power relations and cultural aspects that are not founded in labourmarket dynamics contribute to this exclusion eclac and others it is striking that labourforce participation did not see a proportional increase in the group with the least formal education meaning that the slight increase in the participation rate in both urban and rural areas above all reflected rising formal education levels among women since labourforce participation tends to increase in line with the number of years of schooling female labourforce participation increased in all age groups which the exception of the youngest women among whom as with males of the same age there was little change owing to a longerterm tendency to remain longer in the education system