Gender, education, and work in Colombia: structural gaps between rural and urban areas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18041/2382-3240/saber.2025v20n2.13205Keywords:
Rural women, gender inequality, access to education, labor market, ColombiaAbstract
This article analyzes gender inequality in access to education and the labor market in Colombia, with particular emphasis on rural women. Although since 2006 progress has been recorded in “closing the gender gap” in Latin America —such as the increase from 97% to 99.5% in education and from 58% to 65.7% in economic participation (Hausmann et al., 2006, p. 14; World Economic Forum, 2006, p. 6)— data from ECLAC and OECD reveal persistent disparities between urban and rural women. For instance, 32% of young rural women neither study nor work, compared to 21% in urban areas (ECLAC, 2023), and the rural labor participation gap in Colombia reaches 29%, compared to 13% in urban areas (OECD, 2023, p. 8).
References
Becerra-Gualdrón, C. J., Gallardo-Sánchez, C. F., & Becerra-Gualdrón, S. B. (2018). Índice de brecha de género en Colombia a nivel departamental 2008–2014. Revista Logos, Ciencia & Tecnología, 10(3), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.22335/rlct.v10i3.555
Castaño-Mesa, M. L. (2018). Colombia in motion. 2010–2013–2016: The changes in the life of households based on the Colombian Longitudinal Survey (ELCA) by Universidad de los Andes. Ediciones Uniandes. https://ediciones.uniandes.edu.co/library/publication/colombia-in-motion-2010-2013-2016-the-changes-in-the-life-of-households-observed-through-the-colombian-longitudinal-survey-elca-by-universidad-de-los-andes
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). (2023, noviembre 27). Cepalstat dashboard widget. CEPALSTAT. https://statistics.cepal.org/tools/dashboard/index.html?indicator_id=3469&context=celade&lang=en
Encinas-Martín, M., & Cherian, M. (2023). Gender, Education and Skills: The persistence of gender gaps in education and skills. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/34680dd5-en
España-Eljaiek, I., Mejía, D., & Meléndez, N. S. G. (2023). Reproducing inequality? Elite-biased policy and the rural–urban educational gap in Colombia and its regions, 1920–2019. Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 41(3), 375–409. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0212610923000058
Galván, E., Parada, C., Querejeta, M., & Salvador, S. (2024). Gender gaps and family leaves in Latin America. Review of Economics of the Household, 22(2), 387–414. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-023-09671-9
González-Espitia, C. G. (2023). Diferencias por género en el acceso a la educación superior en Colombia (2001–2019). Revista Colombiana de Educación, (88), 185–210. https://doi.org/10.17227/rce.num88-13523
Gray, L., & Lewis, L. (2021). Use of educational technology for instruction in public schools: 2019–20. First look—Summary (NCES 2021-017). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2021/2021017Summary.pdf
Hausmann, R., Tyson, L. D., & Zahidi, S. (2006). The Global Gender Gap Report 2006. World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2006.pdf
Hawkesworth, M. (2005). Engendering Political Science: An Immodest Proposal. Politics & Gender, 1(1), 141–152. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231877656_Engendering_Political_Science_An_Immodest_Proposal
Laboratorio de Economía de la Educación (LEE). (2023, octubre). Informe análisis estadístico LEE No. 79. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. https://lee.javeriana.edu.co/-/lee-informe-79
MacKinnon, C. A. (1991). Reflections on sex equality under law. The Yale Law Journal, 100(5), 1281–1328. https://doi.org/10.2307/796693
Mattsson, H., Gustafsson, J., Prada, S., Jaramillo-Otoya, L., Leckie, G., Merlo, J., & Rodriguez-Lopez, M. (2024). Mapping socio-geographical disparities in the occurrence of teenage maternity in Colombia using multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA). International Journal for Equity in Health, 23, 36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-024-02123-5
Ministerio de Educación (Chile). (2024). Informe final: Análisis del proceso de participación para el diseño de la Política Nacional de Educación Rural. Departamento de Estudios Pedagógicos, Universidad de Chile & Programa de Educación Rural, División de Educación General. https://rural.mineduc.cl/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/09/Informe-resultados-completo.pdf
OECD. Gender Equality in Colombia: Towards a Better Sharing of Paid and Unpaid Work. OECD, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1787/9f829821-en
Post, D., & Pong, S. L. (2009). The academic effects of after-school paid and unpaid work among 14-year-old students in TIMSS countries. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 39(6), 799–818. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920802681804
Pujalte, L. Q., & Pujalte Ibarra, P. (2021). Configuración de estereotipos de género en publicidades infantiles: Estudio comparativo entre España y Argentina. Pensar la Publicidad, 15(1), 135–156. https://doi.org/10.5209/pepu.74571
Ramírez, C. (2014). Factores asociados al desempeño académico según nivel de formación pregrado y género de los estudiantes de educación superior Colombia. Revista Colombiana de Educación, (66), 201–222. https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=413635257009
Sarmiento, M. O., Vélez de la Calle, C., Montoya Londoño, M., & Rodríguez Camargo, M. (2013). La equidad de género en la educación superior en Colombia: Un análisis normativo. Revista Interamericana de Investigación, Educación y Pedagogía (RIIEP), 6(2), 123–145. https://doi.org/10.15332/s1657-107X.2013.0002.06
Tejada, M., Piras, C. C., Flabbi, L., & Bustelo, M. (2021). Gender gaps in Latin American labor markets: Implications from an estimated search model (IZA Discussion Paper No. 14186). IZA Institute of Labor Economics. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3808449
Trading Economics. (s. f.). Colombia – Public spending on education, total (% of GDP). https://tradingeconomics.com/colombia/public-spending-on-education-total-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html
Urbina, D. R. (2022). Mass education and women’s autonomy: Evidence from Latin America. Demography, 59(3), 1195–1220. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-9983381
World Bank Group. (2023, abril 18). Argentina’s rural education focuses on higher quality and better learning. https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2023/04/14/argentina-s-rural-education-focuses-on-higher-quality-and-better-learning
World Bank Group. (2019). Gender equality in Colombia. World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/32006
Cooper, B. (2016). Intersectionality. En L. Disch & M. Hawkesworth (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of feminist theory (pp. 385–406). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328581.013.20
Pérez García, M. E., & Leal Larrarte, S. A. (2017). Las telenovelas como generadoras de estereotipos de género: El caso de México. Anagramas – Rumbos y Sentidos de la Comunicación, 16(31), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.22395/angr.v16n31a7
World Economic Forum. (2024, junio). Global gender gap 2024. World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Saber, Ciencia y Libertad
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
