Women in the Latin American Labor Market: The Remarkable 1990's

In this paper, the authors examine levels and trends of labor market outcomes for women in the 1990's using household survey data for 18 Latin American countries covering several years per country. The outcomes analyzed include labor force participation rates, the distribution of employment of women across sectors of the economy (formal versus informal), and earnings. Next, the authors examine the role of schooling in explaining the increase in female labor force participation in LAC countries. All of these findings suggest a fair degree of change in the role of women within households and in the labor market. The authors conclude that the macro economic picture of stagnation for LAC in the 1990s masks non-trivial developments in the division of labor and time allocation by gender.