Costa Rica Women

A woman in Costa Rica is not only beautiful and very different looking from the rest of Latin American women; they are also very clever, intelligent and hard working women. For many years Latin American people have been known for having a “Macho” attitude, yet, Ticas have accomplished to leave the housewife role behind and become just as productive as men are expected. Many years ago, a regular Costa Rica woman went through the same things women all over the world have gone through: they had to fight for their rights. Nowadays women and men are likely to share the responsibility of being heads of the family and a Costa Rica lady living alone with her children is more common than it was ten years ago. They have also started to be astute in the matter of raising a family: 30 years ago, an average family had probably 7 children, during the 1990’s the average was already 3 children per family, yet, they still get married young.

Nowadays women are 30% of the Costa Rican work force or Economically Active Population (PEA in Spanish); mostly in companies that provide different kinds of services, yet a very high percentage of these women do work as professionals in many fields or technicians, especially in the public enterprises. In Costa Rica, women prove to be highly educated compared to other Latin-American countries, although there is still some kind of segregation in the carrier choices. They show a slightly higher attendance to high school grades than men and a bit lower regarding college attendance. This rather impressive increase into the workforce has made the feminine PEA to have a highest educational level than the masculine PEA, and still women in Costa Rica seem to keep having a hard time getting and job and do received less salary for the same work a man would do; due to this matter, many women focused associations are fighting to get better choices and rights for women and make Costa Rica a role model when it comes to equality of gender in the world.