According to the most recent global estimates from the International Labor Organization (ILO), male boys and adolescents are more vulnerable to child labor; however, many girls and adolescent women remain invisible in the statistics due to the types of activities and conditions in which they work. This, added to the lack of information on their situation, slows down progress towards target 8.7 on ending child labor by 2025. Addressing this reality from a gender perspective would positively impact progress on the agenda regarding the reduction of discrimination , violence and inequality in the most vulnerable populations.

Latin America and the Caribbean must improve and expand information on the dimension of child labor in the lives of girls and adolescent women, their families and communities. To this end, the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labor (IR) has been developing information and awareness resources that promote a reading of this reality from a gender perspective.

The first published resource, within the framework of International Women's Day, is the document "Do not leave girls behind . " This tells us that when referring to the situation of girls and adolescent women who are victims of child labor, we must consider that these are unique situations, which demand to be analyzed in depth to find answers that improve the lives of both children and adolescents to the same extent. adolescents and girls and adolescents in child labor.

The urgency of including the gender approach in the approach to child labor and in the design and improvement of policy responses, stems from recognizing that gender roles influence the different characteristics and conditions that child labor acquires for girls and boys. kids. For example, this means that girls and boys have a greater or lesser presence in some sector or that, when they work in it, they carry out different activities that involve different risks.

Women and girls perform certain tasks disproportionately to their peers. According to UN Women, in developing countries, for example, laborious tasks such as collecting water are the special responsibility of women and girls who live in 80% of households without access to water. This activity, according to the ILO, usually involves walking for several kilometers, which exposes them to other types of risks such as injuries, fatigue and even sexual abuse and rape.

In the world and the region, female girls and adolescents continue to be undervalued just because they are women. They have fewer opportunities to access resources, services and programs, and they suffer multiple forms of violence in their homes and outside of them. Child labor only reproduces, normalizes and perpetuates this situation.

We know that child labor can impact the attendance and permanence in school of many girls and adolescent women, which in the future will translate into a lack of skills and opportunities to access decent jobs.

We also know that women represent almost half of the world's population, in this sense, the development and growth of peoples will depend on the empowerment of women and girls and the opportunities to which they have access, as well as full compliance with the their rights, among others, fundamental labor rights.

The change will be possible if we work from today on public policies that put an end to the situations that maintain discrimination and exclusion of women from their childhood, such as public policies with a gender perspective for the prevention and eradication of child labor.

What do we know about child labor in boys and girls?

According to the ILO, in the world, it is estimated that they represent 58% (88 million) of those who are in child labor, while women 42% (64 million). They are also the majority (62%) in dangerous jobs.

Girls' work is reduced at a much slower rate than that of boys. Between 2012 and 2016, twice as many boys as girls left child labor. The trend is similar for hazardous work.

At the regional level, there are no estimates that differentiate involvement according to the sex of minors; However, they do exist on a national scale and these also show gaps.

Girls and adolescent women carry out activities at home, such as domestic and care work - paid or not - they are even victims of the worst forms of child labor, such as commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor or bonded labor. . The characteristics of all these activities make their identification, quantification and monitoring very complex for the authorities, remaining invisible in the statistics and reports.

Download here the document "Do not leave girls behind": 

• Spanish:  http://iniciativa2025alc.org/sites/default/files/no-dejar-a-las-ninas-atras_TrabajoInfantil-Genero.pdf
• English:  http://iniciativa2025alc.org/sites/default/files/do-not-leave-girls-behind_ChildLabour-Gender.pdf