Dimensions of gender inequality in Central America: family, work, and income

The main objective of this dissertation is to explore dimensions of gender inequality in Central America. The dissertation contains three papers, each of them uses different time periods and methods, and attempt to contribute to a broad understanding of the dimensions of gender inequality in both private and public spheres. The first paper explores the role of changes in family structure and living arrangements on shaping income distribution in Guatemala using data from the national sample survey ENCOVI - National Survey of Living Conditions (2000 and 2014). For this task, a 12 groups household typology including a gender dimension is proposed. In order to examine the effects of changes in family composition and living arrangements on income inequality, a decomposition of the distributional changes by population subgroups is applied. The results suggest that trends in family structure and living arrangements associated with the decline of fertility rates and the increase in aging population do not seem to have contributed to changes in income inequality experienced by Guatemala for the period from 2000 to 2014. The second paper examines the effects of individual and household characteristics on the time-allocation decision for both women and men, and how these effects have evolved over time in Urban Guatemala using data from the ENCOVI (2000 and 2004). A multivariate Tobit is built to model individuals’ decision to allocate time, distinguishing three time uses: housework, childcare, and paid work. The results reveal that time allocation is largely determined by gender. For both periods, on average, women devote more time to housework and childcare than men, while men spend more hours in paid work than their counterparts. Moreover, women’s time allocation is more responsive to individuals and household characteristics than men’s in both periods. The last paper examines the relationship between gender occupational intensity and gender differences in pay in the Northern Triangle of Central America using national surveys carried out in 2014 in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. For that, a harmonized occupational classification at the 2-digit-level is built with the objective of analyzing the occupational distribution across countries. Through quantile regressions, it is analyzed what factors may affect gender differences along the wage distribution, considering individuals and household variables and occupation patterns. The comparative analysis suggests that women are always at a disadvantage when compared to men in the labor market. Finally, the findings show wage penalties for working in female-dominated occupations along the distribution. However, gender differences across female occupational intensity quantiles are noted, the effect of this variable is higher at the lower quantile of the distribution for women, especially in El Salvador and Honduras.