Women's work

Making a difference in Latin America

Latin American markets had a spectacular 2003, and investors say the good times will continue in 2004 in some economies as growth accelerates and household income rises.

Underpinning that growth is the rise in women's work and wages. Women represent 45 percent of the region's work force today, up from 39 percent in 1990, according to the International Labor Organization, while the wage gap shrank to 66 percent from 59 percent.

Latin America led much of the world during the 1990s in gains for women's work, thanks to rampant privatization, which created jobs, and rising education levels among women (each year of schooling adds about 15 percent to earnings, according to the labor group).

"More Latin American women will work as the key drivers of schooling and urbanization keep pace," said Suzanne Duryea, an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. Mexico, in particular, "has room for large gains on its comparatively low participation rates," she added.

Investors are already placing their bets. "We're favorable on Brazilian consumer stocks on better purchasing power and growth resuming in the region," said Cristina Piedrahita, co-portfolio manager of Morgan Stanley's Latin American funds.

She likes CBD, a Brazilian supermarket chain that is growing in a land where mom-and-pop shops still dominate.

Basilio Ramalho, an analyst with Unibanco in São Paulo, singled out Perdigão, a Brazilian poultry processor, as a company expected to benefit from the growth in two-income homes searching for time-saving alternatives. The company is shifting its domestic focus to frozen and prepared foods like ready-to-eat pasta.

Stephen Trent, an analyst for Citigroup in New York, likes Consorcio ARA, a Mexican homebuilder. The government is backing a plan to add 750,000 homes a year by 2006. "An estimated two to four million consumers are awaiting home ownership, and the country is experiencing a baby boom," Trent said.

International Herald Tribune