¿Dueňas o jefas de hogar? Analizando la desigualdad de género en la propiedad de activos en américa latina

Abstract

Most studies that incorporate a gender dimension into the study of poverty or other
development outcomes focus on the sex of the household head. This article argues that
a headship analysis gives only a partial view of gender inequality since it does not take
into account the position of women within male-headed or dual-headed households.
Drawing on household surveys for Latin America and the Caribbean, the authors
present indicators of the degree of gender inequality in asset ownership for twelve
countries in the region that have collected individual-level data on asset ownership.
Disaggregated data on asset ownership within households suggest that the distribution
of property by gender is more equitable than a headship analysis alone would suggest.
This different vision of relative female poverty is largely due to the fact that women in
male-headed households frequently own assets, either individually or jointly with their
spouses. The degree of gender inequality also varies according to the specific asset and
among countries. Finally, the authors suggest how household surveys could be
improved by standardizing the collection of individual-level asset data across countries.