228 15570
3. MFRING 254407 7240 4107 9004 6818 3809 5603 217826
4. UTILITIES 11200 1881 235 2608 188 708 341 5238
5. CONST 196420 10185 362 1325 1248 1095 570 181636
S. COMMERCE 300412 3779 2724 9975 243514 18820 4739 16862
7. TRANS 127367 2821 749 10291 635 2198 404 110269
8. BUS SERV 57533 18451 2355 17282 2092 13927 375 3051
9. CSPSERV 499379 151244 6527 60852 3265 82377 7389 187724
TOTAL 2374670 201481 18428 114271 259167 128126 894697 758499
153
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.7. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
M EXICO 1980
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 788940 4096 1922 30031 11724 36253 672276 32637
2. MINING 222828 4803 4020 81568 63996 2864 322 65254
3. MFRING 897734 123183 9309 192165 37805 37194 3448 494630
I. UTILITIES 38884 6517 738 21355 1235 760 27 8252
5. CONST 260967 8763 1469 33424 2130 86891 647 127643
5. COMMERCE 748150 8024 13509 174782 399553 125427 3214 23642
7 . TRANS 116624 1116 1239 49967 2550 1481 955 59315
8.9. SERV 1685635 471594 6865 306027 8487 820036 1467 71161
TOTAL 4759762 628096 39071 889319 527480 1110905582356 882535
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 5237158 28838 15961 65183 39444 239274801159 262646
2. MINING 452468 22165 17198 86228 119081 4899 2438 200460
3. MFRING 2426224 193279 56443 235204 85113 37533 225431796108
1. UTILITIES 126234 32202 4503 29806 3924 2546 297 52956
S. CONST 1374504 77753 12371 47190 6217 28375 112121191385
S. COMMERCE 1377281 23271 50322 193047 818469 127922 26888 137362
7. TRANS 777248 8131 9652 93793 14610 7159 8516 635388
8.9. SERV 1879231 603592 39086 395185 27845 246109 8280 559133
TOTAL 13650346 989232 205537 1145635 1114702 478470 4881333 4835437
154
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.8. EMPLOYMENT B Y INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
M EXIC O 1990
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 192002 3963 1067 7430 1514 1990 173291 2746
2. MINING 29332 3782 263 18408 174 1920 38 4746
3. MFRING 1082139 53258 14118 156041 60949 22081 9576 766117
4. UTILITIES 20416 2206 302 15996 105 631 9 1167
S . CONST 46004 6841 1420 18941 291 2523 51 15938
S. COMMERCE 1349217 38611 29208 234551 774327 162646 1015 108859
7. TRANS 103313 6572 3851 72021 3140 8747 249 8733
8.9. SERV 2559884 959992 60699 654812 30729 809744 821 43087
rOTAL 5382307 1075225 110928 1178201 871228 1010282185050 951392
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 5122613 30916 21909 12556 19723 273651898017 112127
2. MINING 237978 21317 4506 18984 2530 14446 1310 174885
3. MFRING 3499607 164004 115784 179887 206478 109088 741751650190
4. UTILITIES 139046 14709 3409 26885 1577 6849 545 85073
5. CONST 1576607 55935 20265 19976 1911 15743 4356 1458420
S . COMMERCE 2602698 77265 120436 166024 1529003 335500 11805 362664
7. TRANS 971621 26657 18787 133716 9076 76858 2522 704004
8.9. SERV 3032204 1025647 157727 465300 79647 198028 138031092053
rOTAL 17182372 1416450 462823 1023328 1849945 783877 5006533 6639417
155
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.9. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
VENEZUELA 1981
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 22891 180 0 653 0 2874 18914 270
2. MINING 4179 1096 15 2921 0 147 0 0
3. MFRING 179374 4481 2867 30015 3533 8176 125 130177
X . UTILITIES 7054 522 165 5759 0 608 0 0
S. CONST 14314 1684 800 9552 6 1410 0 863
S . COMMERCE 255180 2554 6717 41859 154594 46827 168 2462
7. TRANS 27022 238 1176 17006 450 2218 0 5934
8. BUS SERV 76955 7018 2175 54139 2388 11111 0 124
J. CSPSERV 593956 216289 4527 111444 334 256383 102 4876
TOTAL 1180926 234062 18441 273348 161304 329755 19309 144706
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 611011 1456 228 565 0 3022 595823 9917
2. MINING 50474 5481 4395 4481 0 3974 18 32125
3. MFRING 493559 15530 45336 37602 20989 14824 1624 357654
X . UTILITIES 41494 3040 2089 6671 1009 2992 148 25544
5. CONST 366834 17536 19647 8619 274 5884 189 314685
S. COMMERCE 545998 4702 40126 34392 348202 54618 474 63484
7. TRANS 288143 2540 8433 20511 3066 9840 150 243603
8. BUS SERV 124590 27570 12777 48029 14383 13646 62 8123
9 . CSPSERV 568071 114194 24995 68528 4899 145950 17873 191632
TOTAL 3090173 192048 158027 229397 392823 254751 616361 1246765
156
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.10. EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY, OCCUPATION, AND SEX (ADJUSTED):
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
VENEZUELA 1993
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1 . AGRCLTR 34602 453 0 808 72 3156 29813 300
2. MINING 8721 3682 176 3733 0 607 0 522
3. MFRING 301587 17657 7468 50188 9070 9250 132 207822
4. UTILITIES 9638 1219 632 6283 0 657 0 847
5. CONST 26946 6542 1814 12197 0 1513 0 4880
S. COMMERCE 587645 11835 10142 71718 409375 80807 103 3664
7. TRANS 41826 4324 2073 20984 999 3590 0 9858
8. BUS SERV 185492 45668 10934 98146 10991 18781 274 699
). CSPSERV 1027401 405967 8728 173317 3114 427604 318 8353
TOTAL 2223857 497346 41967 437372 433621 545965 30641 236944
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4 .
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 715446 2753 406 2196 669 3989 694206 11227
2. MINING 60946 9961 5159 5894 247 3699 180 35806
3. MFRING 780360 37198 49080 57909 19323 27278 2949 586623
4. UTILITIES 42502 3604 2192 5855 628 2155 105 27964
5. CONST 627632 34410 34390 12887 822 13630 1084 530409
S. COMMERCE 1009738 12350 45033 51643 715811 92753 1692 90457
7. TRANS 410951 10051 7816 22941 5984 12772 516 350872
8. BUS SERV 278591 88529 22511 82111 32018 41703 731 10988
9. CSPSERV 918313 219694 27475 87106 8602 230590 18829 326017
TOTAL 4844479 418549 194062 328541 784104 428570 720291 1970362
157
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Im puted D ata
D ue to the ad ju stm en ts d escrib ed ab o v e, th e total
em ploym ent in each occupation (by industry) for each sex has an
im puted com ponent. The percentage of each cell that is imputed
is given below by sex.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B .U . PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED:
C H ILE 1982
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4 . 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-PROD/
TRL TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.2
2. MINING 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 UNDEF UNDEF 0.2
3. MFRING 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.2
4. UTILITIES 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF 0.2
5. CONST 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 UNDEF UNDEF 0.2
6. COMMERCE 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.2
7. TRANS 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.2
8. BUS SERV 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.2
9. CSPSERV 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2
TOTAL 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
I.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-PROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.1 0.4 0.8 0.3 UNDEF 0.1 0.1 0.0
2. MINING 0.1 0.4 0.8 0.3 UNDEF 0.1 0.1 0.0
3. MFRING 0.1 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0
4. UTTLITTES 0.2 0.4 0.8 0.3 UNDEF 0.1 0.1 0.0
5. CONST 0.1 0.4 0.8 0.3 UNDEF 0.1 0.1 0.0
6. COMMERCE 0.1 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0
7. TRANS 0.1 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.1 UNDEF 0.0
8. BUS SERV 0.3 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0
9. CSPSERV 6.7 6.9 7.3 6.8 6.6 6.7 6.7 6.6
TOTAL 2.0 4.9 2.4 2.3 0.1 3.7 0.3 2.8
158
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B.12. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IM PUTED:
CHILE 1992
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-PROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.0
2. MINING 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF 0.0
3. MFRING 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
4. UTILITIES 0.1 0.0 UNDEF 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF UNDEF
5. CONST 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF 0.0
S. COMMERCE 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0
7. TRANS 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0
8. BUS SERV 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF
9. CSPSERV 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
TOTAL 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0
MALES
[NDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1 .
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-PROD/
TRL TRANS
1 . AGRCLTR 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.0
2. MINING 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.0
3. MFRING 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
4. UTILITIES 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.0
5. CONST 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.0 0.0 0.0
S. COMMERCE 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
7. TRANS 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
8. BUS SERV 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
9. CSPSERV 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5
TOTAL 1.2 4.3 1.3 1.6 0.0 2.9 0.3 1.1
159
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B.13. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED:
COSTA RICA 1984
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-PROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 3.4 4.8 5.3 20.6 8.1 4.4 1.9 3.4
2. MINING 10.6 5.7 6.1 21.2 0.0 5.2 2.8 4.3
3. MFRING 8.6 7.8 8.2 22.6 10.8 7.4 5.0 6.5
i. UTILmES 18.4 6.2 6.6 21.5 UNDEF 5.7 UNDEF 4.8
5. CONST 17.5 9.8 10.2 24.0 12.7 9.4 UNDEF 8.5
S. COMMERCE 8.6 4.7 5.1 20.5 7.9 4.2 1.7 3.3
7. TRANS 17.9 6.5 6.9 21.8 9.6 6.1 3.7 5.2
8 . BUS SERV 16.2 5.2 5.6 20.8 8.4 4.7 2.2 3.8
). CSPSERV 6.9 4.6 5.0 20.4 7.9 4.2 1.7 3.2
IOTAL 7.9 4.7 5.7 20.9 8.1 4.3 1.9 6.2
MALE
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-PROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 1.1 9.9 4.2 14.1 11.5 9.6 0.7 8.8
2. MINING 10.5 12.1 6.7 16.1 13.6 11.8 3.3 11.0
3. MFRING 12.7 13.6 8.4 17.4 15.1 13.3 5.1 12.6
1 . UTILmES 15.8 15.9 10.9 19.5 17.3 15.6 7.9 14.9
5. CONST 13.5 14.4 9.2 18.1 15.8 14.1 6.1 13.3
5. COMMERCE 11.5 11.0 5.4 15.1 12.6 10.7 2.0 9.9
7. TRANS 12.0 12.2 6.8 16.2 13.8 11.9 3.5 11.1
8 . BUS SERV 13.1 12.1 6.7 16.1 13.7 11.8 3.4 11.1
9. CSPSERV 11.9 12.3 6.9 16.2 13.8 12.0 3.6 11.2
TOTAL 7.7 12.6 6.4 16.4 13.0 11.9 0.7 12.2
160
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B.14. PERCENTAGE OF C ELL IMPUTED:
COSTA R IC A 1992
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.1 0.0 1.7 2.2 UNDEF 0.3 0.0 0.0
2. MINING UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF UNDEF
3. MFRING 0.5 0.3 2.0 2.5 0.9 0.6 0.3 0.3
X . UTILmES 11.9 10.6 11.9 12.4 UNDEF 10.8 UNDEF UNDEF
5. CONST 1.5 0.0 1.7 2.2 UNDEF 0.3 UNDEF 0.0
S. COMMERCE 0.9 0.2 1.8 2.4 0.7 0.4 0.2 0.2
7. TRANS 1.6 0.0 1.7 2.2 0.6 0.3 UNDEF 0.0
3. BUS SERV 1.4 0.0 1.7 2.2 0.6 0.3 UNDEF UNDEF
3. CSPSERV 1.1 0.6 2.3 2.8 1.2 0.9 0.6 0.6
IOTAL 0.9 0.6 2.1 2.8 0.8 0.8 0.0 0.3
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1 .
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.5 0.3 0.6 2.1
0.2 0.7 0.4 0.5
2. MINING 0.7 0.3 0.5 2.1 UNDEF 0.7 0.4 0.5
3. MFRING 2.1 1.8 2.1 3.6 1.7 2.2 1.9 2.0
X . UTILITIES 2.2 1.7 2.0 3.5 UNDEF 2.1 1.8 1.9
5. CONST 1.1 0.9 1.1 2.6 0.7 1.3 1.0 1.0
5. COMMERCE 0.9 0.8 1.0 2.6 0.7 1.2 0.9 1.0
7. TRANS 1.8 1.5 1.7 3.2
1.4 1.9 1.6 1.7
3. BUS SERV 2.8 2.3 2.6 4.0 2.2 2.7 2.4 2.5
3. CSPSERV 1.7 1.3 1.6 3.1
1.2 1.7 1.4 1.5
FOTAL 1.3 1.5 1.6 3.2 0.8 1.7 0.5 1.6
161
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE B.15. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED:
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
ECUADOR 1982
2. 3.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.2 1.0 7.3 6.9 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.4
2. MINING 4.2 2.1 8.3 7.9 0.0 1.4 1.3 1.5
3. MFRING 1.7 1.8 7.9 7.5 0.9 1.0 0.9 l.l
1. UTILITIES 8.1 4.3 10.2 9.8 3.5 3.6 3.4 3.7
5. CONST 3.8 2.1 8.2 7.8 1.2 1.4 1.2 1.4
S. COMMERCE 1.4 1.3 7.5 7.1 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.7
7. TRANS 7.3 2.9 9.0 8.5 2.1 2.2 2.0 2.3
8. BUS SERV 6.4 2.0 8.1 7.7 1.1 1.3 1.1 1.3
9 . CSPSERV 10.7 10.4 15.6 15.2 9.7 9.8 9.6 9.8
TOTAL 5.9 9.6 10.3 10.9 0.5 8.8 0.2 1.5
MALES
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
INDUSTRY TOTAL PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.1 1.3 6.1 4.4 0.2 2.6 0.1 0.6
2. MINING 3.4 3.6 8.2 6.5 2.5 4.8 2.4 2.9
3. MFRING 1.8 2.3 7.0 5.3 1.2 3.5 1.1 1.6
4. UTILITIES 6.2 6.1 10.4 8.8 5.0 7.2 4.9 5.4
S. CONST 1.0 1.6 6.4 4.6 0.5 2.8 0.3 0.9
5. COMMERCE l . l 1.7 6.5 4.7 0.6 2.9 0.5 1.0
7. TRANS 1.6 1.9 6.6 4.9 0.7 3.1 0.6 1.2
8. BUS SERV 4.1 2.7 7.4 5.7 1.6 3.9 1.5 2.0
9. CSPSERV 33.2 33.0 35.2 34.4 32.5 33.5 32.4 32.6
TOTAL 7.1 25.6 16.1 20.3 0.9 23.1 0.3 8.2
162
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLEB
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
16. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED:
ECUADOR 1990
2. 3. 4. 5.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.7 2.7 13.1 14.3 0.8 1.0 0.5 1.3
2. MINING 6.4 4.4 14.4 15.6 2.5 2.7 2.3 3.0
3. MFRING 4.0 4.4 14.4 15.7 2.5 2.7 2.3 3.1
1. UTILITIES 13.2 7.3 16.8 17.9 5.6 5.8 5.3 6.0
S. CONST 6.5 4.6 14.5 15.8 2.7 2.9 2.5 3.2
5. COMMERCE 2.4 3.1 13.4 14.7 1.2 1.4 0.9 1.7
7. TRANS 14.0 7.1 16.6 17.8 5.3 5.5 5.1 5.8
8. BUS SERV 12.3 4.2 14.3 15.5 2.3 2.5 2.1 2.9
9. CSPSERV 13.3 12.8 21.2 22.3 11.3 11.5 11.1 11.7
IOTAL 7.6 11.9 16.6 18.7 1.3 10.6 0.6 3.4
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
I.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.7 3.6 11.1 9.9 0.9 7.0 0.6 2.4
2. MINING 5.0 5.5 12.8 11.6 2.9 8.8 2.6 4.3
3. MFRING 5.7 6.5 13.6 12.4 3.9 9.6 3.6 5.3
i. UTILITIES 13.0 12.1 18.3 17.3 9.8 14.8 9.5 11.0
5. CONST 2.7 3.8 11.3 10.1 l .l 7.2 0.8 2.6
S. COMMERCE 2.6 4.4 11.8 10.6 1.7 7.7 1.4 3.1
7. TRANS 5.1 5.6 12.8 11.7 3.0 8.8 2.7 4.4
8. BUS SERV 8.5 5.8 13.0 11.8 3.2 9.0 2.9 4.6
9. CSPSERV 30.3 29.8 33.9 33.2 28.4 31.6 28.2 29.2
rOTAL 8.4 23.7 20.3 23.2 2.1 23.3 0.8 10.3
163
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B.17. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED:
M EXICO 1980
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 6.5 18.5 37.7 57.7 8.5 6.8 3.5 16.2
2. MINING 31.2 20.6 38.9 58.2 11.2 9.6 6.5 18.4
3. MFRING 25.5 19.2 38.1 57.9 9.5 7.8 4.6 17.0
4. UTILITIES 40.6 20.5 38.9 58.2 11.0 9.4 6.3 18.3
5. CONST 18.3 18.3 37.6 57.6 8.3 6.6 3.3 16.0
S. COMMERCE 21.4 19.3 38.2 57.9 9.6 7.9 4.7 17.1
7. TRANS 34.0 18.8 37.8 57.7 8.9 7.2 3.9 16.5
3.9. SERV 19.9 18.6 37.7 57.7 8.6 6.9 3.7 16.3
KJTAL 19.9 18.7 38.1 57.8 9.7 7.1 3.5 16.9
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 6.0 29.5 36.0 49.3 8.5 16.3 4.3 19.7
2. MINING 25.5 31.3 37.5 50.2 11.5 18.8 7.6 22.0
3. MFRING 24.2 30.4 36.8 49.8 10.0 17.6 6.0 20.9
UTILITIES 32.1 32.2 38.3 50.7 13.1 20.2 9.3 23.2
5. CONST 21.2 29.5 36.1 49.3 8.5 16.4 4.4 19.7
5. COMMERCE 18.1 30.0 36.5 49.6 9.4 17.1 5.4 20.4
7. TRANS 23.7 29.9 36.4 49.5 9.3 17.0 5.2 20.3
8.9. SERV 29.3 30.0 36.5 49.6 9.4 17.1 5.3 20.4
TOTAL 17.1 30.1 36.6 49.6 9.6 17.1 4.3 20.4
164
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
T A B LE B
OCCUPATION
I.
PROF/TECH
18. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IMPUTED:
MEXICO 1990
2. 3. 4. 5.
ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
FROD/
TRANS
1 . AGRCLTR 2.0 2.5 4.2 9.2 1.0 4.3 1.7 1.7
2. MINING 7.2 3.1 4.7 9.7 1.6 4.9 2.3 2.3
3. MFRING 3.4 3.0 4.7 9.6 1.6 4.8 2.3 2.3
i. UTILITIES 8.1 2.9 4.6 9.6 1.5 4.8 2.2 2.2
5. CONST 5.0 2.3 4.1 9.1 0.9 4.2 1.6 1.6
S. COMMERCE 2.9 2.3 4.0 9.0 0.9 4.2 1.6 1.6
7. TRANS 7.4 2.6 4.3 9.3 1.2 4.5 1.9 1.9
8.9. SERV 4.7 2.4 4.1 9.1 0.9 4.3 1.6 1.7
TOTAL 4.0 2.4 4.2 9.2 0.9 4.3 1.7 2.2
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
FROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.5 3.2 4.3 5.7 0.8 5.0 0.4 1.8
2. MINING 3.7 4.4 5.5 6.9 2.0 6.2 1.7 3.0
3. MFRING 2.9 4.0 5.0 6.5 1.6 5.8 1.3 2.6
i. UTILITIES 4.6 4.9 5.9 7.3 2.5 6.6 2.2 3.5
5. CONST 1.9 3.2 4.3 5.7 0.7 5.0 0.4 1.8
S. COMMERCE 2.1 3.3 4.4 5.8 0.9 5.1 0.6 1.9
7. TRANS 2.9 3.5 4.5 6.0 1.0 5.3 0.7 2.0
8.9. SERV 3.8 3.8 4.8 6.3 1.4 5.6 l . l 2.4
TOTAL 2.2 3.8 4.7 6.2 1.0 5.4 0.5 2.3
165
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B.19. PERCENTAGE OF CELL IM PUTED:
VENEZUELA 1981
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
1 . AGRCLTR 0.0 0.0 UNDEF 0.2 UNDEF 0.1 0.0 0.0
2. MINING 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 UNDEF UNDEF
3. MFRING 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0
1. U TILm ES 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 UNDEF 0.1 UNDEF UNDEF
5. CONST 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 UNDEF 0.0
S. COMMERCE 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0
7. TRANS 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 UNDEF 0.0
8. BUS SERV 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 UNDEF 0.0
J. CSPSERV 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
FOTAL 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6. 7.8.9.
AGRCL-FROD/
TRL TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 UNDEF 0.1 0.0 0.1
2. MINING 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 UNDEF 0.1 0.0 0.0
3. MFRING 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
4. UTILITIES 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0
S . CONST 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0
S. COMMERCE 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
7. TRANS 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
8. BUS SERV 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
?. CSPSERV 2.8 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.8 2.7 2.7
166
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FEMALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
TABLE B 70. PERCENTAGE OF C ELL IM PUTED:
VENEZUELA 1993
OCCUPATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
PROF/TECH ADM/MGR CLERICAL SALES SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
1. AGRCLTR 0.3 0.1 UNDEF 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.1
2. MINING 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF 0.1
3. MFRING 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.1
4. UTILITIES 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF 0.1
5. CONST 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 UNDEF 0.0 UNDEF 0.1
S. COMMERCE 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.1
7. TRANS 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 UNDEF 0.1
3. BUS SERV 0.1 0.1 0 .1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.1
9. CSPSERV 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.4 0.2
TOTAL 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1
MALES
INDUSTRY TOTAL
OCCUPATION
1.
PROF/TECH
2.
ADM/MGR
3.
CLERICAL
4.
SALES
5.
SERV
6.
AGRCL-
TRL
7.8.9.
PROD/
TRANS
I. AGRCLTR 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
2. MINING 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
3. MFRING 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
4. UTILITIES 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
5. CONST 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
S. COMMERCE 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
7. TRANS 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1
S. BUS SERV 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2
9. CSPSERV 3.2 3.3 3.1 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.2
TOTAL 0.7 1.9 0.4 1.0 0.1 1.7 0.1 0.6
167
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TABLE B.21. PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EMPLOYMENT ELIMINATED
CATEGORY YEAR C H ILE COSTA ECUADOR MEXICO VENEZUELA
RICA
UNEMPLOYED
WITH NO EARLY N A 1.2 3.6 0.6 N A
PREVIOUS LATE N A 0.6 1.4 N A N A
EMPLOYMENT
A LL UN EARLY 19.6 NA N A N A 63
EMPLOYED LATE 4.4 NA N A 2.7 63
WORKERS NOT
DEFINED BY EARLY 0.0 4.8 1.0 15.0 0.0
INDUSTRY LATE 0.0 0.3 2.8 15 0.0
OR OCCUPATION
TOTAL EARLY 19.6 6.0 4.6 15.6 6.3
LATE 4.4 0.9 4.2 4.2 6.3
168
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Asset Metadata

Creator Ball, Jennifer Ann (author)

Core Title Before and after reform: The effects of structural adjustment on women's employment in Latin America

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Political Economy and Public Policy

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag economics, general,OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, demography,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Easterlin, Richard (committee chair), [illegible] (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-72033

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Document Type Dissertation

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Type texts

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