The recently published UN Women report, Country Profile: Argentina 2024, analyzes the structural roots of gender inequality based on official data and evidence from academic centers and civil society organizations. It is a timely, necessary, and compelling input that challenges us at a critical moment.
The document acknowledges Argentina’s historical achievements—pioneering legislation to address gender-based violence, significant progress in sexual and reproductive health access, and a regional model for promoting gender parity in political representation—but warns of institutional backsliding and a loss of state capacity to sustain these gains.
On care policy, a crucial agenda for advancing gender equality and economic growth, Argentina shows a bleak picture: infrastructure remains insufficient, parental leave policies are unequal, and the burden of care responsibilities unfairly falls on women. The data confirms this:
- Women spend almost twice as much time as men on unpaid domestic and care work.
- 78% of girls aged 15 to 17 perform caregiving tasks.
- More than 70% of domestic workers are in the informal economy.
- Only 19% of children under 3 have access to care services.
- In Argentina, there are 124 poor women for every 100 men.
- Men with children work 15 more hours per week in their main occupation than women with young children. The wage gap between fathers and mothers can exceed 65% in informal contexts (DNEIyG, 2022).
- Aging is also gendered: at age 86, there are 205 women for every 100 men. Women not only provide more care, they also live longer and therefore will require more support.
- 43% of the country’s districts do not have nursing homes for older adults.
Meanwhile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, and Brazil—as well as subnational governments like Bogotá and Jalisco—are advancing comprehensive policies, regulations, public investment, and co-responsibility strategies that recognize care as a right and a driver of development. At the end of 2022, the region’s main authorities on women’s rights met in Argentina and adopted, together with ECLAC and UN Women, the Buenos Aires Commitment, pledging to work toward a “care society” that guarantees care as a right and protects care workers. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), one of the region’s main institutions, is also supporting this agenda through credit and technical assistance via its new BID Cuida initiative. Argentina has much to learn and do if it wants to regain its pioneering role.
Building on prior work and proposals from civil society organizations, the report goes beyond diagnosis and offers a set of public policy recommendations: more infrastructure, better leave policies, time-use policies, incentives to formalize domestic workers, and a strong state that guarantees rights.
If Argentina wants to return to the forefront, it must look to the region and regain momentum.
If Argentina seeks growth with equality, it needs to invest in the care economy.