Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a central American country, located between Nicaragua and Panama, whose 4.3 million inhabitants enjoys a relatively high standard of living based on agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing. Women participate in all aspects of life in Costa Rica, including government. About 35 percent of the seats in Costa Rica's legislative assembly are held by women and in 2010 Costa Ricans elected their first woman president, Laura Chinchilla.

Overall, the World Economic Forum ranks Costa Rica 27th out of 134 countries on the Global Gender Gap Report, an index of equality between men and women (the United States ranked 31st). On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality), Costa Rica achieved an overall score of 0.718 and subscale scores of 0.9796 on health and survival (highest in the world), 0.9954 on educational attainment (48th highest, because many countries achieved a score of 1.0), 0.6136 on economic participation and opportunity (84th highest), and 0.2833 on political empowerment (20 highest). Save the Children ranks Costa Rica 9th on its Mothers’ Index and 11th on its Women's and Children's Index out of 75 less developed countries, reflecting a high standard of healthcare and services for women and children. Literacy is about 95 percent for both men and women and women are more likely than men to be enrolled in tertiary education.

The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 was $11,300, second only to Panama among central American countries. Because of its stable political climate, Costa Rica leads central America in attracting foreign investment. However, income is not distributed equally and an estimated 16 percent of Costa Ricans live below the poverty line. A strong social safety net helped reduce the ill effects of poverty, although it has frayed somewhat with the global recession.