Chile Research Paper

Chile is located on the south western coast of South America, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean, Argentina, and Bolivia. With a population of 17.5 million people, in just 743,812 square kilometers, the country’s density in urban areas is very high. In these urban areas are where 89.5 percent of Chile’s citizens live. Santiago, the capital of Chile, is the most populated city with roughly 6.507 million people. The nation is made up of three major races: 88.9 percent white/non-indigenous, 9.1 percent Mapuche, and .7 percent Agumar.

In the 1990’s, Chile’s government switched to a presidential republic, and the country began to advance. The former president, Sebastián Piñera, stated in 2010 that by 2018 he hoped that the Chileans “...makes Chile the first Latin American country that can proudly say we have defeated underdevelopment...”. The attempts to achieve this have been successful as the standards of living in Chile have increased, and the poverty rate is now at an all time low of only 14.4 percent, the lowest poverty rate of any Latin American country.

Surprisingly, this is where Chile’s inequalities show. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 75 percent of Chile’s income is earned by the top 10 percent. This is the highest level of any country in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In a 2014 survey by Global Gender Gap Report, Chile ranked 66 out of 142 countries on gender equality. Chilean women are seen as unequals in the professional world, especially jobs involving sciences and engineering, and are found primarily in domestic jobs. Although females, on average, have equal or more years of education than the males, statistics show that the women will be paid half of the salary of men. Despite the fact that the current president of Chile is a female, women are still facing unequal