The Crisis |
Latin America as a whole has some of the largest gender disparities in the world. Women are held back in areas of education, attainment, health, and political empowerment. In the Dominican Republic, women are expected to fulfill domestic roles while men are responsible for the social and economic roles. Household jobs such as cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children are duties of the women. In spite of a tremendous increase in the number of women participating in the workforce in Latin America, women still face wage discrimination in all sectors of employment. Women have been largely unable to integrate themselves into the formal labor market.
Gender inequalities are a direct consequence of the traditional views on the roles women should occupy in the society. These view are based on prejudice, discrimination and disregard for the progress the region has made and its effect of societies. Women are expected to follow marianismo and men to follow machismo . Marainismo is a set of values based on the life of the Virgin Mary. Women in Latin America are expected to remain in purity, be kind at all times and be modest. Machismo consists of honor, respectability, fatherhood, attractiveness to women, and the ability to be a charming storyteller. There is a large sexual double standard for men and women because while women are expected to always remain modest and are shamed for impurity, men can have numerous relationships with multiple women at once. The workforce for women is largely informal and underpaid. Women have minimal job opportunities because of the widespread belief that they are not capable of fulfilling certain roles and that men are more capable. Discrimination is a legitimate issue in the Dominican Republic because when women are stunted in economic growth, they are incapable of moving up in society. Women are denied opportunities not because of skill level but because of the fact that they are a certain gender. Even when women gain access to higher level jobs, women only make 69 cents to every dollar a man makes. This is discrimination must be overcome through policies by the government that promote pay equity as part of broader social policies on economic inclusion. If the government of the Dominican Republic does not intervene, this problem will continue to dwell and gender roles will continue to stay in this region. Lack of women education also needs to be fixed because in order to be successful in a business world, one must be educated. This means that both local and national governments will need to emphasize the connection between expanding educational opportunities and access to a better quality of life. Decreasing the gap between men and women needs to be the next step in future development of the Dominican Republic. |
Sources |
Moreno, Carolina. "What Gender Inequality Looks Like In Latin America." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/gender-inequality-latin-america_n_4653710.html>. "Beyond Politics: The Reality of Gender Equality in Latin America." No Se Mancha. N.p., 24 Nov. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://semancha.com/2013/11/25/beyond-politics-the-reality-of-gender-equality-in-latin-america/>. "Gendered Cultural Norms in the Dominican Republic." Gendered Cultural Norms in the Dominican Republic. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/letters/gendered-cultural-norms-in-the-dominican-republic>. |