Women's Rights In Latin America Essay

Traditionally in Latin American culture, women did not have the same rights as men. This is because in Latin America is ruled by patriarchal cultures in which men are in control and women are treated as if they are second class citizens. This is a mentality that many Latin American countries around the world have towards women. Women did not revolt against this until the 20th century when woman’s suffrage and social movements became more prominent and women demanded the rights that men had. Some of these rights included rights to work outside of being a housewife or tailor, rights to equal education as men, and rights to vote. Many women in Latin America are still fighting for rights such as human rights laws and abortion, and are consistently …show more content…
In North America the equal rights amendment were passed and Latin American woman’s rights activists wanted to achieve what Americans women’s rights activists have and push for these rights because they would not come on their own. This was controversial during that time period because social reformers were worried that gaining political rights might lead to negative consequences in terms of worker rights that were implemented to protect female workers from discrimination. A large portion of success in woman’s rights and laws movements were in the 1930’s and 1940’s because of the many suffrage movements that took place and gave women the right to vote in countries such as Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, and Cuba. This was large gain in the rights of women in Latin America. In countries such as Cuba and Domincan Republic, these voting laws were short lived because dictators such as Raphael Trujillo and Fidel Castro came to power and democratic voting became irrelevant in the presence of dictatorships. Under dictatorships communism became the primary government and voting rights of both men and women are irrelevant due to the fact that the dictators always won elections without strong …show more content…
While only 12 percent of men in Latin America don’t have any personal source of income, the percentage among women is of 33 percent. In Guatemala, the percentage of women without any personal income is 41 percent, in Bolivia 39 percent and in Venezuela 34 percent. The fact that so many women are economically dependent makes them more vulnerable to all kinds of abuses, including violence. While Latin American and Caribbean countries had five women presidents at the end of 2013, and there has been steady progress in women’s political representation in the region’s congresses and judicial systems, 13 Latin American countries and five Caribbean nations saw a decline in the number of women in their cabinets compared to their previous governments’ cabinets.”
This oppression in woman’s rights in Latin America hurt women from having an equal opportunity as men in terms of political power. Women are at a severe disadvantage over men in terms of leadership, meaning that women who are equally or more qualified to men counterparts in the workforce will not get the job. Women are not given the same opportunity to learn in fields other than sowing and