Inequality and poverty affect Dominican women

In the Dominican Republic, women continue to be the most affected in terms of poverty and economic inequality, with a rate of 20.1% in female-headed households.

Likewise, the gender wage gap that remains is 18%, while 49.4% of women work in informal jobs without access to social security.

The results are contained in the report “Progress and challenges of the Dominican Republic in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action,” prepared by the Center for Gender Studies (CEG) of the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (Intec).

The findings of the study as mentioned above were shared by Desirée del Rosario, coordinator of the CEG of Intec, who specified that, despite the progress that the country has made in terms of gender equality, women still face significant structural challenges in key areas such as poverty, gender violence, political participation, as well as access to health and education.

“Equality is not substantive and is not guaranteed,” said Del Rosario. When asked how good the condition of Dominican women is today, the CEG coordinator stressed: “It has been as good as women themselves have been able to build it, because at the level of State policies, they are still unprotected.”

The data released by Intec was used to commemorate today’s International Women’s Day. The date was propitious for various institutions to hold events yesterday to exalt the value of women in different social spectrums and in which the struggles women have fought throughout history to achieve the position they enjoy today in society were recognized.

Infotep: 58% of management staff are female

Margarita Aquino, the director of Human Management of the National Institute of Professional Technical Training (Infotep), highlighted the institution’s commitment to female participation in the workforce. She indicated that 53% of the organization’s collaborators are women.

He also stated that 58% of the management staff is female and stressed that only under the management of the current director, Rafael Santos Badía, have around 350 women been promoted to new positions.

“These data show that our institution promotes equal opportunities between men and women. It is also a sign that Infotep has a female staff capable of taking on great challenges and values each contribution of each of its collaborators,” Aquino celebrated.

Aquino released the information prior to the conference “Right, equality and empowerment for women and girls,” led by the expert on women’s issues Yildalina Tatem Brache. Brache highlighted the constitutional obligation to eradicate gender inequality and discrimination.

During the talk, Tatem Brache discussed the need to unlearn certain behaviors that, consciously or unconsciously, often place women in a disadvantaged position, which should not be the case.