Ana Maria Olmedo, a
Secular Franciscan from Guatemala, member of the Board of Directors of
Franciscans International, received an invitation from the United Nations to
participate of the Social Forum for the Eradication of Poverty, with the theme “The Inequality of gender in poverty” that is to say, what are the causes by which
70% of the poor in the world are women, of which we present the following
summary. Ana Maria is also working on
the presentation of other denunciations, in delicate subjects that affect the human
rights of the weakest in society. She
recognizes the delicate work that she is assuming but she recognizes that God
is with her and comments: “I do not have the smallest doubt that it is
He who guides me, strengthens me, and accompanies me. For that reason I do not
allow nothing or nobody to intimidate me to fulfill what God is requesting of
me”.
THE INEQUALITY
OF GENDER IN POVERTY The exclusion of
women in society The lack of preparation, education, and qualification that is refused to
us from home excludes us from the total enjoyment of the benefits of integral
development. The present economic system that prevails through
globalization in the treaties of free trade and which is reinforced by the
institutional structures that value people only
by the productivity that they represent for the market, faced with this
elitist economic system, we women have been at a disadvantage, increasing
therefore the exclusion to total participation in the corresponding spaces of
decision making which would allow us to exercise our rights in the economic and
labor, political, and cultural spheres. The women who manage to obtain
employment find themselves at a disadvantage. I give as example the case of
Guatemala where at the moment the minimum wage for the field laborers should be
$6.00, but nevertheless many are contracted with wages of $4.00 for the men and $2.00
for the women; in addition, the women undergo sexual harassment,
discrimination, and insufficient support in the areas of child day-care centers
and health in general. Even though labor laws exist to support their rights, applying
the sanctions represents a long legal way that few women are able of crossing.
This situation leads many women to resignation to all this labor injustice which
we frequently hear from the lips of mothers who prefer to have the “privilege
of being exploited” to be unemployed, because even though their work is badly
repaid, at least this allows their children not to die of hunger. The
possibilities of education and qualification that allow us to end the exclusion
by means of obtaining independent work are small, because the financial
resources that we rely on are only enough to survive, as well as the lack of
time, because of overtime work of many women who work 10 hours outside the home and 6 or 8 in the house, cleaning and
preparing meals, this is the reason why they are often left with only 3 or 4 hours to rest. The effect of this is:
THE VULNERABILITY OF WOMEN Due to this discrimination situation, marginalization, exclusion,
oppression, precarious health, and lack of education, women become
totally vulnerable to the situations of poverty, violence, and injustice. In Guatemala, women are victimized by
violence in its diverse forms without any importance being given to this
increase in violence, This is aggravated by the persistence of discriminatory
legislation which continues to cause the lack of penalization of many forms of
violence against women, especially the violence in the domestic environment,
and sexual harassment; impunity perpetuates violence and foments a climate of
impunity for the crimes committed against women and children. At the moment, a
legal disposition exists according to which, to maintain sexual relations with
a minor is only a crime if the victim is considered a “honest woman” and in the
cases where the perpetrator marries the victim older than 12 years, he is free
of penalties. Conjugal violation is not
considered a crime, and sexual harassment is not yet penalized. On the other
hand. sexual violation and other crimes are not prosecuted. There is also the
law that allows the victim to pardon the perpetrator, which makes the vulnerable victims even more vulnerable,
by the pressures not to present denunciations. The more vulnerable
she is, the more she will suffer greater poverty and injustice; and to greater
poverty and injustice she will be more vulnerable This has the effect:
DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES Let us understand dysfunctional families as those that
lack the propitious atmosphere for the total development of their members. In
this case we refer to the families in which the mother is the head of the
household, as well as those that count with the presence of a man who is or is
not the father of the children. Due to the necessity to leave for work to
assure sustenance, the absence of the maternal and/or paternal figures occurs,
leaving a great vacuum in the integral education that children must receive
from birth. In the urban areas, the unmarried mothers are accustomed, in the best
of the cases, to leaving their children in day-care centers and if they do not
count with the economic resources to pay for this service, they are often
forced to leave their children locked up under key or in the streets at the
mercy of delinquency, whereas in the
countryside the unmarried mothers take the children to work on their backs, and
when the child is about 4 or 5 years old they are considered old enough to work,
and will start helping their mothers. These children who do not know what an
easy and normal childhood is, will be prey to the great misfortunes that
afflict us: the delinquency in the youth gangs, pornography, and the sexual
exploitation of children, and the narcotic activity. Here again we have a
vicious circle:
The more poverty exists, the more dysfunctional
families there will be; and the more dysfunctional families exist, there will
be more poverty. And the immediate result in these families
will be more dominant men and submissive women who will continue the culture of
MACHISMO. SOLUTIONS As for the problem of gender
inequality we must recognize that steps have been taken toward legislation,
agreements, and structural guidelines to diminish it. But because the
machista culture is still present in the family and the devaluation of women is
something that prevents them to come out ahead, all these norms and laws are
dead letter. The help that has occurred until now to promote gender equity has
been geared to resist the institutional problem rather than to stop cultural
and emotional problems. To resist the machista culture through: 1.
Implementing
educational projects for both sexes in which the fairness of gender equity is
assumed totally by the new generation 2. Promoting
and supporting projects that can offer, as much to men as to women, integral
formation to be able to live with the fairness of gender equity in their
families To give back to women their value through: 3. Promoting
and supporting projects that can offer psychological support to the women who
need help as far as their emotional health is concerned
4. Promoting and supporting projects that offer
psychological help to the families who experience domestic violence
5.
Promoting and supporting
projects that promote responsible paternity Only by attacking the roots we will be truly able to end this hard
reality that does such damage to the poorest of the poor. With this wish I
conclude my participation thankful for being granted such opportunity.
Gracias Ana Maria
Olmedo SFO Member of Franciscans International
|
by The JavaScript Source