Resumo:

One of the socio-economic problems with the greatest direct negative impact on the economy of a country or region is unemployment. This factor affects poverty le­vels as it reduces family income. It should be noted that in our country and Latin America, female unemployment is more marked than men. There are some economic theories that come close to understanding female unemployment. One of them is the theory of gender discrimination in the labour market, which presupposes that women may face difficulties in accessing employment given the prejudices and gender stere­otypes existing in society (Becker, G. 1957). This theory is based on the idea that companies and employers can tip the balance in hiring in favour of men rather than women, which can contribute to female unemployment. This essay analyzes how dif­ferent social and economic facts and population characteristics influence the proba­bility of female unemployment in Ecuador. For the test of the hypothesis, a uniequa­tional, linear and multiple econometric model was estimated. The estimates were based on time series data, from the period 2010 – 2017, from sources such as the Central Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC), the World Bank and the Survey of Employment and Urban and Rural Unemployment (ENEMDUR), considering the following variables: Female unemployment is a dependent variable and as explanatory variables: academic level, economically active population (EAP), work experience, age, and marital status, based on women. It is concluded that there is an intrinsic relationship between female unemployment and education spending as a function of GDP and in the same way with the EAP since the higher this index, the higher the unemployment rate because there is a greater demand for work, and little supply. Another conclusion of this work is that the female population variable and unemployment also have a positive and directly proportional relationship, since the 1% increase in the population will cause an annual increase of 24.44% in the female unemployment rate, keeping the other variables constant. Finally, the level of educa­tion has a significant impact on female unemployment, and is considered to be a de­termining factor when it comes to getting a job for women.