The OECD review of Gender Equality in Chile is the first in a series addressing Latin American and Caribbean countries on this particular topic. It puts gender gaps in labour and educational outcomes in Chile into a comparative context, elaborating on the factors that contribute to unequal outcomes, including the uneven distribution of unpaid work. It investigates how existing policies and programmes in Chile can contribute to making this distribution more equitable, providing suggestions on how to strengthen them.

Over the past decades, gender equality in Chile has advanced along several important dimensions. Educational attainments have significantly improved from one age group to the next for both men and women and today, young women out-perform young men in terms of educational outcomes. The share of tertiary graduates is higher among young women than among young men, with slightly higher returns to education for women.

This chapter reviews the evidence on gender gaps in economic and educational outcomes in Chile and discusses the drivers of these gaps. It starts with an overview of gender gaps in educational and labour market outcomes across different dimensions (enrolment and out-of-school rates, skills outcomes, along with labour market participation, gender pay gaps and the interactions between motherhood and access to job quality). It then discusses the factors contributing to these gaps (unpaid work, attitudes, legal barriers, the role played by violence and access to care facilities). In addition to comparing Chile with other Latin American countries and the OECD, the chapter addresses the articulation of gender differences across socio‑economic groups. This includes paying attention to the analysis of urban vis-à-vis rural differences, along with differences across levels of education, age and levels of incomes.

This chapter argues that achieving a better sharing of paid and unpaid responsibilities between men and women in Chile requires a comprehensive policy strategy and presents a holistic framework for its development using two policy axes. The first axis comprises the policies aimed at reducing the barriers that stand in the way of a more equitable division of time and responsibilities between men and women: Creating a more effective care system, expanding parental leave and reducing the transmission of gender stereotypes through the education system. The second axis includes the policies that aim to increase the participation of women in the labour market through ensuring that women’s paid work pays more: Ensuring access to quality education for all, promoting women in non-traditional careers and leadership positions, supporting female entrepreneurship and fighting violence against women. The chapter reviews each area in detail and provides policy insights for possible improvements.

This chapter provides a detailed overview of the health social and economic well-being impacts of the COVID‑19 pandemic in Chile. It finds that COVID‑19 and the lockdown have dramatically exacerbated gender inequalities at least temporarily. The chapter starts with a review of labour market developments. The pandemic has exacerbated the main breadwinner role of men. Conversely, Chilean women who stopped working did not search for re‑employment because they took on additional caring work. In addition to higher labour market inactivity, the pandemic also led to an exacerbation of stress and mental health problems and an upsurge of episodes of violence against women. The chapter then reviews the early steps that the Chilean Government has taken to mitigate these adverse consequences and advances a set of policy insights for continued government efforts to support women, particularly the most vulnerable.