The OECD review of Gender Equality in Peru: Towards a Better Sharing of Paid and Unpaid Work is the second of a series focusing on Latin American and the Caribbean countries. It compares gender gaps in labour and educational outcomes in Peru with other countries.

Organizations today are facing unprecedented challenges, including an ageing workforce, potential talent shortages, an increasingly competitive international environment and the need to utilize the talents of the best qualified people, regardless of gender. More women than men, in many cases, are graduating from universities and gaining the requisite experience to qualify for advancement to higher levels of management. In this expanded and revised third edition, Professors Burke and Richardsen, together with a list of international contributors, address women’s progression in the workforce and into the upper echelons of management. They cover a range of professions and a geographically dispersed territory, thereby advancing the understanding of women in management within a traditional context, and making a substantial contribution to the literature for both an academic and practitioner audience. The broader regional perspective offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities facing women in the workplace, and promotes the ongoing analysis of the interface between women's career aspirations and societal and organizational norms, assumptions and values. Following the same format as the previous edition, the country by country analysis allows for the data between countries and regions to be compared, for the differences to be addressed and a more holistic picture of the situation in a given country to be assessed. Women in Management Worldwide will appeal to researchers, policy-makers in a range of countries interested in workforce issues, talent management and gender equality, as well as consultants working with international organizations on HRM and organizational effectiveness challenges.

It is well established that a wide range of legal impediments in countries’ domestic laws have prevented women from achieving full economic empowerment, which in turn has negative macroeconomic implications. In many countries, laws often reflect and perpetuate gender norms that limit women’s economic participation, and removal of these impediments through legal reform has been shown to be an effective method to catalyze greater participation of women in the economy—along with the related macroeconomic benefits. Once legal barriers are removed and provisions for more equal treatment under the law are embedded, the law can also be employed as a powerful tool to incentivize women to pursue equal opportunities, change mindsets regarding the role of women, and hold institutions and individuals accountable for achieving results. Accordingly, it is imperative for countries to focus on eliminating existing legal impediments and designing appropriate incentives to increase women’s participation in the economy. This paper goes beyond previous Fund work by categorizing the key sources of laws that impede women’s economic empowerment, as well as ways in which the law can be used as a tool to create behavioral changes and shifts in perceptions of women in the economy. Case studies of six countries (Iceland, Peru, Rwanda, The Philippines, Tunisia, and the United States) that rank high in gender equality in their respective regions demonstrate how legal reforms have been implemented in differing contexts to help achieve women’s economic empowerment. Given the relevance to the Fund’s mandate, the paper also notes the case for a stepped-up role for the IMF in advising on legal reforms that remove barriers to, and incentivize, women’s economic empowerment. Although this paper highlights dominant belief systems and cultural norms that have contributed to limiting the economic empowerment of women, it does not intend to render any judgment on these systems or norms.