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new century, old disparities
gender, cohort, and country is produced using household surveys (for a description of the household surveys used in this chapter and the rest of this book, see chapter 2). The chapter attempts to answer the following questions: When did the gender gap in schooling close in Latin America and the Caribbean? Was it a uniform process across the region, or did some countries close the gender gap earlier than others? Is the reversal of the gender gap uniformly distributed across education levels, or is it explained mostly by changes among the more educated? Are there remaining gender differences in attendance and attainment among 6 to 20-year-olds by income quintile? Strengthening girls’ education opportunities is a strategic priority in many countries, because societies pay a price for gender inequality in terms of slower growth and reduced income (Dollar and Gatti 1999). Studies of rates of return also document the economic benefits of investing in girls’ education (Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos 1992; Psacharopoulos 1994). In addition to generating private returns from labor market participation, women’s education yields strong social externalities, including the following: • Higher levels of education among women reduce fertility (Schultz 1973; Cochrane 1979), which decreases infant mortality and increases life expectancy (Behrman and Deolalikar 1988). • Mothers’ education has important intergenerational effects on the education, health, and well-being of their children (King et al. 1986; Schultz 1988; Strauss and Thomas 1995; Behrman, Duryea, and Székely 1999). • Adding to a mother’s schooling has a larger beneficial effect on a child’s health, schooling, and adult productivity than adding to a father’s schooling (King and Hill 1993; Schultz 1993). Advances in the education of women represent one of the biggest success stories in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, little is known about this important and unprecedented accomplishment in the developing world. Most studies that look at educational outcomes have not gone beyond addressing the absence of a gender gap in the region. Knodel and Jones (1996) stress the rapid closure of the gender gap in most of the world, suggesting that the strong emphasis on eliminating gender inequality in schooling is no longer needed, but they do not specifically address the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean. Behrman, Duryea, and Székely (1999) were the first to analyze schooling progress in the region using household surveys. They highlight that for two-thirds of the 18 countries considered, the average years of schooling for women is higher than for men for cohorts born in 1970.