LATIN AMERICA:
Gender Stereotypes Still
Firmly Entrenched,
Despite Progress
By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA (IPS) -
Constructing gender
equality in Latin
American societies
remains an apparently
arduous task. The issue
is still confined to the
ivory towers of
academia, far away from
the media, and is seldom
included in the debates
that really capture
people’s attention.
Although several
countries in the region
have laws establishing
similar rights and
obligations for women
and men, discrimination
flourishes in the
domestic sphere and is
embedded in age-old
ideas and traditions
that regard the
subordination of women
as normal and natural.
"The challenge in this
struggle for a culture
of equality lies in the
field of subjective
attitudes," Isabel Moya,
the head of the Cuban
state Editorial de la
Mujer (Women’s
Publishing House), told
IPS. "Changes that
depend on social
awareness and customs do
not happen automatically
just because legislation
has approved," she said.
In the last 50 years,
Cuban women have gained
remarkable ground in
public life, so that now
they hold more than 43
percent of the seats in
parliament, and make up
66 percent of the
technical and
professional work force.
But within most families
a patriarchal model
remains firmly
entrenched, which
burdens women with a
double or triple work
day.
"In spite of their
growing participation,
in their private life at
home women are still
responsible for raising
the children, household
chores and caring for
elderly parents -- both
their own and their
partner’s," said Moya,
one of Cuba’s most
tenacious defenders of
women’s rights in the
academic world and in
the press.
According to Ximena
Cabral, an Argentine
journalist and professor
at the National
University of Córdoba,
it is essential to
"bring inequity and the
stereotyping of feminine
and masculine roles out
into the open," as these
are expressed on a daily
basis in explicit or
symbolic acts of
violence against women.
Cabral, 31, also said
that the women’s
movement, which is very
strong in her country,
must make organisational
progress "in order to
work through these
gender issues, and
exercise influence on
public policies."
In the view of Uruguayan
lawyer Graciela Navarro,
society as a whole must
be made aware of the
prevailing inequality,
especially women, so
that once they are
convinced of their equal
rights as citizens "they
may mobilise and take
action to achieve a
truly equitable position
in society."
Argentine teacher
Gabriela Romero said it
is essential to train
professors and teachers
to include a gender
perspective at all
educational levels in
order to avoid "the
construction and
perpetuation of
stereotypes" that become
ingrained from early
childhood in the school
environment.
Romero introduces a
gender perspective when
teaching young people
and teenagers about
responsible sexuality,
going beyond the
mechanics of how to
prevent pregnancy. "I
talk to them about
situations from daily
life, in working
relationships and in the
family," she said.
"We think the role of
the media is to support
educational efforts,"
said Carina Ambrogi.
"They keep on
reproducing the
traditional
preconceptions about the
family, women and
masculinity," said the
young journalist, who
tries to include a
gender perspective in
her reporting on rural
areas in Córdoba, in
central Argentina.
"The media have an
enormous responsibility
in this issue, because
they socialise value
judgments, paradigms of
success, and images of
what masculine and
feminine traits ought to
be," said Moya, who
acknowledged there is
growing interest in the
Cuban press to discuss
the problem of gender
inequality.
Moya was one of the
organisers of the Fifth
International Diploma
Course on Gender and
Communication, hosted by
the state "José Martí"
International Journalism
Institute from Feb. 4 to
14 and attended by 32
people from Latin
America, the Caribbean
and Spain, most of whom
were women involved in
journalism.
The speakers included
well-known figures from
the social sciences in
Cuba, such as
psychologists Patricia
Arés and Consuelo Martín,
from the University of
Havana, and the head of
the National Sex
Education Centre (CENESEX),
Mariela Castro.
The debate must go
beyond purely academic
discussion, according to
Navarro, who co- founded
the non-governmental
organisation Infancia,
Adolescencia Ciudadana (IACi)
(roughly, Children and
Adolescents as
Citizens). "We must take
the debate to society at
large, using the mass
media which reach every
home, because the media
tend to reinforce
patriarchal concepts
that run counter to
equality," she said.
"At present we are
caught up in a largely
academic debate on
terminology and
methods," said Julio
César González Pagés,
the Cuban coordinator of
the Ibero-American
Masculinity Network,
another speaker.
González said many
gender workshops merely
repeat the same old
things, preaching to the
choir, instead of
"choosing to use the
multiplying potential of
ideas" to reach
different audiences and
raise awareness in
different social
sectors.
"It’s inconsistent to
produce academic work
which takes gender
perspective into
account, but then in our
daily lives to realise
that we are
perpetuating, or are
subject to, many
stereotypes," said
Cabral.
"The challenge is to try
to ‘monitor’ one’s own
practice at all times,"
said the journalist, who
focuses on providing
coverage for the women’s
movement in the
Argentine city of
Córdoba.
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