Closing Gaps: Regulatory Frameworks for the Financial Inclusion of Women

CAF -development bank of Latin America- and the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the OAS are pleased to invite you to this round table that will focus on the importance of addressing the persistent gender gaps in the financial sector, in particular the importance of moving forward with the development public policies and enhancing regulatory frameworks to avoid setbacks in the progress made in women's rights, as well as sharing experiences and practices in terms of policies and regulatory frameworks of the States aimed at promoting greater financial inclusion and economic autonomy of women.

Women in the American region approach COVID-19 from a position of inequality characterized by two structural realities: the feminization of poverty and the sexual division of labor. Women still have a lower relative rate of participation in employment, a higher incidence of unemployment, greater participation in different forms of job insecurity, lower average income in similar conditions of occupation and education, less access to land and water, property and inheritance, less access to credit as well as to other financial resources and less participation in decision-making spaces and the formulation of policies in the economic sphere. This historic sexual division of labor continues to be the main obstacle, along with gender-based violence, to the full and equal participation of women in all spheres of life.

The result is that women are poorer than men and do not have the same access to social security/pension systems. Moreover, they do not derive the same benefits, including the same autonomy or economic independence as men, from their participation in productive employment. In this context of power asymmetries, COVID-19 has had and will still have profound impact on women's economic rights in the future. For that reason, moving towards strengthening public policies and legal frameworks that address women's economic rights is more imperative than ever, particularly in the financial sector.

Financial capability surveys conducted by CAF show that women have low resilience to negative financial shocks and are more financially vulnerable than men. Likewise, it is pointed out that these gaps can be explained by a lower accumulation of assets by women, their access to more expensive debt products, as well as the weaker position that women have traditionally had in the labor market, which translates into lower income. Besides from the financial sector, it is important to address the issue of education in the use of services and products, access to technologies and the infrastructure for their use in order to have access to digital financial products.

Date: Thursday, March 3, 2022

Time: 10:00 a.m. (Colombia) | 11:00 a.m. (Venezuela) | 12:00 p.m. (Argentina)

You will receive the Zoom link before the event.