Women and Power: for a world with equality

The situation of women in the Americas has been, for a long time, a subject of long debate and commendable endeavors. Although important progress has been achieved in areas such as political participation and citizenship, there are still some unresolved matters in relation to access to power, influence on decision-making processes, domestic violence, trade and human trafficking of women, and equal labor opportunities, among others. With these challenges in mind, on February 25 of this year the Organization of American States (OAS) inaugurated the Inter-American Year of Women with the motto “Women and Power: for an Equal World.” This celebration was a response to a commitment made by every OAS Member State during the XXXVII General Assembly in 2007 in which it was acknowledged that gender issues are “a strategy accepted throughout the world to promote the empowerment of women and achieve equality.”

The proclamation of 2010 as the Inter-American Year of Women seeks to promote a broad mobilization in the Americas towards an assessment of the achievements and challenges in defending the human rights of women and gender equality, as well as increasing public awareness of these issues. Also, it is an opportunity to analyze the obstacles that women still face in their development, among them the severity of the continuing violence against them.

The subject of gender equality has been tied to that of democracy and affects several areas of society, influencing the social and individual economic development of women. A report published in 2009 by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) identifies significant gender-related salary gaps in Latin America. “Females in the region earn less than their male counterparts even though they are more educated. A simple comparison of average wages indicates that men earn 10 percent more than women. But once economists compare males and females with the same age and level of education, the wage gap between men and women is 17 percent,” explains the IDB report.

Despite this unfortunate situation, it is also possible to list a number of achievements. There are important achievements in the consolidation of gender politics in all countries of the region. Latin America is the region that first and unanimously signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

Another important achievement is in political participation. The Center for Womens’ Development Studies (CEDEM) reported in its regional report on women’s political participation that throughout the last decade women’s presence has grown in many parliaments as well as in the elections and ministries that have traditionally been occupied by men.
These data support a worldwide trend: a report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), titled Universal Map of Women in Politics 2010, indicates that female participation in parliaments has grown just over one percent since 2008 and that the region of the Americas, which includes the whole continent, has an average female parliamentary presence of 22 percent.

Furthermore, the OAS in March celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the coming into force of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará). On the occasion of the anniversary OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza issued a message stating that “this historic agreement—the first and only in the world that addresses violence against women—has given an outline for the passage of laws and policies on violence against women in all Member States of the OAS, as well as a political and strategic frame for their implementation.”

The Convention of Belém do Pará was adopted in 1994 and has been ratified by 32 countries of the region (all OAS Member States except the United States, Canada, and Cuba). As the Secretary General put it, “the Convention has inspired campaigns for action, information dissemination, legal norms and procedures, plans of action, processes of sensitization and training with legal, health and security staff, monitoring, evaluation and follow-up initiatives, and services of consultation and care for female victims.”

The President of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), Wanda Jones, who participated in the inauguration of the Inter-American Year of Women, recalled that currently women’s participation in all spheres of society, politics and the economy is directly linked to the recognition and respect of their human rights. Jones is the United States representative to the CIM, the principal forum for hemispheric policies in the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality, established more than eighty years ago.

The series of events and celebrations that took place in the last month also involved a serious preoccupation with the situation of women in Haiti. According to data from the government of Haiti, which was devastated by an earthquake on January 12, violence against women in refugee camps has grown, and prostitution has become in many cases the only means of survival.

During the OAS Permanent Council meeting where the problems of women and children in Haiti were discussed, Haiti’s Minister of Women’s Affairs, Marjorie Michel, said that “the living conditions have deteriorated significantly and it is women and girls who daily care for the injured and sick.”

On that occasion, the OAS Secretary General stated that gender issues “must be taken into account in all emergencies, what happens to women and girls cannot be left to chance. We must care for the most vulnerable and keep them in safe places.” With these words Insulza highlighted the challenges that natural disasters bring with them and their impact on the populations, and reiterated the Organization’s commitment to the subject of equality and to the Haitian people.

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