Gender differences in retirement in Chile and Uruguay Andres Biehl, Andrea Canales and Viviana Salinas Instituto de Sociolog  ıa, Pontificia Universidad Cat olica de Chile, Santiago, Chile and Millennium Nucleus for the Study of the Life Course and Vulnerability, Santiago, Chile, and Guillermo Wormald Instituto de Sociolog  ıa, Pontificia Universidad Cat olica de Chile, Santiago, Chile Abstract Purpose – This study compares retirement in Chile and Uruguay, and focuses on current individuals legally entitled to retire, particularly women. The article analyses how labour market and family resources shape the access of women and men to social insurance by investigating the likelihood of retirement after reaching the legal age of retirement. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses the Longitudinal Social Protection Survey (LSPS), a biannual or triennial longitudinal survey carried out in six Latin American countries. To study gender differences in the chance of being retired, the study conducts a series of logit regression models to model retirement as a function of labour market and life course conditions as well as providing descriptive and contextual information. Findings – Main findings support labour market explanations of gender differences in retirement. Work experience, human capital and contribution densities largely explain the chances of retirement and economic autonomy among elderly women. Further analysis reveal that they are both less likely than men to retire but also to work in old age, limiting their economic autonomy. Research limitations/implications – Data for Uruguay are recent. To maximize comparison between countries, the paper selects the more recent waves with complete administrative information. As a result, the article uses cross-sectional data that might not capture the accumulation of family resources and could fail to provide a complete gendered life course explanation of current disadvantages faced by women. Originality/value – The article uses novel data in order to place two Latin American countries within mainstream sociological theories of retirement, thus complementing literature that mainly focuses on European and North-American societies. The paper also documents gender gaps in retirement in two different Latin American societies, one with a traditionally generous public pension system (Uruguay) and one with a largely privately-run contributory system (Chile). Keywords Chile, Uruguay, Economic independence, Gender differences in retirement, Pension policies Paper type Research paper Introduction An ageing population, underfunded pension systems, changing roles for women and an expanding but vulnerable middle class make for a daunting combination. This is the scenario that is brewing across several Latin American countries (CEPAL, 2017, 2018; OECD/IDB/The World Bank, 2014). These transformations are affecting what many Latin American pension Gender differences in retirement 765 We are thankful to the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions to a previous version of this article. We are also grateful to participants of the Seminario ELPS hosted by the Conferencia Interamericana de Seguridad Social, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Social Security Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean in Ciudad de M exico in November 2017, for comments and suggestions to a previous draft. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from those three organisations under the project Consolidaci on de la Encuesta Longitudinal de Protecci on Social (ELPS) – Observatorio Regional de Protecci on Social, ATN/OC-14728-RG (T2528). We are also thankful to the Millennium Science Initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism ‘Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Vulnerability and the Life Course’ for financial support. We thank Daniela Aranis for her extraordinary research assistance. Any remaining errors are our own. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0144-333X.htm Received 3 February 2020 Revised 3 April 2020 Accepted 4 April 2020 International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy Vol. 40 No. 7/8, 2020 pp. 765-789 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0144-333X DOI 10.1108/IJSSP-02-2020-0029