• América Latina y el Caribe es la única región del mundo que cuenta con una Agenda Regional de Género, que es una hoja de ruta profunda e integral, emanada de los acuerdos alcanzados por los Estados miembros de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) en las reuniones de la Conferencia Regional sobre la Mujer de América Latina y el Caribe celebradas desde 1977¹ .
• El Consenso de Montevideo sobre Población y Desarrollo es un acuerdo regional que constituye uno de los instrumentos más avanzados del mundo para la garantía de los derechos sexuales y reproductivos de las personas en un marco de desarrollo sostenible y que se articula con la Agenda Regional de Género.
• Hay avances en lo referente a la legislación sobre la protección de los derechos de las mujeres, incluidas las leyes de paridad política y las normativas contra la violencia de género. No obstante, continúan existiendo desafíos estructurales, como la persistencia de los feminicidios, la división sexual del trabajo, la desigual organización social del cuidado y la brecha en el acceso a recursos económicos y tecnológicos.
• Las mujeres trabajan una cantidad similar o mayor de horas a la semana que los hombres. A pesar de ello, en todos los casos, las mujeres dedican menos horas al trabajo remunerado que los hombres, pues destinan más horas al trabajo doméstico y de cuidados no remunerado, lo que socava su capacidad de obtener ingresos propios y el ejercicio de su autonomía.
• En la región se han producido avances también en lo relativo a la ampliación de las licencias por maternidad y paternidad, aunque es preciso promover la ratificación y la aplicación de las normas internacionales del trabajo vinculadas con los cuidados² para mejorar aspectos como el tiempo de las licencias por paternidad y la creación de licencias parentales y de cuidados de larga duración.

1. Este órgano intergubernamental establece compromisos y orientaciones sobre políticas públicas con el objetivo de lograr la igualdad de género normativa y sustantiva, la garantía de los derechos y la autonomía de las mujeres.

2. En ese sentido, el Convenio sobre la Protección de la Maternidad, 2000 (núm. 183) y el Convenio sobre los Trabajadores con Responsabilidades Familiares, 1981 (núm. 156) de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) son fundamentales para establecer licencias y servicios de cuidado.

• Thirty-six countries and territories of Latin America and the  Caribbean have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. All the countries and territories of the region have laws to prevent and eradicate violence against women —some limited to the domestic sphere—, and 14 countries have passed comprehensive legislation to address all forms of violence in various spheres.
• Regulatory frameworks have been adopted to combat gender-based violence, including to address femicide or feminicide in 19 countries and territories and to ban child marriage without exception in 14 countries.
• The proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age, is 7% in the region overall, and 8.3% among women aged 15–49. That said, between 63% and 76% of women have experienced some form of gender-based violence in some sphere.
• In 2023, at least 3,897 women were victims of femicide or feminicide; in other words, every day, at least 11 women and girls are killed on the basis of gender.
• Data for 2023 indicate that, on average, 4% of women aged 20–24 in 26 countries and territories of the region had entered marriage or another form of union by age 15, and 21.2% by age 18. This has a clear impact on school dropout and expulsion.
• Eighteen countries had constitutional or legislative mandates to support greater participation of women at the national or local level, and nine had passed gender parity laws.
• At the regional level, countries with gender parity measures that include robust enforcement mechanisms had average female participation rates of 45% in 2023 —13 percentage points higher than the 32% average among countries with no such measures.
• Women’s participation in national parliaments averaged 35.8% in 2024 and women held 27.2% of seats in deliberative bodies of local government in 2023. The proportion of women in managerial positions was just 36.3% in 2022.
• Eight countries have passed laws establishing national care policies or systems.
• All the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean recognize the right to maternity leave, of 14–17 weeks in 10 of the countries and 18 weeks or more in only 5. In the remaining 18 countries, the duration of maternity leave is less than 14 weeks.
• Twenty-three Latin American countries have conducted at least one time-use measurement exercise, and five of them have established satellite accounts for unpaid domestic and care work based on official statistics. The results indicate that the percentage of unpaid domestic and care work is between one fourth and one fifth of gross domestic product and that women account for three fourths of that percentage.
• Of 21 Latin American and Caribbean countries with data available for 2022, 75% had laws and regulations guaranteeing access to sexual and reproductive health. For the Caribbean subregion, that figure was 54%.
• Eight countries have banned abortion in all circumstances: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Suriname. Six countries, meanwhile, guarantee the right to abortion with no restrictions as to circumstance: Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, Mexico and Uruguay. The remaining countries allow abortion only in certain circumstances.
• In the seven countries of the region with data on contraceptive decisions for the period 2006–2018, 91% of women aged 15–49 report making their own informed decisions about the use of contraception. The figure was 86% for reproductive healthcare decisions and 90% for decisions regarding sexual relations.
• In the 19 countries and territories of the region with data available, the proportion of women who owned a mobile phone in 2023 was 83.8%, with no significant gender gap (83.7% for men). This indicator is showing progress —more so than the global indicator—, but the pace is still too slow to meet the target.
• Among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, 13% have systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment. In 2021, Ecuador and the Plurinational State of Bolivia had the most comprehensive systems, while those in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Paraguay fulfilled fewer criteria.

• The ECLAC Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean publishes a set of relevant indicators for monitoring progress on gender equality and on the economic and physical autonomy and decision-making of women and girls in all their diversity.
• Countries have made progress in developing strategies to implement existing legislation on gender-based violence at the different levels of government. Examples include the coordinating mechanism for a comprehensive approach to sex- and gender-based violence against women, children and adolescents, which Colombia passed in 2020; the National Coordinating Committee of the Immediate Search Mechanism for Missing Women in Guatemala; and Act No. 21675, which Chile passed in 2024.
• The care society proposed by ECLAC is a model that member States endorsed at the fifteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is centred on the sustainability of life and recognizes the interdependence among people, the environment, and economic and social development, taking into account self-care and care for others, including caregivers, and care for the planet.
• Caribbean countries have implemented disaster measures with a gender perspective.
• Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua have implemented measures to monitor and combat sexual exploitation and harassment online.
• Colombia’s national time-use survey is institutionalized by law and conducted every three years, and Mexico’s, which is conducted every five years, has been officially declared a matter of national interest.
• Some countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico) have made notable efforts on gender indicator mapping and georeferencing and on issues of care supply and demand, with a view to strengthening the design of public care policies.
• In 2019, Mexico’s Parity Everywhere constitutional reform established the principle of parity as a duty of the State at all levels and in all branches. In Honduras and Peru, pro-parity legislative changes raised the target for women’s participation in candidate lists from 30% to 50%, which led to significant increases in the number of women elected to legislative office at the local level.
• In recent years, several countries in the region have implemented and strengthened policies to guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health services, in particular programmes for adolescents in Argentina, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. In addition, measures have been adopted in Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama and the Plurinational State of Bolivia to incorporate sexuality education in general administrative regulations concerning education and curricula.
• The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Costa  Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and the Plurinational State of Bolivia have incorporated the gender perspective in matters of land access through regulatory and institutional changes.

• Progress is needed on implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda, in synergy with the 2030 Agenda and based on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, to overcome structural obstacles to gender equality.
• Progress on the Buenos Aires Commitment³ with regard to the autonomy of women, adolescents and girls must be achieved by strengthening capacities, technology, humanitarian assistance and investment in essential infrastructure and services to ensure universal access to comprehensive health.
• The regulatory framework for gender equality in the workplace must be strengthened, including by explicitly prohibiting gender-based discrimination in employment and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. There is a need to ratify and implement Convention No. 183 and Convention No. 156 and to bring maternity, paternity and parental leave up to international standards.
• Patriarchal cultural patterns should be transformed by cultivating co-responsible and non-violent conceptions of masculinity and by implementing laws, policies and comprehensive and multisectoral action plans, as well as awareness-raising programmes to prevent, address, punish and eliminate all forms of gender-based violence and discrimination against women, adolescents and girls in all their diversity, in different areas and manifestations.
• There is a need to strengthen statistical information  systems on  violence, integrating gender, intersectional and intercultural perspectives.
• It is important to take into account the effects of climate change, environmental disasters and emergencies, which exacerbate gender-based violence against women and girls.
• Implementing legislation to categorically ban child marriage, breaking the statistical and social silence on this problem and strengthening public policies and services are key to the full personal development of girls and adolescents.
• Ensuring women’s access to economic resources, such as property and control over land, as well as other resources, requires gender equality and the promotion of women’s rights and autonomy.
• In addition to recognizing, measuring and valuing unpaid care work, public policies must be implemented to reduce and redistribute the burden of care, in line with a cross-sectoral approach that upholds the principles of universality, intersectionality and shared responsibility between men and women and among households, the State, the market and communities.

3 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Buenos Aires Commitment (LC/CRM.15/6/Rev.1), Santiago, 2023.