The invisible face of child labour in Latin America and the Caribbean

Child labour has a gender bias related to the dominant stereotypes regarding gender roles. While out-of-home paid work is carried out predominantly by boys, girls bear the greater burden in unpaid domestic tasks, whether in their own homes or the homes of others. Boys are more exposed to the risks of being out on the street and find it more difficult to combine work and education. For girls it may be easier to reconcile the spheres of work and education, but they suffer costs that remain hidden and that reinforce their disadvantages throughout the life cycle. On the one hand, they are marked by the assumption that the burden of the care economy is entirely their responsibility, which determines future labour prospects. Indeed, even when girls show greater educational achievement, their occupational options are more limited. On the other hand, girls are exposed to risk within the household, where overexploitation, maltreatment and abuse are as frequent as they are unpunished.

Social Panorama of Latin America 1998

Includes bibliography

El Bono Juancito Pinto del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia: programas de transferencias monetarias e infancia

Incluye Bibliografía

Trabajo infantil en América Latina y el Caribe: su cara invisible

El trabajo infantil tiene un sesgo de género relacionado con los estereotipos dominantes en la distribución social de los roles sexuales. Mientras en los varones prevalece el trabajo remunerado fuera de casa, las niñas cargan con el mayor peso en las tareas domésticas, sea en hogares propios o ajenos. Esto tiene para ellas costos que permanecen ocultos y que refuerzan desventajas en todo el ciclo vital vinculadas a la asignación social y cultural del cuidado y el trabajo reproductivo a las mujeres. Este número de Desafíos es sobre la cara invisible del trabajo infantil donde se destaca el mayor peso que tienen las niñas en el trabajo doméstico remunerado y no remunerado en América Latina y el Caribe, y los riesgos a los que se exponen.

Social Panorama of Latin America 1995

Incluye Bibliografía

Argentina: Impacts of the child allowance programme on the labour-market behaviour of adults

In 2009 Argentina implemented the Universal Child Allowance for Social Protection (AUH), a cash transfer programme for households with children. Coverage provided by the contributory family allowance programme was extended to parents who are unemployed or who work in the informal sector (domestic workers, for example). This paper uses the difference-in-difference estimator and propensity score matching techniques to evaluate the short-term effects of the auh on adult labour participation and income generation. The results suggest that, during its first year of operation, no significant disincentives to work were generated by the programme, given that it did not discourage adults from working or lead to a reduction in the number of hours worked. These findings are highly relevant in the Latin American context where these kinds of cash transfers have become an important component of social protection systems.