The Impact of the Crisis for Women and Girls in Latin America

I participate in a very active LinkedIn Group of women entrepreneurs, in which some very interesting debates have emerged. I want to share these ideas with you so we can exchange thoughts on how we women do business in Latin America and in the USA. The first report I read struck me hard, and it is the one dedicated to analyzing the situation of women and girls in developing countries, which includes almost every country in Latin America. The PLAN report warns that failing to send girls to school is costing the world’s poorest countries billions of dollars each year. No education means girls are confined to dangerous, unskilled work – neglecting their earning potential and slowing a country’s recovery from the current financial crisis. The global economic downturn also means girls in the developing world are the first to lose their jobs, may end up in the sex trade and are more likely to die young.

I will only name the topics which the author alerts of, but please take a time to go through the report if you can:

• Immediate impacts of the global recession.
• Young women, millions employed in the informal and export-related sectors, are the first to lose their jobs.
• Remittances (money sent home by workers abroad) fall and migration decreases.
• Lending for microfinance and other projects is restricted.
• More girls become involved in child labor.
• Girls are pulled out of education and into domestic and other work.
• Infant deaths increase – the majority of them, girls.
• More girls and women are forced into the sex trade.

By Lara Bersano