Challenges in Latin America: 

 

What does empowerment look like in Latin America? Tracing back the history of women’s rights in this area, most latin-american countries granted the right to vote to its female citizens in the 1940’s and 1950’s (Velez et al (2017). It was a huge step towards women's autonomy even if the feat itself arrived later than in North America and most European countries. The right to vote was a first step in modern history and it paved the way towards the inclusion of women in the political sphera as well as the educational one. 

 

According to Aguayo et al, “empowering women to participate fully in all sectors and at all levels of economic activity is critical to building strong economies” (Aguayo et al. 2012). In their analysis “Measuring Women Empowerment in Latin America”, the authors measured women empowerment from the perspective of the measurement of human development proposed by the United Nations Development Program.  According to this study, there are two main indicators of women empowerment: Ratio of men and women with at least a high school education and the participation of men and women in politics. The authors found out that the two countries that reflect the highest levels in the educational indicator for both sexes, Cuba and Chile, are also located in the group with the lowest gender inequalities and therefore, with the lowest IGI value. This study helped confirm the importance of education in reducing inequalities, and thus resulting in greater empowerment for women.

 

Another important factor when considering the status of women empowerment in Latin America is the impact of family. According to the report “Families in a changing world” from UN Women, families contribute to the empowerment of women and girls, but they are also a space where their rights are frequently violated.

 

Family can either break you or make you: when it comes to girls, either they receive encouragement from their parents to pursue their dreams or they are flooded with household rights that put them at a disadvantage compared to their male family members. As claimed by the same report there are certain indicators that showcase that globally women are given more power in family decision making such as the increasing age of marriage, a wider judicial recognition of diverse types of unions aside from marriage as well as a descend in fertility rates, which is a byproduct of the ability to choose when and how many kids women have (if any). 

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For example, statistics show that in Mexico the fertility rate has steadily decreased since 1960. As of 2017, it differs only by 0.39 from that of the US and 0,66 from that of Canada, compared to a 4,13 difference in the 1960’s (World Bank). Countries such as Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia show similar tendencies.

 

In general, it is predicted that for the entire Latin American region the Global Fertility Rate (GFR) will continue to decline and reach 1.72 by the period 2070-2075 (CEPAL, 2019).  Additionally, there exists a correlation between lower fertility rates and the level of education that women achieve. According to data from Demographic and Health Surveys for nine Latin American countries, women with no education have a greater tendency to have large families (6-7 children) (Castro et al. 1995). On the other hand,  women with higher levels of education have family sizes of 2-3 children. Women who have less children are often given the choice to choose how many kids to have whereas, thus resulting in greater empowerment. While this doesn’t mean that women should be obliged to have less children to further reduce fertility rates, as it was the case for the controversial forced hysterectomies of migrant women on behalf of the US government, it does indicate that for women to be empowered they have to have a voice in the household. Whether women choose or not to have a family, big or small, the key lies in giving them the opportunities to do both or neither.

 

The empowerment of indigenous women is often overlooked in latin America. There are around 826 indigenous communities and an estimate of 26,5 million of indigenous women in the region. According to the Food end of the United Nations, empowering indigenous women is a necessary condition to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the world (Reinsberg et al. 2020). Indigenous women often lack full access to decision-making spaces in their communities. 

 

Challenges in North America

 

The US and Canada have a lower index of gender inequality according to the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI 2019 Global Report), having been placed between 0-20% in level of discrimination compared to 20-40% for central and South America. Higher SIGI values indicate higher inequality based on a number of criteria such as the strength of legal frameworks and gender policies.  The SIGI states that legal frameworks  and social norms can either act as barriers to women empowerment or drive processes of social transformation. The report states that 22% of American women face barriers to accessing productive and financial resources, whereas in high performing European countries this number is 9%. 

 

North America mainly faces the following challenges to women empowerment: discrimination in the family, restricted physical integrity, restricted access to productive and financial resources as well as restricted civil liberties.

 

For example, there is no legal age of marriage at the national level in the US and the law does not include marital rape in the country (SIGI, 2019). In both countries indigenous women are greatly disadvantaged compared to white women and insecurity still threatens women’s freedom of movement.

 

According to the Pew Research center, 57% of adults say the U.S. hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving women equal rights with men. The results were retrieved from a report from the same centre that interviewed 3,143 U.S. adults conducted online from March 18-April 1, 2020. Moreover, about three-in-ten men say women’s gains have come at the expense of men. Men seeing women gaining autonomy and empowerment as a threat often results in even fewer progress in this area as men still make up the majority in positions of power.

 

Empowerment is strongly dependent on gender equality.

 

According to the 2020 Global Gender Gap Report, which ranks progress toward equality in 153 countries around the world, the U.S is behind its neighbours (World Economic Forum, 2020). The country is ranked in  53rd place, compared to 25th place for Mexico and 19th place for Canada. 

 

Furthermore, indigineous women and girls in both countries still face many challenges that prevent them from being as empowered as their white counterparts. High rates of domestic violence afflict Indigenous women throughout North America (The Canadian Encyclopedia). On the same note, findings from a study in 2014 revealed that indigenous women were nearly three times as likely to report being a victim of spousal violence as non-Indigenous women. One of the biggest issues surrounding this problem is Canada’s highway of tears. An inquiry into the cases of women ghat either disappeared or were murdered in the 724 km length of Yellowhead Highway 16 in British Columbia was opened in 2015. In a symposium held to remember the voices of the victims found in this location, it was revealed that the first and most contributing factor for many of the aboriginal women being on the highway is poverty (Highway of Tears Symposium, 2006).

Although Indigenous women make up about 4 percent of the female Canadian population, they are significantly overrepresented among missing and murdered women. In the United States, 4 out of 5 of Native women are affected by violence. The U.S Department of Justice found that American Indian women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average (Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women).

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