Over the past few decades we a have observed progress in social policies that protect women in Costa Rica. In fact, Costa Rica has been often used as a model democracy for other Latin American countries. However, Costa Rica has had trouble addressing the persistent gender inequality in employment, which limits the growth for women. The Gender Inequality Index (GII) value for Costa Rica is 0.344, which ranks it 63rd out of 149 countries in the 2013 ("Human Development Reports," Table 4, 2014). In contrast, we observed that both Panama and Uruguay, which are both Latin American countries that rank higher than Costa Rica for human development, have lower GII values. Panama and Uruguay are ranked at 107 and 70 respectively for GII ("Human Development Reports," Table 4, 2014). We also observed similar results in the other components that make up the GII. For instance, we witnessed 38.6% of the seats in parliament are held by women. Costa Rica is also experiencing more women reaching secondary level of education than men; 54.5% for women compared to 52.8% for men ("Human Development Reports," Table 4, 2014). In spite of this, women have a much lower participation rate in the labor market than men. Female participation in the labor market in Costa Rica is at 46.4% compared to 79% for men ("Human Development Reports," Table 4, 2014). We also observed differences in the economic activity between men and women in three different sectors, which are the service, agriculture, and
The status of women and children is an important factor in determining the standards of living in a country. Women have enormous potential as both thinkers and hands-on workers. They can contribute in different ways to help better their countries. But yet, many countries take on patriarchy stance and suppress the women, effectively cutting the country’s workforce in half. Children are another big difference
This quote shows that even in Cuba the job growth for women has not
Namely, many Latin American women seeking employment often find work in the informal economy. In the informal economy, they have the options of choosing work such as domestic labor, street vending, or an employee in the maquiladoras. These types of jobs are not always valuable as the working conditions are unsafe and the pay rate is inconsistent. If given the chance, however, Latin American women may have the chance to join the formal economy by finding employment in commerce, education, health or entrepreneurship. Within the formal economy, these women can have job security, protection from workplace abuse, and a steady income. Given these facts, the workforce is strongly male dominated and will continue to do so. Unless politicians in Latin American effectively handle discrimination of women in their economical debates, how will they succeed like their male
Latin America is a continent that is constantly struggling between governmental abuse and oppression of its citizens. In Latin America, it is very common for non –democratic systems to be enforced. During recent years, the continent has experienced a governmental shift from an absolute to a more democratic system. This era is called the democratic third wave, which brought about democratic like tendencies to Latin America. Many factors such as corruption, poverty, and inequality pushed the people to favor this new democratic system. The abuse of power is also very common, and the citizen’s unrest is highly noted. Most citizens are in favor of doing away with the old system of government, and establishing a new efficient political system.
While studying Latin American region I was questioned why this region has more numbers of female presidents. Therefore, in this essay, I did some small analyze with a list of female representatives as a head of states.
Equally, liberal feminism (discriminatory policies which force women into an inferior social class without the consideration of their rights to participate fully); socialist feminism (the inequality rooted in the sexual division between paid and unpaid labor); and radical feminism (the power difference between men and women in a relationship) have surfaced . In result, the only way to overcome gender inequality is to prevent being exploited. A study done in Mexico by R. S. Oropesa in 1997, discovered that wives with an education were equivalent to their husbands in family power, were happier with their impact on the family and were less prone to violence. All in all, the pollution in society’s mind of women being lower than men is gradually seeping away as time
The “spread of modern capitalist” encouraged women everywhere to explore work options outside of the home. (Murray 158). The opportunity for women to get factory jobs finally arrived. In the 1970s, the working class took over jobs of being servants and maids while the “educated middle-class” worked outside of the home (Murray 160). Once women started receiving jobs, the issue of equal pay among men and women came up. This is still a major issue today. Since the beginning, females have gotten paid “less than their male counterparts in the same industry” (Murray 159). Yes, Latin American women got what they asked for in regards to equal opportunities for industrial jobs. However, they still were not considered equal to men because they were not getting paid fairly. Even today, women still struggle to obtain the same pay and jobs as the men. Men have a larger scope of jobs they are qualified for such as construction works and garbage men who get paid more than most jobs. While the economy “segregate women” into lower paying jobs like teachers and nurses (Murray
Family structure has also changed dramatically in Latin America and they are going through a full mutation. The marriage number is decreasing, couples opting for cohabitation rather, for against the divorce rate is much higher and there is a rise in single parent and blended families. Feminism has managed to change attitudes of women stating that their access to education; work could change their lives. The woman represents the fundamental
Throughout the world, women are persecuted due solely to their gender. This is heightened in certain countries and is clearly illustrated through the machismo culture which exists in most Latin American countries. This culture has dictated the way which these societies have been built and, because of this, it affects every aspect of women's lives in this society. Conversely, machismo culture negatively affects women, since women are forced to be submissive while men are pushed to assert their masculinity to dangerous levels of violence against women whilst the civil war of Colombia. It is important for women to be included in the peace agreement process due to the disproportional amount of violence which they faced in the over 50-year conflict which engulfed the country.
Also Chile has one of the finest healthcare systems in Latin America, but again the upper, middle class people get to go to the new private hospitals and the lower class is left with the old hospitals with less supplies and less new things. According to the Chilean law women have equal rights to men regarding anything, and they shall be given equal opportunity towards jobs. To everyone living in the country it still seems as though women still lag behind men because they are given out less jobs with lower money than they would have paid to men for the same job, or just not been given a job at
Even though some areas of Latin America are underprivileged, women are empowering themselves at both the micro and macro levels. These women are utilizing their own will and desire to seek for change by changing policies and social systems to build a global response to violence against women. In an article titled “The Struggle for Women’s Equality in Latin America” the author, Donna Goodman, states Approximately one in three women in Latin America and the Caribbean has been a victim of sexual, physical, or psychological violence at the hands of intimate partners”. The issue of violence against women has always been a serious problem not just in Latin America but the rest of the world as well. “When countries are not experiencing active conflict,
"Women do two thirds of the world’s work...Yet they earn only one tenth of the world’s income and own less than one percent of the world’s property. They are among the poorest of the world’s poor." –Barber B. Conable Jr, President, World Bank
Now days democracy has been establish in every Latin America country except Cuba, which is still a socialist state. It seemed that every other alternative form of government such as Marxism or Leninism has failed and been replaced by democracy. Furthermore it looks like people in Latin American really enjoy democracy and its’ benefits, as they also consider it to be the best form of government. After the failure of authoritarian leaders and the military intervene their lives, Latin American citizens wanted to change their system into a more fair and honest system, democracy. Democracy is usually defined as a system of honesty, equality, freedom of rights, though for Latin America countries it means gains, welfare and patronage. Latin
This article addresses four main points. First, at the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, the significance of women’s contribution was emphasized by the World Bank. However, according to the authors, the perception of women as goods was strengthened by the World Bank because of its emphasis on economic outcomes and its consequent failure to pay attention to the meaning of women’s empowerment and gender equality. Second, the World Bank, UN agencies and other institutions were observed to value only young women and girls, thus completely ignoring men’s role . Third, despite the existence of programs encouraging women empowerment such as microfinance and conditional cash transfers, women are forced to work for their livelihood coupled with the burden of housework. The authors also cast doubt on the notion that investing in young women and girls leads to the promotion of women’s empowerment and gender equality, or actually improves the economy as they are often unconsciously regarded as cheaper labor . Therefore, they underscored that while smart economics might
the labor force—since they could be an effective force for good government and business trust.” The report suggested that societies where women enjoyed greater participation in public life had “cleaner” businesses and governments. By looking at cross-national comparisons, the report observed that when the country’s number of women in parliament or in the public sector, it had lower level of corruption. This idea that women are less corruptible than men seems to be inked in collective consciousness; according to a poll conducted in Europe and North America in 2007 on the CSA Institute’s account, 60 % of Italians, 70 % of French and 59 % of North Americans believe that if women had more access to positions of responsibility, there would be less corruption.