The impact of economic policy and structural change on gender employment inequality in Latin America, 1990-2010

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of economic policy and structural change on gender inequality in employment and economic opportunities for a set of 18 Latin American countries over the time period 1990-2010. We use three different methodologies to explore this question: 1) statistical description of changes in a range of gender inequality in economic opportunity variables in the 1990s versus the 2000s; 2) estimates of the growth elasticity of employment for women and for men; and 3) econometric analysis of the determinants of gendered employment and unemployment levels, as well as the determinants of gender inequality in these variables.