Costa Rica Ranked Highest In Latin America Women's Rights

Latin American women still trail men in key measures of social well-being, according to the World Economic Forum, which ranks gender equality in 116 countries based on education, health and economic and political participation.

Of Latin American countries, Costa Rica ranked the highest, 31st of 116 countries, and Bolivia, the lowest, at 88th.

But women are steadily catching up, United Nations statistics show. In many instances, the gaps are closing much faster than they are in the United States.

For example, the average wage of urban Latin American women has grown from 70 percent of men's in 1990 to 90 percent this year, and they're expected to reach parity by 2015, U.N. figures show. For comparison, U.S. women earned 77 percent of what men earned working full-time, year-round jobs in 2006.

In the business world, women make up as much as 35 percent of the managers in private companies, also a dramatic increase from just a decade ago, according to the International Labor Organization. However, they still account for only 10 percent of company presidents and vice presidents, according to a seven-country survey by the U.S.-based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue.

Women have made some of their biggest advances in politics, where thousands of women are reaching public office, many for the first time.

About a quarter of all Latin American local council members are women, more than double the percentage from a decade ago.

Women also make up more than a quarter of the Cabinet ministers in the region and more than a fifth of lower-chamber national legislators in Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, Peru, Guyana, Suriname, Ecuador, Honduras and Mexico, double the regional rate in 1990. By comparison, only 16 percent of the U.S. Congress is female.

source: TicoTimes