Over recent decades, women in Latin America and the Caribbean have increased their labor force participation faster than in any other region of the world. This evolution occurred in the context of more general progress in women’s status. Female enrollment rates have increased at all levels of education, fertility rates have declined, and social norms have shifted toward gender equality. This report sheds light on the complex relationship between stages of economic development and female economic participation. It documents a shift in women’s perceptions whereby work has become a fundamental part of their identity, highlighting the distinction between jobs and careers. These dynamics are made more complex by the acknowledgment that individuals are part of larger economic units—families. As development progresses and the options available to women expand, the need to balance career and family takes greater importance. New tensions emerge, paradoxically made possible by decades of steady gains. Understanding the new challenges women face as they balance work and family is thus crucial for policy.

Since the 1990 's Latin American and Caribbean countries, have advanced in the process of setting up national mechanisms for the advancement of women and have managed to carve out a formal space in the state apparatus as part of the democratisation process that has transpired in the region in the past few years. In the more developed countries in the region truly significant advances have been accomplished in recent years. The study examines the creation and development of new secondary mechanisms which have come to complement and support the efforts of the principal national machineries which have maintained their normative responsibilities of promoting public policies.

Analyzing the impact of B-certification in terms of gender equality among Latin American and Caribbean companies, this book champions the potential B-certification has for the advancement of gender equality in the private sector.

"This is a very exciting collection that will fill an important gap in what has emerged in comparative studies of women and Latin American democracies. Maier and Lebon provide provocative overview essays, and the chapters trace a range of cases from Argentina and Brazil to Nicaragua and Venezuela, showing how institutions. leaders and culture all shape the opportunities and challenges women face."---Jane Jaquette, editor of Feminist Agendas and Democracy in Latin America --

The triangle of empowerment is how this volume's editors describe the three sets of actors involved in women's collective struggles in the political arena: the women's movement, feminist politicians, and feminist civil servants. Original case studies from Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean analyze the political struggles women are waging to make their voices heard and to place women's issues on the agenda in different societies.