POVERTY & EQUITY NOTES Gender differences in poverty in Colombia Paola Buitrago, Miriam Muller, Sergio Olivieri, and Julieth Pico This note presents the gender poverty profiles for Colombia using a lifecycle approach. In Colombia, as in the vast majority of countries around the world, girls and boys are consistently poorer than adults and seniors. Notwithstanding, the difference on poverty rates between women and men during their reproductive age in Colombia is around 6 p.p. while in the word is around 2 p.p. Another interesting finding is that the likelihood of being poor diminishes with formal education, for both women and men. Nevertheless, as the level of formal education increases, the share of women among the poor do so also. International rankings signal that gender when variables as age, demographic and inequalities in Colombia vary across dimensions. economic composition are combined with The Global Gender Gap Index 2017 (World gender, to define the profiles. And finally, section Economic Forum, 2017) quantifies the three presents some final remarks. magnitude of gender disparities in key areas. According to this rank, Colombia occupies the 36th place among 144 countries in terms of Poverty rates gender equality. By sub-components of this Around 27 percent of Colombians live in index, Colombia ranks 32nd in economic poverty.1 Women represent more than half of participation and opportunity, 30th in the poor (52 percent, in 2017). In 2017, there is a educational attainment, 1st in health and survival, small and non-significant difference between and 59th in political empowerment. Colombia is male and female poverty rates (26.2 and 27.6 positioned in the highest order in sub-indexes percent, respectively). However, this small like literacy rate, enrollment in secondary and difference (disaggregated by sex alone) reflects tertiary education, and life expectancy; but not in the facts that: (i) poverty is measured at the others like labor-force participation and wage household level and by definition all household equality for similar works. members are classified as either poor or non- The rest of this note is organized as follows. poor; and (ii) the ratio of males to females is Section one presents the poverty rates for roughly 50/50 in both poor and non-poor women and men, by education level, marital households (Muñoz et al., 2018). Although status, location and employment type. Section poverty rates for both women and men have two presents the results of the lifecycle approach. We present the gender poverty profile 1 All numbers in this note are based on official moderate poverty line. This is U$S 5.4 a day (2011 PPP). POVERTY AND EQUITY GLOBAL PRACTICE – AUGUST 2018 | 1 Table 1. Poverty and gender by selected characteristics – 2017 A. Total population living in poverty B. Gender distribution of the poor Poor as Number share of Female Male Female Share of of poor the total share of poverty Poverty total poor Male Female (millions) population the poor rate rate population Total 12.9 26.9 52.0 26.2 27.6 Location Location Urban 9.0 24.3 53.1 23.5 24.9 Urban 69.6 67.9 71.1 Rural 3.9 36.0 49.3 34.5 37.6 Rural 30.4 32.1 28.9 Total 100 100 100 Education (ages 15+) Education (ages 15+) No Education 0.8 41.7 51.9 40.4 42.9 No Education 10.1 10.6 9.6 Primary 2.6 29.6 51.5 28.3 30.5 Primary 33.0 35.1 31.2 Secondary 3.8 23.9 55.8 20.8 25.8 Secondary 48.0 46.6 49.3 Tertiary 0.7 8.0 60.9 6.9 9.0 Tertiary 8.9 7.6 9.9 Total 100 100 100 Marital status (aged 15+) Marital status (aged 15+) Married 1.3 16.3 51.3 16.1 16.6 Married 16.0 17.1 15.0 Never married 2.2 21.4 45.4 20.6 22.4 Never married 28.1 33.6 23.4 Living together 3.1 27.9 52.0 27.2 28.7 Living together 39.1 41.2 37.4 Divorced/separated 1.0 22.2 77.6 13.6 27.1 Divorced/separated 12.5 6.1 17.8 Widowed 0.3 19.8 80.0 19.9 19.8 Widowed 4.4 1.9 6.4 Total 100 100 100 Employment (aged 15+) Employment (aged 15+) Paid worker 0.9 8.6 40.7 9.0 8.1 Paid worker 11.8 15.4 8.8 Unpaid worker 0.3 37.3 64.2 42.4 35.0 Unpaid worker 3.9 3.05 4.6 Self-employed 2.7 26.0 36.2 26.8 24.7 Self-employed 34.6 48.4 23.0 Unemployed 0.8 35.2 60.1 32.4 37.4 Unemployed 10.3 8.9 11.3 Inactive 3.1 28.6 72.1 26.7 29.5 Inactive 39.5 24.2 52.3 Total 100 100 100 Notes: (i) Unless otherwise specified, numbers refer to population all ages; (ii) Education, Marital status and Employment numbers do not add up to the total number of poor because there are observations that lack information in these characteristics. Source: World Bank Staff’s calculation based on Colombia GEIH 2017. POVERTY AND EQUITY GLOBAL PRACTICE – AUGUST 2018 | 2 decreased over time, there is still more than a differences in poverty. Poverty rates among men quarter of men and women living in poor and women decrease with age, but the households. relationship is not linear. Girls and boys are consistently poorer than adults and seniors The likelihood of being poor diminishes with (Figure 1). Girls’ poverty rate is 14 percentage formal education irrespective of the gender. points higher than that of young women age 15- However, poor women represent 52 percent of 24, and over 21 percentage points higher than the poor population ages 15 and above with no that of senior women (i.e. 19 percent of senior formal education (Table 1). This share becomes women are poor). larger as the education level increases (i.e. 55 in secondary, and 61 in tertiary education). Figure 1. Poverty rates and gender poverty gap by age groups (2017) Most of the poor report living together with their partner, with trivial differences on poverty rates between women and men. Having said that, women represent the larger share of the poor who report being divorced, separated or widowed (i.e. 78 and 80 percent respectively). In contrast, most of the poor who report never being married are men (i.e. 55 percent). Source: World Bank Staff’s calculation based on GEIH 2017. Regarding the labor market, most of the poor Poverty drops with age, especially when ages 15 and above are either self-employed or comparing childhood and adulthood. out of labor force. Men represent a larger share Nevertheless, the age at which poverty starts to of the poor who are self-employed and paid decrease is different for women than for men. workers, while women are a large share of the Poverty rates fall sharply for women and men as poor who are unpaid workers and who are not in they reach adulthood and then stabilize after 50 the labor market. years of age. From age 20 and up to 39, women are between 4 and 7 percentage points poorer Looking at gender differences in poverty than men, a significant and sizable difference. As through the lifecycle and household type exposed by Munoz et al (2018), this gap coincides with the peak productive and Disaggregated statistics by gender, like those in reproductive ages of men and women. During Table 1, are illustrative for preliminary this period, women are more likely to leave the explorations, but they provide limited insights labor market, especially to care for children. It is into gender differences among the poor. important to highlight that later in life, this Building from the initial insights, a more detailed difference disappears and even the trend inverts analysis based on the intersection between sex, (senior women poverty rate is slightly lower than age, and other demographic variables helps that of senior men). illuminate the gender dimensions of poverty. Households with children tend to fare worse Introducing a general life-cycle approach to than the ones without them, regardless of the measuring poverty, reveals meaningful gender gender, age or number of adults present in the POVERTY AND EQUITY GLOBAL PRACTICE – AUGUST 2018 | 3 household (Figure 2). The gaps in poverty rates This note presents a brief description of the between households with and without the complexity that can arise once gender is presence of children are the largest for incorporated to the poverty analysis. households with one male adult. Households As suggested by the life-cycle approach, we do with only one female adult and presence of not find significant difference on poverty rates children are also more likely to be poor. between women and men. Nevertheless, when However, among the poor households with we use other important variables related to the children, the share of sole women households is person life-cycle, we found some meaningful 1.6 times the share of sole male adult differences. We could summarize the results on households. four main findings. First, when looking at the Figure 2. Poverty rate by demographic marital status, we find that among the divorced, household composition female poverty rate is twice the one of male. Second, girls and boys are consistently poorer than adults and seniors. However, only from age 20 to age 39, the difference on poverty rates between women and men are significant. The difference coincides with the peak productive and reproductive ages of men and women. Third, the likelihood of being poor diminishes with Source: World Bank Staff’s calculation based on GEIH 2017. formal education, for both women and men. Nevertheless, as the level of formal education Regarding the economic household increases, the share of women among the poor composition, households with other dependents do so also. (i.e. children younger than 18 and/or seniors 65 Finally, children and dependents are an and older) have higher poverty rates than important vulnerability factor, particularly for households without dependents. And, in all women. Among the households composed by cases having among those dependents an earner women adults only (one or multiple), the poverty dependent (i.e. person aged 18 to 64 who is a rate of those households with children is about non-income earner) also increases poverty rates. five times the rate of those without. Households with dependents (children, elderly and earner dependents) but no earners have the ABOUT THE AUTHORS highest poverty rate (56.2 percent), followed by households with a single male earner and Paola Buitrago is a Consultant in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank. dependents (47.8 percent). Miriam Muller is a Social Scientist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank. Sergio Olivieri is a Senior Economist in the Final remarks Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank. Julieth Pico is a Consultant in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank. POVERTY AND EQUITY GLOBAL PRACTICE – AUGUST 2018 | 4