This article reviews the conceptual contributions of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to the understanding of gender inequalities in Latin America and the Caribbean over recent decades. Having examined the information available, it analyses the persistence of the sexual division of labour as a structural challenge of gender inequality and then presents the ECLAC proposal for a move towards a new model of development and social organization, namely the care society, and its implications for public policy design in the region.