Left behind

摘要

Chile, which has South America's most successful economy, elected its first female president this year. But the lot of Chilean women is by many measures worse than that of their sisters elsewhere in the region. A smaller proportion of them work (see chart on next page) and fewer achieve political power. According to a recent report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an association of parliaments, 15% of representatives in the lower house of Chile's Congress are women, less than half the proportion in Costa Rica and Argentina and below the level in eight other countries in the region, including Venezuela and Bolivia. Chilean women hope that Michelle Bachelet's presidency will improve their position but there are worries that she will do more harm than good.