This article analyzes determinants of female participation in the Chilean labor force. The first section presents an analysis of classic determinants such as age, education, marital status and number of children. This study corroborates the results of previous work on this topic. The results indicate that the greater a women’s educational level, the greater her participation; that older women participate more, though the rate of growth of this effect is decreasing; and that the number of children that a woman has is negatively correlated to her decision to participate in the labor force.

This article also presents evidence regarding cultural characteristics that impact female participation, namely, machismo and values. The evidence suggests that the higher the level in which women haven internalized machista cultural values, the lower her participation in the labor market. Also, the more conservative a woman is in regard to values, the lower her participation. Finally, cultural factors as a group more than compensate for the positive effect of variables of human capital. In Chile, the existence of these cultural factors is associated statistically with low female participation in spite of a high level of education.