The principal research theme concerns the mobility of women and other disadvantaged groups in Latin American societies. Particular attention is therefore paid to the intersection between gender, ethnicity and inequality. Drawing on current approaches to mobility and gender not only addresses the problem of unequal treatment of individuals, but also the structural, systemic mechanisms of exclusion that are the product of historical and modern constellations of power and discrimination processes. In addition to socio-economic inequalities, the focus here is on the variety of discrimination and exclusion mechanisms which stem from different power configurations. In addition to gender, ethnic and racial attributions, as well as rural-urban differences, family environment and nationality play a crucial role in the development, reproduction and preservation of inequalities and hence in the restriction of social mobility.