Some people are sports fanatics they get excited and emotional just when talking about their favorite team. I have this same passion, but rather than directing it at sports, my passion lies in the area of Rights for Women and Children. This of course explains why I am the President of the Gender and Development Committee for Peace Corps Paraguay and why my novio has to hear long drawn out speeches every time the topic comes up, which is a lot in this macho country. Novio calls out Feminism every time I start in on one of my rants, but I don´t think we´ve even started into feminism yet, we´ve merely scratched the surface of human rights in general.
A couple of weeks ago was on one of my tirades starting with the treatment of women in Paraguay, then on to the Americas in general. Women here, like in many countries, are expected to cook, clean, do the laundry and take care of the children. They are in charge of household chores while the men are responsible for working, which is fine and dandy if the woman actively decides that this is the roll she wants and together the couple decides to break up the responsibilities in this way, but that’s not the way it works, not here. Women are just expected to do these chores, even if they are working a full time job, and even if the husband works part-time or not at all. So why does this happen? Why don´t they stand up for themselves? Because if they don´t know it’s a problem, then how can they? That’s where people like me come in, people who believe in equality. I come and I tell them that they are being oppressed, that they need to stand up for themselves. And now they know it’s a problem. So now there is a problem. I created a problem. Not because it didn´t exist before, but because it wasn´t recognized as a problem before.
Now the question is how to create change. What can these women do to improve their situations? They can speak with their husbands, but that probably won´t do much, it might even make the situation worse. What they can do is raise their children to share in responsibilities, both the boys and the girls. They can teach their boys that cat calls are disrespectful and their girls to stand up for themselves. The women of this generation may not be able to shed the macho ways, but there is hope for the future. The government has created the Secretaria de La Mujer to try and create more equality and equity between the genders. They create awareness and aid women in the creation of women´s groups. There are also several NGOs that do the same. This is a huge step for women and I hope that some day they reach beyond the capital and into the rest of the country.
Luckily Novio is okay with my “feminist” rants. Later that same evening we got into a discussion about democracy versus dictatorship, but that’s an entire other blog entry to come later.
