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Since the 1960s, the number of economically active women in the region has more than tripled. Though more than half of these economically active women have entered the informal sector, as domestic workers, street vendors, or other informal employment, women now also occupy positions in the formal workforce in larger numbers, in particular in export-generating industries. With the entry into the formal workforce, abuse suffered by women in the workplace is surfacing as a central obstacle to women achieving economic independence. Sexual harassment, pregnancy-based discrimination, and gender-based violence in the workplace are common and constant threats to working women's lives and livelihoods. Migrant workers are especially vulnerable to abuse, including trafficking and forced labor. In countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, the laws fail to adequately protect women workers' rights and governments are turning a blind eye to the abuses perpetrated by private-sector employers. Trading partners with Latin America are also ignoring the widespread abuses. To remedy these violations, governments must act immediately to ensure that labor and other laws adequately protect women's rights, and international trade agreements should specifically prohibit discrimination based on
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This was achieved mostly as the result of pressure from women's groups and organizations. Latin America is the home to prominent women's organizations, advocates and intellectuals with international reputation. Women are active and prominent members of many social movements in the region, including the Movimento Sem Terra (landless peasants' movement) in Brazil and the Piqueteros (unemployed movement) in Argentina. Women also remain the central actors and agents for change in the many organizations of families of the "disappeared" in South and Central America-organizations that continue to be pivotal in the fight for justice for past human rights abuses in the
This was achieved mostly as the result of pressure from women's groups and organizations. Latin America is the home to prominent women's organizations, advocates and intellectuals with international reputation. Women are active and prominent members of many social movements in the region, including the Movimento Sem Terra (landless peasants' movement) in Brazil and the Piqueteros (unemployed movement) in Argentina. Women also remain the central actors and agents for change in the many organizations of families of the "disappeared" in South and Central America-organizations that continue to be pivotal in the fight for justice for past human rights abuses in the