The gap in labor market outcomes by gender still remains large globally today, which is reflected not only in considerable differences in labor force participation, employment, and unemployment rates, but also in a higher concentration of women working in specific industries and occupations. Labor market regulations on maternity protection and childcare at the workplace help reconcile work and family responsibilities, but these could also imply raising the relative costs of hiring women. In this paper, I explore the effects of labor regulations of maternity protection and childcare at the workplace on labor force participation, employment, and occupation and industry segregation by gender. This question has not been extensively explored in the relevant literature. For this purpose, I use census data from selected Latin American countries and apply a pseudo-panel method (Deaton, 1985) to estimate the effects of these regulations from 1960 to 2010. These effects will also be assessed through a difference-in-difference approach by using men as the comparison group. Preliminary results for the case of Chile were produced using the five censuses available through the IPUMS-International project (1960, 1970, 1982, 1992, and 2002). Results show a positive effect of maternity leave on labor force participation and being employed but only statistically significant for labor force participation, both for all women and for women between 18 and 45 years old. The effect of maternity leave on men is positive but only marginally significant (10% level) for labor force participation, while it is negative and statistically significant for being employed for men between 18 and 45 years old.