Claudia Ramírez Bulos
OECD
OECD Economic Surveys: Chile 2025
Abstract
Social and economic inequalities persist in Chile between men and women, with significant gaps in labour market participation, earnings, and pension benefits. The Chilean government has targets to achieve higher gender equality; however, several challenges remain. To further facilitate women’s participation in the labour market, including in better paid jobs, it is necessary to balance unpaid workloads between men and women, reduce education gaps in high-skill occupations and foster women participation in leadership positions.
Gender inequalities have declined in Chile but remain particularly visible in the labour market. The labour force participation rate among females increased from 45.3% in 2005 to 58% in 2019 recovering after the pandemic to reach 60.5% in 2023 (Figure 2.1, Panel A). Even though the labour force participation is higher than other Latin American countries in 2023, it remains significantly below males’ participation, at 77.6% and below the OECD average (Figure 2.1, Panel B). Gender equality has been a priority of different governments in Chile for many years, and notably of primary importance in this administration. Since 1994, governments have implemented policies for more equal opportunities between men and women through medium-term National Plans for Gender Equality, the most recent one an update published in 2023 (Ministerio de la Mujer y la Equidad de Género, 2023[1]) that have helped to narrow participation and wage gender gaps (Figure 2.2). Since coming into office in 2022, the current government has continued these efforts focusing on policies to facilitate women participation in the labour market, better combine work and care responsibilities, promote women in leadership positions and foster skills (Box 2.1, Table 2.1), however gaps persist in labour market participation, income and job quality.
Note: LAC is a simple average of Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Brazil. Panel B: data for Argentina refer to the year 2021.
Source: OECD Labour Force Statistics.
This chapter identifies policies to ensure more equitable opportunities for women to ultimately increase their well-being, boost economic growth and raise employment to lower future demographic pressures amid an ageing population in Chile. To achieve greater gender equality, Chile needs to increase women’s participation in the labour market and foster female participation in better paid jobs to decrease income disparities (Box 2.2). This is especially true among women with care responsibilities, and those aged 55 and older, where gender differences are more remarkable. Despite the government’s ample and well-directed initiatives and policies, additional efforts are needed to better balance unpaid workloads between women and men, reduce education gaps in high-skill occupations and foster women’s participation in leadership positions across sectors. These efforts will ultimately decrease gaps in pay and pension benefits.
Parental responsibility and childcare
Since 2022, the parent who has not received their child’s parental pension on time can request the pension withdrawal from the debtors’ banking, investment, and pension accounts under specific circumstances.
Increased the number of work leave days for parents of children or adolescents affected by a serious health condition.
Introduction of a new regime of remote work and telecommuting for employees caring for children under 14 or individuals with disabilities or severe dependency.
Labour regulations modified in 2023 to progressively reduce the working day from 45 to 40 hours per week and to provide flexibility to caregivers of children younger than 12 years old.
The Sala Cuna para Chile bill (2024) aims to gradually expand childcare to all workers’ children aged 0-2. All firms will be mandated to either provide childcare services or contribute financially towards them. They will have the option to access financial resources from a fund co-financed by new contributions from employers (0.2% of the taxable wages of all their workers) and the government (under discussion in Congress).
Women’s protection
Labour regulations were modified (2024) to prevent workplace harassment, sexual harassment, and violence against workers while companies and state bodies are required to develop protocols.
Bill for the Creation of a National Care System (2024) that recognises the rights of caregivers, promotes programmes and services to reduce caregivers’ workload, and facilitates access to training, capacity building and certification of care (under discussion in Congress).
Promotion of wage equity through a bill (2024) requiring large firms to establish a committee for wage equity, to disclose gender wage gaps and to set up a plan for action to reduce wage disparities. It also allows workers, employers, and unions to directly raise concerns about wage inequalities to the Labor Directorate (under discussion in Congress).
Women in STEM
The policy “Más Mujeres Científicas,” launched in December 2023, seeks to encourage women's participation in STEM careers by offering additional slots only for women in these careers.
The Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation has promoted gender parity through affirmative actions, and preferential quotas in master’s and doctoral scholarships, both in national and foreign universities.
Gender representation
Law approved in 2021 requires boards of public companies and state-owned corporations to have at least 40% of gender parity.
Issuance of gender thematic bonds in 2023 linked to a commitment of 40% participation of women on corporate boards among companies by 2031. If the commitment is not fulfilled, coupons would increase 0.075% annually from 2034 until bond maturity.
A 2022 bill was presented to Congress for mandatory gender quotas (40%) on boards of directors of corporations supervised by the Financial Markets Commission (FMC), with a gradual implementation (under discussion in Congress).
Gender inequality in Chile’s labour market can be observed in the differences between men and women in employment rates, hours worked and payment per hour (Figure 2.2). The gender gap in labour income between men and women decreased from 2006 to 2022. The decomposition of this indicator shows that it is largely explained by the decrease in employment gap, followed by the hourly wage gap. This result highlights the relevance of continuing efforts to enhance women’s incorporation into the labour market and foster female participation in better-paid jobs to decrease labour income disparities.
Percentage points, 2006-2022
Note: The decomposition divides the overall gender gap into the gender employment rate gap, the gender hours gap (e.g. the more intensive take-up of part-time work by women) and the gender hourly wage gap, as outlined in the OECD Employment Outlook 2018. The gender gap in income is defined as the difference between average annual earnings of men and women (20-64 years old) as a percentage of those of men. The population of reference includes all persons working at least one hour in the reference week even if they are engaged in informal activities but excludes unpaid family workers.
Source: OECD estimates based on CASEN.
Gender equality can raise economic growth by increasing the size of the workforce and boosting productivity amid a better talent allocation. The female employment rate in Chile has been increasing over the years, and is above other Latin American countries, but remains 16 percentage points lower than the male rate, a gap much wider than the average of OECD countries (Figure 2.3). Moreover, evidence confirms that gender gaps in employment are significant across age groups, and even more among the older cohorts (21 percentage points for women between 25-54 years old, in contrast to 35 percentage points for women between 55-65 years old), which are also characterised by wider gender gaps in education and skills levels (OECD, 2021[2]). Gender gaps in unemployment and informality rates persist, though they are less pronounced than in participation and employment, at 1.5 and 7 percentage points, respectively. Efforts to reduce informality in general, and for women in particular, should remain a priority, as discussed in Chapter 1.
As in most economies, these disparities widen with parenthood as care responsibilities usually fall more on women (OECD, 2021[2]). In Chile, as of 2021, 44.5% of all couples with children under 15 years include one parent who does not work for pay, far higher than the OECD average of 25.9%. Recent survey data show that in Chile, 35% of women outside the labour market decide not to look for a job due to domestic and care work, as opposed to only 3.7% of men (CASEN, 2023[3]). At the same time, women spend between 2.2 and 2.8 times as much time on unpaid domestic and care work as men (Felipe, 2020[4]) while the OECD average is around 1.9 times. Part-time employment among women is twice as high as that of men in Chile, with a significantly higher share of involuntary part time employment among women than the OECD average (Figure 2.3, Panel B).
There are economic benefits from closing gender gaps in Chile’s labour market by boosting the country’s potential growth through a better allocation of resources and helping to alleviate the impact of an ageing population by increasing the labour force. Recent OECD estimates suggest that fully closing gender gaps in labour market participation and hours worked by 2060 would increase potential GDP per capita in Chile by more than 0.25 points on average per year, a greater improvement than in the average OECD country (Figure 2.4).
Note: Data for Argentina refer to the year 2021.
Source: OECD Labour Force Statistics.
Difference relative to the baseline in projected average annual rate of growth in potential GDP per capita
Note: LAC is a simple average of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. The simulation assumes that gender gaps in labour market participation and hours worked are closed by 2060; figures report the difference in potential per capita output growth relative to the baseline projection from the OECD Economics Department Long-Term Model; they refer to the average yearly difference in percentage points over the projection period; OECD refers to the simple average of 38 Member Countries.
Source: (Fluchtmann, Keese and Adema, 2024[5]) Gender equality and economic growth: Past progress and future potentials.
Gender gaps in earnings and career advancement are the result of cumulative differences in employment rates, participation in part-time work, compensation, and work quality, which in turn affect women’s financial autonomy and wellbeing. In Chile, the median wage gap among fully employed workers is around 15.4%, higher than the OECD of 11.5% and other Latin American countries (Figure 2.5, Panel A). This means that, in 2023 on average, a woman working full-time made around 85 cents for every peso a full-time working man makes at median earnings, as compared to the OECD average of 89 cents.
Motherhood, informality, and part-time employment accentuate income disparities among men and women. National estimates show that considering all workers, the average income gender gap is 10 percentage points higher for households with children under 3 years old, compared to households with no children or adolescents, while income gender gaps for informal workers are 1.6 times higher than for formal workers (INE, 2022[6]). A recent study found that gender labour earning gaps in Chile are five percentage points higher when accounting for workers in part-time, temporary, or informal jobs as compared to full-time permanent employed workers (IMF, 2023[7]). Increasing the number of women in full-time jobs could have a relevant impact on narrowing wage gaps, given the elevated involuntary part-time employment among women in Chile (Figure 2.3, Panel B).
Women usually work in lower-paying service sector jobs, while men are disproportionally employed in more lucrative jobs, adding to income inequalities. As an example, the three careers with the highest participation of women are basic education, early childhood education, and nursing, which have an average pay in the second year of graduation 42.1% lower than graduates from courses with a high percentage of men, such as electrical civil engineering, and computer and information engineering (Ministerio de la Mujer y Equidad de Género, 2024[8]). Reducing stereotypes and encouraging more girls and women to choose higher-paid careers can alleviate future income disparities, as recognised in the “National policy for gender equality in STEM”. Efforts to reduce gender stereotypes for both men and women should continue beyond STEM, by training teachers to become more mindful about gender attitudes and stereotypes, engaging the families in the process of creating gender-sensitive education, ensuring a proper implementation of the gender-neutral curricula, and promoting role models. For instance, Sweden provides training on gender-awareness for teachers and educators to reflect the gender equality objective included in its national curriculum (OECD, 2023[9]).
To reduce gender wage gaps and more specifically raise awareness about systematic pay differences within firms, pay transparency measures are increasingly used in many OECD countries (OECD, 2021[10]). Chile also requires firms in the financial sector to report wage gaps by gender for certain wage levels, and the government presented to Congress a bill to foster wage equity between men and women requiring large firms to establish a committee for wage equity, and to disclose both gender wage gaps and a plan for action to reduce wage disparities (Box 2.1). Fostering a culture of pay transparency across sectors could contribute to narrowing gender pay gaps and support underpaid workers to negotiate up their wages (Baggio and Marandola, 2023[11]). In the financial sector, where pay transparency is more prominent, additional actions can help decrease pay gaps even further, such as allowing individual workers to request pay information on comparable workers, encouraging the more widespread use of intentionally gender-neutral job classification systems, and improving the quality of reporting and follow-up action plans across firms (OECD, 2021[10]).
Income disparities continue accumulating over the life cycle and are reflected in pension gaps, that are important sources of inequality and increased risk for old-age poverty. At 29%, gaps in pension benefits between men and women are lower than in other Latin American countries, but still above the OECD average of 23.7% (Figure 2.5, Panel B). Several reasons explain why women have lower pension benefits in Chile. First, women contribute fewer years due to intermittence in labour market participation, informality, maternity, elder care responsibilities, and higher loads of unpaid work. Second, women have lower wages than men. Finally, women retire on average earlier than men and live longer.
Several policy measures have contributed to narrow the pension gaps over the years, including a grant per child to recognise unpaid caregiving (OECD, 2022[12]) and the minimum guaranteed universal pension (MGUP), in place since early 2022, which increased replacement rates and coverage particularly for women (Superintendencia de Pensiones and DIPRES, 2024[13]). The pension reform proposal (Chapter 1), currently under discussion, envisages further increases in the MGUP of around 17% to USD 272, which might help reduce pension gender gaps even further (Superintendencia de Pensiones and DIPRES, 2024[13]; OECD, 2022[12]).
Despite progress, women continue having lower pension benefits than men and low pensions in general (Superintendencia de Pensiones and DIPRES, 2024[13]). The significant pension withdrawals in 2020-2021 translated into lower benefits for retired women compared to men, while pension balances for women decreased further than for men, adding strains to women’s retirement conditions. In Chile, the legal retirement age for men, at 65 years, is higher than for women, at 60 years. Even though effective retirement ages are higher for both, women retire earlier on average than men (62 for women and 66 for men). At the same time, life expectancy is five years higher for women, which also implies lower self-financed pensions as women’s accumulated assets are lower than men’s. Chile would benefit from gradually aligning the legal retirement ages of women and men, as recommended in the 2022 OECD Economic Survey of Chile (OECD, 2022[12]), while promoting the labour force participation of women, as discussed in this chapter. Beyond that, Chile could also consider linking retirement ages and life expectancy, as recommended in the 2022 OECD Economic Survey of Chile, following the example for several OECD countries, such as Denmark, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden, where retirement ages are legally linked to life expectancy (OECD, 2023[14]).
Note: Panel A: Data refer to full-time dependent employees; data for Chile refer to the year 2022.
Source: OECD Employment and Labour Market statistics database; OECD Pension at a glance 2023.
Women across OECD countries continue to encounter barriers to enter employment, particularly full-time. The burden of dual work-family responsibilities, traditional gender roles, and the absence of affordable childcare options inhibit many women to work full-time, especially once they become mothers (OECD, 2023[9]).
2.3.1. Uneven care responsibilities widen gender disparities over the life course
In Chile, as elsewhere, career breaks around the age of childbirth account for a large fraction of earnings shortfalls women experience after childbirth, and an overall drop in job quality (Eberhard, Fernandez and Lauer, 2023[15]). Chile has significantly lower maternal employment rates than the average OECD country (60% and 71%, respectively), particularly for women with young children (Figure 2.6). Although mothers of young children generally only withdraw temporarily from the labour market, they will more likely work part-time or informally when they return (OECD, 2021[2]).
The low access to affordable and quality childcare, particularly for children aged 0-3, hinders women’s full integration into the labour force. High-quality early childhood education has benefits for children and parents. First, better early childhood education has a positive effect on children’s well-being, learning, and development in the first years of their lives, particularly for children from disadvantaged families (OECD, 2023[16]). Second, it facilitates women’s integration into the labour market (Martínez and Peticará, 2017[17]). Although Chile has a mix of private and public provision of childcare, only half of 3-year-olds and only one third of 2-year-olds are enrolled in early childhood education (OECD, 2023[16]), and in many cases with limited hours not compatible with working hours.
Empirical studies for Chile have found that Sala cuna, a childcare system in place for more than a decade, has not been enough to incentivise women to enter the labour market and has negatively affected women’s salaries in large companies (Prada, Rucci and Urzúa, 2015[18]). Sala cuna is financed by medium and large firms that have the obligation to provide childcare services to female employees if they employ more than 20 women. This obligation discourages employers from hiring women formally beyond the threshold and leaves women working for smaller or non-complying employers.
Past studies on gender disparities in Chile (OECD, 2021[2]) and the previous OECD Economic Survey of Chile (OECD, 2022[12]) have recommended the creation of a universal childcare system and abolishing the size threshold of firms hiring more than 20 women to provide childcare. The government presented a bill in early 2024, to gradually broaden a childcare system “Sala Cuna para Chile” for all formal workers’ with children aged 0-2. The bill states that all-size firms should provide childcare options and foresees three possibilities for firms. First, companies can open a nursery in their premises, as it exists today for large firms. Second, companies can associate with other employers in the same sector or premises to set up a joint nursery (also exists today). Finally, companies can contribute to pay the nursery for their employees, and the law sets up a minimum contribution. Companies can finance the provision of childcare through a new fund that will be co-finance through new contributions from employers (0.2% of the taxable wages of all their workers) and government (see Chapter 1).
As the bill expands the obligation for all firms to provide childcare regardless of the number of employees, efforts should focus on facilitating that firms can fulfil this new requirement, especially SMEs. Issuing administrative guidance and helping firms to effectively use resources from the fund to pay for the requirement could minimise administrative burdens. Moreover, proper monitoring is also needed to check whether this new requirement decreases formalisation incentives. Finally, demand of public childcare is likely to increase with this bill as workers can opt to send their children to public nurseries, hence it should be advisable to gradually open new public high-quality day-care centres, as envisaged by the government, giving sufficient time to train and hire qualified personnel. In addition to expanded care options for pre-school children, families need more options for qualified after-school care. Empirical analysis found that increasing access to after-school care can raise female labour force participation in Chile (Martínez and Peticará, 2017[17]).
Parental leave systems support mothers staying in work and re-entering the labour market after childbirth. If these parental policies are well designed, they can also help at reducing stereotypes and implicit burdens women face in the workplace which affect their career paths after childbirth. Paid parental leave in Chile is significantly shorter for men, who can only take a total of 5 days, than for women, as new mothers can take the equivalent of 30 weeks of paid parental leave, with the possibility to transfer part of this entitlement to the father. Even though Chile has parental leave that either men or women can benefit from, few fathers take the leave, as in other countries (OECD, 2023[9]). To decrease the implicit costs of hiring women, rebalance gender norms, and encourage fathers' greater participation in care work, Chile could gradually increase reserved paternity leave weeks for fathers. Eight countries, including Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands, introduced earmarked and nontransferable rights of leave for fathers or increased incentives for both parents to take leave (OECD, 2023[9]).
Teleworking options can help mothers remain in the workforce. In 2023, Chile amended the Labour Code by introducing a new regime for remote work and telecommuting arrangements for employees caring for children under 14 or individuals with disabilities or severe dependency (Box 2.1). This adjustment is welcome, however the use of telework is more predominant among women, which continues to reflect prevailing gender norms and management cultures, that do not necessarily work to the advantage of women. Some governments have recently strengthened teleworking regulations and expanded the rights of all workers to request flexible work arrangements regardless of care responsibilities (for instance Canada, Greece, Lithuania and Spain). Expanding teleworking facilities to all workers whose jobs allow it, can reduce the stigma with colleagues and employers for women to use these work options. However, policies must ensure that these arrangements do not carry negative effects on careers and pay. The government can promote that teleworking options are accompanied by other measures such as managerial training, policies promoting equal career opportunities between teleworkers and office workers and policies aimed at increasing telework take-up among men and non-parents (OECD, 2023[9]).
Employment rates by part-time/full-time status of women aged 15-64 with at least one child aged 0-14, 2021 or latest available year
Note: Data for Chile refer to the year 2022.
Source: OECD Family database; CASEN.
Taking care of the elderly also relies mostly on women. Around 86% of elderly care relies on female family members, particularly daughters and wives in Chile, adding layers of difficulties for women with unpaid long-term care responsibilities to join the work force and obtain higher economic autonomy. Chile would benefit from further expanding, geographically and across income groups, the Chile Cuida programme, which is the social protection programme for dependent people and their caregivers. In June 2024, the government presented a bill to Congress that aims at expanding it throughout the Chilean territory with the National Care System Reform (Box 2.2). Also, it recently introduced some adjustments to the programme, such as the creation of a caregivers’ registry to target benefits and to expand in house- provision of elder care.
2.3.2. Strengthening skills and facilitating lifelong training
Individuals with higher levels of education typically have a higher probability of being employed and earning a higher income. In Chile there are no substantive differences in terms of school enrolment between boys and girls, but 2023 PISA results suggest that there are gender differences in performance (OECD, 2023[19]). Boys outperform girls in mathematics by 16 score points as compared to 9 points on average in the OECD, while in reading, girls, on average, score above boys, in-line with the OECD.
Even though education and skills disparities may seem low at early ages, these accumulate over time as women tend to make educational choices (vocational and tertiary education) that result in them entering occupations with lower expected earning, compared to men. These disparities are ultimately reflected in aggregate gender wage gaps and perpetuate gender stereotypes about career choices. Gender stereotypes as well as the absence of role models play a key role in determining both boys’ and girls’ field of study choices and career expectations. Through the “National policy for gender equality in STEM” Chile set a roadmap to eradicating gender stereotypes in education from an early age. Moreover, several initiatives are in place to expose girls to STEM careers, however these have limited scope, and take place outside the formal education system (CNEP, 2023[20]). Further efforts are needed to provide career guidance, expose girls and boys to a diversity of careers from a young age before they form stereotypes and make educational choices, train teachers to become more mindful about gender attitudes and stereotypes, as explained above, and to incorporate STEM-related career courses in the formal education system.
In Chile, a slightly higher share of young women than men are university graduates, but women enrol less in STEM, digital and other high-return skills formation than men. The percentage of women entering tertiary STEM education programmes in Chile, at 10%, is among the lowest within the OECD, and even below the Latin American average of 18%. These low levels contrast with the 47% of men entering tertiary STEM education programmes in Chile which translates in one of the highest gender gaps in the OECD (Figure 2.7, Panel A). Few women studying STEM not only sustain gender pay gaps, with women less likely to enter high-wage jobs, but it also affects women's future job prospects, as the skills learnt in these programmes are particularly relevant for workers to benefit from the digital and green transitions (See Chapters 3 and 4).
Chile has several initiatives to increase women’s participation in STEM and higher productivity activities (Box 2.1) by offering additional slots only for women in these careers and promoting women in master and doctoral programmes, with the guarantee that a minimum percentage of admitted students are women (affirmative action measures), along with dedicated scholarships for women. Empirical evidence supports a positive impact of affirmative action on women’s enrolment in STEM careers in Chile (Bastarrica et al., 2018[21]), hence these programmes are welcome and should be expanded across the country. However, steps should also be taken earlier in the education system to boost a broader exposure to applied STEM courses in upper-secondary tracks, which are positively associated with enrolment and retention in STEM higher education programmes in Chile (Sevilla, Luengo-Aravena and Farías, 2023[22]).
Increasing participation in adult training can help to improve the skills of adults more generally, but specifically for women not in employment in Chile, who exhibit lower participation in adult training than men (Figure 2.7, Panel B). Greater participation in adult education and training can help women be better prepared for changes in skill needs brought about by the green and digital transitions (Chapters 3 and 4). To encourage greater participation amongst women, Chile can review current adult training courses, such as those offered by Sence (Training Service from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security), and gradually incorporate additional short and flexible options while facilitating access by gradually covering the direct and indirect costs of training for instance through subsidies and by providing childcare, to reduce overall time and resource related barriers (OECD, 2023[23]).
Note: LAC is a simple average of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.
Source: OECD Education at a Glance database; OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC, 2023).
2.3.3. Further promoting female entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship plays an important role in job creation, and in 2023, Chile ranked as the top country with early-stage entrepreneurial activity for both men and women, followed by Colombia and Mexico, while the entrepreneurship gender gap significantly narrowed between 2021 and 2023 (GEF, 2024[24]). Despite this remarkable improvement, with the vast majority (98.2%) of entrepreneurs in Chile being micro entrepreneurs (i.e., they start a firm with less than 10 workers), female micro entrepreneurs are more represented in the informal sector than men (69.5% vs. 62.3% in 2024) (OCEC UDP – ChileMujeres, 2024[25]). Micro enterprises tend to be less profitable, therefore policy efforts to increase labour market formalisation should continue (as mentioned in Chapter 1), to improve the business prospects of female entrepreneurs.
Women face higher barriers to entrepreneurship than men, even though Chile does not face second-earner tax distortions that could hinder taking a job or opening a firm. One of the main barriers stems as a side effect of a very restrictive marital law, which implies that for married women under the marital partnership scheme, it is difficult to start or close a business as they cannot access their collateral without the consent of their husbands, which undermines creditworthiness (OECD, 2021[2]). To facilitate female entrepreneurship, it is necessary to reform the marital law to abolish the default rule that foresees that the husband administers the marital property which reduces the wife’s capacity to raise collateral.
Female entrepreneurs are less likely to seek funding to grow their business and they tend to use less strategically financial products (Piedrabuena, 2023[26]), even though financial skills and access to financial and credit products are similar between men and women. Differences stem from how intensely and what type of financial services women use (CAF - CMF, 2023[27]). To enhance women’s strategies in dealing with financial matters and encourage take-up of financing, it is desirable to offer entrepreneurship-training courses for women that place greater emphasis on when to seek credit or other private or public-sector funding and how to go about obtaining it. The design of such programmes should pay attention to certain day-to-day needs, such as women’s time schedules, and the need for assistance at home. Several OECD countries have implemented entrepreneurship training programmes for women, like the Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Enterprises (WiRE) programme in Australia, where participants reported an increase in entrepreneurship skills (OECD, 2023[9]).
2.3.4. Fostering female leadership in corporations and the public sector
Women leaders in corporations bring unique perspectives to the workplace, enhance decision-making diversity, and act as role models, which contribute to a pipeline of future female leaders. Recent data suggests that the percentage of women in leadership positions in the private sector has slightly grown since 2020, but most leadership positions are still occupied by men. For instance, in Chile, around 40% of workers in financial sector firms, are women but women representation decreases as the level of responsibility increases, with only 15% of female directors. In 2023, women represented only 23% and 15.9% of managers and directors among private institutions, suggesting that “leaky pipelines” persist (Ministerio de Hacienda, Ministerio de Economía Fomento y Turismo, Fundación Chile Mujeres y OIT, 2024[28]). The bill “Más Mujeres en Directorios” currently under discussion in Congress (see Box 2.1) establishes that persons of the same sex may not exceed 60% of the total number of board members, with a transition period of six years to comply with this requirement, and a commitment to regularly evaluate the policy. The bill is welcome and should be approved to boost women’s participation in leadership positions. Increased transparency requirements in firms to disclose inclusion goals, progress, and payment information by gender would help to complement those efforts.
Women are better represented in the public sector and politics than in the private sector. About 23% of the members of Congress are women, yet still below the OECD average (33%) in 2022. Women’s representation at the ministerial level has also increased to 58% in ministry cabinets, similar to the OECD average of 57% in 2023. This is the result of several initiatives that took place in Chile in the last years to promote parity in leadership positions in the public sector and in politics, including hiring and promotion processes that follow diversity and inclusion policies, training, and mentorship programmes to create leaders in the public sector, and women networks.
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