The higher qualification level of women does not guarantee them to get a job, and in fact the gender gap deepens as the educational level increases. The data comes from the Statistical Yearbook that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) presented a few days ago, and which compares figures from member countries.
From this it can be deduced that with an education of up to five years, 6.4% of men and 7.2% of women are unemployed. Meanwhile, with ten to twelve years of training, men have an 8.9% unemployment rate, while women have 12.8%. That is, the difference is 0.8% and 3.9%, respectively, higher in the case of a higher qualification of women.
Although permanent education is presented as fundamental when it comes to narrowing the gaps and generating employment opportunities, this does not always work on the issue of gender equality.
The study yields other interesting data. Of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 who are neither studying nor employed, 17.4% of women argue that it is due to the need to dedicate themselves to unpaid tasks at home, while for men this figure is reduced to 1.5 %.
Of the population without their own income, on the other hand, and between the ages of 15 and 24, 46% of women lack this resource, a much higher figure than that of men, who are around 30%.
The report further shows that with age, some levels tend to even out. If the unemployment rate is 7.8% for men between 25 and 34 years of age and 12.1% for women of the same age, for those over 45 the levels are 4.8% and 5 %, respectively.
In addition, according to statistics, women with thirteen years of education or more represent 27.7% of the population on average in the region, while men represent 23.5%.
Something similar happens in the country. According to the Argentine Chamber for Vocational Training and Job Training, women predominate when it comes to job and professional training, although they continue to earn less than men for the same functions.
According to data from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, unemployment rates are 6.2% for women with incomplete primary education and 6.6% for men, while these figures rise to 9.5% for women and 6.8% for men with completed high school. In this case, the basic qualification level also widens the gap, which is not the case when speaking of university and tertiary levels. In this sense, the data indicate that unemployment between men and women with completed university studies has only a difference of 0.3%.
“The unemployment rate is 7.8% for women, while for men it is 6.1%, with a gap of 1.7 percentage points. This means an increase in the gap of 0.3 percentage points with respect to the same period in 2021”, indicates the latest report from the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity. “The proportion of women who do not have a job and are actively looking for it is higher than their male counterparts, which shows that they face greater difficulties in finding paid work.”
The differences are not only seen in the degree of unemployment, but also in the number of hours that men and women can dedicate to their jobs. The underemployment rate is 13.3% for women, 3.9 points higher than that of men, which stands at 9.4%. “This gap increased 0.6 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2021.” Therefore, “women not only face greater difficulties in finding work, but also in working full time”.
Regarding the underemployment rate according to sex and qualification level, this affects 22.9% of women and 12.1% of men with incomplete primary education, a gap that remains when taking the population with secondary education complete, since the percentages rise to 14.2 for women and 10.6 for men. However, in this indicator, university studies give a slight advantage to women: the underemployment rate in this case is 7.6%, slightly lower than for men with the same level of qualification, who are located in the 9.7%.
What the statistics agree on is that in most cases women are better trained, but this does not translate into better jobs, wages or a higher employment rate.
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