Despite recent gains, the wage gap between men and women in Latin America and the Caribbean still prevails, according to a new Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study.

The study, titled 'New Century, Old Disputes', compares surveys of representative households in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The study was released at a high-level meeting of experts, including UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met last weekend in Peru to explore how to achieve gender equality in the labour markets.

The study, which also examines wage differences across ethnic minorities of the region, points out that, although the average gender wage gap decreased from 25 per cent to 17 per cent between 1992 and 2007, the disparity remains quite high and there is still plenty of work to be done.

According to the household surveys, women hold only 33 per cent of the better-paid professional jobs in the region, which include those related to architecture, law or engineering.

In these professions, the study says wage gap between men and women is significantly higher at 58 per cent on average.

career focus

It says these jobs require quantitative skills, and despite women's progress in education - leading men by half a year of education on average - they tend to focus on careers like psychology, teaching or nursing, where those skills are not developed.

"In terms of women's participation in the workforce, there has been progress in recent decades, but the wage gap between men and women still prevails," says Hugo Ñopo, an IDB specialist in education and author of the study.

"The process of closing this gap has been very slow because misguided stereotypes and perceptions of the roles of men and women have distorted interactions, not only in the workplace but also at home. These stereotypes, which arise even in early childhood, discourage women, thus limiting their access to careers with a better future in the labour market," Ñopo said.

The study says women have a tendency to work part-time, on a self-employed basis and in informal activities. It says while one in every 10 men works part-time, one in every four women works on this basis.

"This labour flexibility, which allows women to participate in labour markets while still being able to take care of multiple responsibilities at home, comes at a cost reflected in lower wages," the study noted, adding that women usually enter the labour market at a later stage and participate in it irregularly, on account of raising children, for example.

"This might deter their experience and professional development, thus increasing the wage gap with age," the study found.

In order to close the gender wage gap, the study recommends distributing household chores equally, and encourages women to study science and mathematics and to take measures that give them a better chance to participate in labour markets.

It says the latter can be exemplified with the expansion of services for early-childhood development centres.

Not only could this help women to increase their working day, passing from part-time to full-time employment, but it could also increase human capital for the next generation, the study says.

It says an equal maternity leave for both parents could help level the playing field with respect to decisions of hiring women and men.

Furthermore, the study says it could encourage men and women to dedicate more time to their newborns, generating more equal decisions.