Did you know that in Santander, 2 out of every 10 households headed by women face housing deficits — that is, they live with deficiencies such as overcrowding, lack of public services, and inadequate sanitation?
Despite regulatory and social progress, gender inequalities continue to shape the country’s social and economic structure. Women still face greater barriers to accessing formal employment, fair wages, and professional development opportunities, which makes them more vulnerable to poverty.
This was confirmed by the report “Vulnerability and Poverty of Women in Santander: An Analysis Focused on Housing, Well-being, and Education”, prepared by the Observatory on Women and Gender Equity of Santander (OMEGS) at the Industrial University of Santander, in partnership with the Government of Santander.
In Santander, the burden of unpaid domestic and care work continues to fall mainly on women. According to OMEGS, women dedicate an average of 8.1 hours per day to these tasks, compared to 4.6 hours for men. This 3.5-hour difference represents time that women cannot devote to rest, education, or paid work.
Moreover, 34% of women take on these tasks because there is no one else available to do them, and 23.8% dedicate most of their time to caring for others. This situation restricts their participation in the labor market and limits their ability to generate income competitively, increasing the risk of falling into poverty.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and DANE (2023), employed women in Colombia earn, on average, less than employed men. This is due to factors such as horizontal segregation — the concentration of women’s labor force participation in industries and sectors generally associated with caregiving and lower wages — and glass ceilings, which are barriers that make it difficult for women to reach high-level management positions, even in sectors where their participation is significant.
Claudia Goldin, awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics, argues that the main reason for the gender pay gap is women’s need to balance paid work with family life.
Women as heads of households
According to the 2023 Quality of Life Survey (ECV) conducted by DANE, 44.4% of households in Santander are headed by women, compared to 55.6% headed by men. This phenomenon reflects a shift in the traditional household structure of the region, where women are increasingly taking on leading roles in decision-making and in providing for their families.
Although not all female-headed households are poor, the report from the Observatory points out that female headship is used as an indicator of the feminization of poverty.
According to the study, several factors explain this economic vulnerability, including the gender pay gap — since women, on average, earn lower incomes than men; a higher burden of unpaid work, as they must combine formal employment with domestic and caregiving responsibilities; and limited access to job opportunities due to structural barriers that restrict their entry into formal and well-paid employment.
Other contributing factors include the high incidence of single-parent households, which rely on a single source of income; lack of access to financial services, as women often face difficulties obtaining credit; occupational segregation, given that women tend to be concentrated in precarious, informal, or lower-valued sectors; and the impacts of gender-based violence, which limit their opportunities for economic advancement.
Income and expenses
Gender inequalities continue to pose economic challenges. According to the OMEGS report, 35.6% of households headed by women believe their income is insufficient to cover basic expenses, whereas this perception decreases to 29.1% among male-headed households.
In addition, only 5.2% of female-headed households manage to cover more than their basic expenses, compared to 9.5% of male-headed households. This reaffirms the difficulties women face in accessing adequate and sustainable income.
“This disparity suggests that female heads of households face greater economic hardship, likely stemming from factors such as the gender pay gap, limited access to well-paid employment, and the additional burden of unpaid labor,” states the report Vulnerability and Poverty of Women in Santander: An Analysis Focused on Housing, Well-being, and Education.
Moreover, 49% of households led by women consider themselves poor, compared to 51% that do not identify as such. In contrast, among male-headed households, 46.9% consider themselves poor, while 53.1% do not share this perception.
Ana Carolina Henao Vargas, in her study From Economic Violence to the Feminization of Poverty: Material, Psychosocial, and Symbolic Impacts on Women’s Lives, affirms that “the perception of poverty in female-headed households highlights a structural condition of vulnerability that not only affects women’s economic well-being but also increases their risk of gender-based violence.”
According to the analysis of the report led by the UIS Observatory, “poverty in female-headed households not only implies economic limitations but also restricts their possibilities of achieving financial independence. This precariousness makes them more vulnerable to dependency and control within relationships with partners or family members.”
Despite this situation, the OMEGS report notes that young women between the ages of 17 and 21 have achieved higher educational levels compared to adult women over 22 years old, generating differentiated impacts in the labor market.
