Argentina: The gender gap is widening due to the government's economic policies. According to CEPĂ, as International Women's Day approaches, the female activity rate (52.6%) is 17.5 percentage points lower than the male rate (70.1%). The unemployment gap is 1.5 points: 7.4% for women compared to 5.9% for men. The informal labor gap is 2.5 percentage points higher for women (38%) than for men (35.5%). Men's incomes are between 27.3% and 29.0% higher than women's, a gap that widens to 40% among informal workers. This leads to the overrepresentation of women in poverty: they make up 64.2% of the lowest-income population. The most feminized sectors are those with the lowest incomes: women's participation in domestic work is 98.8%. The government has consolidated the dismantling of gender-sensitive public policies in the 2026 budget. 7.5 out of 10 programs aimed at reducing gender gaps have faced budget cuts or have been eliminated. Programs related to combating violence (down 86.5%), health, and childcare have been particularly affected. Meanwhile, the only program with significant growth (+74.64%) is the AUH (Universal Child Allowance), seen as a social containment strategy against the overall adjustment. The labor reform passed in February includes measures to deregulate the labor market, weaken collective representation, and shift resources from workers to capital. New rules limit the rights of pregnant women, weaken union power, and repeal the remote work law that explicitly recognized caregiving tasks within the employment relationship. These measures, combined with a freeze on minimum pensions, create a significant gender gap in the pension system, where women make up 64.2% of minimum pension beneficiaries.
