What Are the Gaps in Health and Education That Women Face throughout Their Lives?

In recent years, significant progress has been made toward implementing policies and programs to support gender equity in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, large disparities continue to exist between men and women in educational and health outcomes. In the region, girls perform better than boys in soft skills and language at an early age and the school attendance gaps favor women at all levels. However, once in school, male students tend to perform better in mathematics in standardized tests compared to their female peers at age 15, with important implications for womens decisions on their future educational and career paths. At the same time, a large proportion of women in the region still lack access to reproductive technology. The maternal mortality rate remains high and tends to correlate with both low income levels and lack of prenatal care. Also, the rate of teen motherhood (1519 years old) is very high.