LATIN AMERICA:
Indigenous, Black Women
Face ‘Triple Glass
Ceiling’
By
Kintto Lucas
QUITO, (IPS) -
Indigenous and black
women in Latin America
and the Caribbean face
three-fold
discrimination because
of their gender, race
and social class, in
politics and at work.
That is how it was put
by participants in a
panel on "Citizenship
and Political
Participation by
Indigenous and
Afro-Descendant Women"
at the 10th Regional
Conference on Women that
ended Thursday in the
Ecuadorean capital.
Guatemalan indigenous
activist Otilia Lux de
Cotí said that from the
indigenous women’s point
of view, the struggle
for women’s right to
participate is
inextricably linked to
the struggle for
indigenous peoples’
right to participate.
We are discriminated
against by governments,
by men, and often by
other women, so in order
to correct historical
inequalities, we must
restructure the state
and build an egalitarian
society, said de Cotí,
formerly Guatemalan
minister of culture and
sports.
Therefore, when
demanding minimum quotas
for women’s
participation, quotas
for indigenous and
Afro-descendant women
should also be
specified, she said.
"We want to salvage
democracy, and to do so
we must rebuild it
according to our vision
for it: democracy in
Latin America can only
be intercultural," she
said.
Afro-Brazilian leader
María Inés Barbosa said
that sexism and racism
are part of the very
foundations on which
nation states in Latin
America and the
Caribbean were built.
"To eliminate sexism and
racism, we need to
change society, but
often at international
forums we change the
words we use so as not
to have to change
society. This cannot go
on; we must change
society instead," she
said.
"Leaving self-deception
aside, often the
documents that emerge
from these meetings say
one thing, but real life
for indigenous and
Afro-descendant women
outside is another
thing, because we are
the poorest of the
poor," she said.
Margarita Antonio, a
Miskito Indian woman
from Nicaragua, said
countries and United
Nations agencies should
keep working towards
providing better
training and education
for women, who should
share the knowledge they
acquire with those who
stayed home in their
communities, to bridge
the gaps that also exist
between different groups
of women.
The panel, organised by
the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP),
the U.N. Development
Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
and the Secretariat of
the U.N. Permanent Forum
on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII),
was attended by more
than 100 women
representing regional
organisations.
Indigenous women
presented their
manifesto in favour of
building a "plurinational"
state.
In spite of quantitative
and qualitative
advances, mid-way
through the decade
devoted to achieving the
Millennium Development
Goals and the Second
International Decade of
the World’s Indigenous
Peoples, we are facing a
critical situation
exacerbated by the
increasing
implementation of
macroeconomic policies
that ignore the
collective rights of our
peoples, the document
says.
It also says that
advances in respect for
the human rights of
indigenous women are
tied to the struggle to
protect, respect and
exercise the collective
rights of their peoples,
as well as indigenous
people’s unity, based on
their territories,
natural resources,
collective traditional
knowledge and full
recognition of their
institutions for
self-government.
We recognise the
importance of the
Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) as tools to
make progress on
strategies for women’s
sustainable development
and human rights,
although the targets
used to measure progress
do not include cultural
or ethnic indicators,
says the manifesto,
which was made public on
Wednesday.
The MDGs were adopted in
2000 by the U.N. member
countries as a platform
to combat poverty and
inequality all over the
world, improve health,
education and gender
equity, fight pollution,
and adopt a sustainable
development model and a
fairer system of
international trade. The
deadline for fulfilling
the MDGs is 2015.
The indigenous women’s
document urges states to
immediately adopt the
United Nations
Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, approved by the
Human Rights Council in
June 2006, as the basic
platform for indigenous
women’s development and
equitable participation.
A study by the United
Nations International
Research and Training
Institute for the
Advancement of Women
(UN-INSTRAW), another of
the panel’s organisers,
found that indigenous
women experience access
to resources and
positions of power in a
different way from
non-indigenous men and
women.
Women account for nearly
60 percent of the 50
million indigenous
people in Latin America
and the Caribbean, and
they face triple
discrimination: as
women, as indigenous
people and as poor
people, the study says.
This year the Regional
Conference on Women is
focussing on the
contribution of women to
the economy and social
protection, particularly
through unpaid work, and
on political
participation and gender
parity.
On the subject of
political participation
by women, in addition to
reforming electoral
systems with affirmative
action measures, a
number of aspects of
political culture which
produce discriminatory
bias must be changed,
says another study
presented on Tuesday by
the Economic Commission
for Latin America and
the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The necessary changes
should address unequal
access to financing, the
unequal influence of
social networks, and the
unjust use of time which
demands that women focus
on reproductive work
(repetitive chores like
cleaning, cooking and
caring for children and
the elderly), the ECLAC
study says.
The emergence of women
leaders in the region,
the increasingly
autonomous electoral
behaviour of women, and
the female vote in
favour of women
candidates are part of
the new democratic
scenario, says the ECLAC
study on "Women’s
Contribution to Equality
in Latin America and the
Caribbean."
Parity is one of the
symbols of the new
democracies, and is an
ethical measure which
can strengthen the
legitimacy of democratic
institutions, the study
says. |
