POTENT Issue #2 - The Women's Issue

By Graciano Petersen
If you were
wondering, it’s
mostly equal;
there are about
just as many
women as there
are men in the
world. Most
countries lean
to one side or
the other, but
in general,
the world
has achieved
a balance.
However, while
that number may be in balance,
precious few others level out in
the statistics that compare female
life to male life on the planet.
Throughout the world, women
continue to fight for equal rights
and treatment. This struggle
varies in complexity from country
to country and from culture to
culture, but, on the whole, there is
with one unifying fact: women do
not have equal value on the planet
when compared to men.
Several entities, including
the National Organization
for Women, MADRE and
the Global Fund for Women,
have taken on the mission of
advancing the position of women
internationally. The World
Economic Forum, an international
nonprofit dedicated to improving
the state of the world, releases a
yearly report entitled The Global
Gender Gap Report. This report
includes the Global Gender Gap
Index, which “seeks to measure
one important aspect of gender
equality: the relative gaps
between women and men across
four key areas: health, education,
economy and politics.” This report
has been coming out since 2006.
The latest report released October
24, 2014 lists Nicaragua as the top
ranking country not only in the
Caribbean and Latin America, but
outside of Europe period. With
a sixth place ranking, Nicaragua
ranks better than the Netherlands
(14), France (16), the United States
(20) and its nearest Caribbean
neighbor, Cuba (30). This ranking
is due to the improvements
that Nicaragua has made in the
economic participation gap and
by also getting more women into
high-level government positions.
Overall, Nicaragua has seen the
greatest improvement across the
four key areas than any other
country on the index since 2006.
In spite of this superior ranking,
Nicaragua still has some issues
with violence against women
and the small country saw a rise
in femicides, murder of women,
in 2014. The murder rate among
women in the Caribbean and
Latin America as a whole has
become so out of proportion to the
rate at which men are murdered
in the same locales that many
countries have taken to adopting
laws specifically against femicide.
Although, a law passed in 2012
in Nicaragua (Law 779) aimed at
curbing domestic violence did not
keep the femicide number from
spiking this past year, it provides
an understanding for why
Nicaragua has been recognized
for its approach to women’s rights.
Only a few other countries in
the Caribbean, the Dominican
Republic and Costa Rica to be
precise, have adopted laws
condemning crimes against
women in an effort to highlight
what is becoming gendercide (the
systematic killing of a specific
gender) in the region. To further
this effort and to get other
countries of the region to buy into
the issue, feminist activists are
holding public demonstrations,
providing educational programs
and organizing in neighborhoods
and communities.
While the issue of women’s
rights is far from a new struggle,
its awareness in the region is still
growing and gathering support.
One stronghold for awareness
has been the Latin American
and Caribbean Feminist
Meeting. This meeting takes
place every three years in a new
city in the region to promote
equality for women. The most
recent meeting was held in
Lima in November 2014 and
was attended by a large crosssection
of women including
indigenous women, abortion
rights activists, lesbians, sex
workers, transgendered and
anti-femicide organizers.
POTENT Magazine | EIGHT