workers. Finally, in low-coverage countries, the majority of the uninsured pop­ulation finances—through consumption taxes, like VAT—part of the coverage of the insured minority and, in some cases, part of the transition costs. Gender discrimination results from the labor market and the pension system itself. Although gender inequalities prevail in both private and public systems, the latter are relatively more neutral or positive, as they grant the minimum pension with fewer contribution years, apply the pension formula to the last years of working life, and use unisex mortality tables. Private systems accen­tuate gender inequalities: most reforms increased the years required to obtain a minimum pension, being more difficult for women to qualify(the average number of years required are 24.3 for private systems and 17.6 for public sys­tems); in addition, contributions are paid throughout the entire working life, and gender-differentiated mortality tables are applied, all resulting in lower pensions for women. EAP female coverage rose slightly in 2009-2018 but dropped in two countries and, in the five least developed countries, it is below the 50% stipulated by the ILO minimum standard. Coverage of older women increased more than that of the EAP and did not decrease in any of the nine countries(however, in two of these countries, it only covers 12% and 17%). This was mainly due to the extent of non-contributory pensions financed by the state and benefiting women. In two countries the state compensates women for the time they spend raising their children. 4. Sufficiency of Benefits Reformers promised that the amount of the private pension would be suitable to maintain the pre-retirement standard of living, because very high replace­ment rates(RR) would be paid—“up to 70% of salary at the end of active life,” and would be higher than the pensions of the public system. These promises have been disproved by RR calculations conducted by the IADB for 18 Latin American countries(eight with private systems and ten with public systems), posting an average RR of 64.7% in public systems and of 39.8% in private sys­tems. In countries with DB(either a pure scheme or the remainder of the closed 184