Group items tagged

This article discusses how Latin America has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, and how women's organizations continue to fight for the right to safe and legal abortion. It is believed that to a certain extent, religion has influenced the criminalization of abortion. However, the women's movement in the region has made progress towards attaining the right to legal abortion.

Women's rights activist groups in Chile are urging presidential candidates to support women's rights. They want to further the progress they made during the the current government, and are urging all women to vote and take a stand during the presidential elections in December. Some of their prominent issues include the decriminalization of abortion, availability of emergency contraception, and legislature to prevent and rid Chile of violence against women and gender-related murders of women.

A radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and justice. Due to religious influences and beliefs, women do not have the rights to their bodies by law, so they seek alternative methods to have abortions, with a large number resulting in death. Similar to our discussion of sexual education in schools, the 'reality' does not match up with what is taught in schools (especially Catholic ones). Instead of being proactive and preventative, abstinence is taught. iolence against women is coming to the forefront as a major concern in Latin America. Termed "femicide," violence against women by men because they are women is a poor result of the hierarchy of the cultural society in Latin America. Machismo and masculinity influence men to feel that they must act this way from a young way in order to exert their power and strength, but it is unacceptable. This article also discusses women's movements and their fight for equal rights as well as rights to maternity leave and other aspects that women who work must take into account.

On Wednesday, September 9, 2009, the legislative branch in Uruguay passed a bill allowing for gay and lesbian couples to adopt children. This law had major support from the Senators in a 17 out of 23 vote and is unlike any other gay rights movement bill in Latin America. Liberal activists hope this is just the first step in a very long line of the liberation of not only gay rights, but human rights. Uruguay is also noted to be the first Latin American country to approve divorce and women's right to vote.

By giving women the tools and knowledge about their reproductive rights and options for contraception, abortions, and knowledge about diseases, this Council attempts to empower them through increased safety and awareness of women's health services.

This article is from 2006, when Maria Teresa Fernandez was allowed to become a judge, which Spanish Law had previously banned. I think it relates to the course because, even though it is in Spain, the machismo culture still exists, and this demonstrates how women's rights are threatening the strength of the machismo culture.

Here is a news video about new sex education books being distributed to schools in Mexico City. Students were glad to get the books that had real answers to their questions about sex and sexuality, as well as information about women's rights, domestic violence, and respect for different sexualities. Church groups and a parents association are strongly against the new book, and one member claimed that it "promotes death."

This article talks about several groups that work to improve the rights of indigenous women in southern Mexico. Their efforts include informing women of their legal rights, giving them job training and help finding a job, and providing them with shelter if they want to leave their homes because of domestic violence.

This article presents the approximate levels of induced abortion in six Latin American countries- Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Peru. Through calculated data on the hospitalization of women's abortion complications, an estimated 550,000 women are hospitalized a year. To read more about the complications and calculations go here!

This website offers an in-depth definition of machismo, how it was constructed and how it affects feminism. This article also explores the causes of the "Macho man". Mostly however, this article discusses the affects of the "Machismo" on women's identities over the years.

This article describes a non-profit organization named CARE, which focuses on "fighting world poverty by improving the lives of women and girls around the globe" (and in this article's case, in Guatemala). In the past 3 years, the program started in a village in Guatemala has resulted in vast improvements in women's empowerment there.

This article depicts women in Latin America who are involved with the current day social movements. It provides us with information regarding the leading participants in the social movements and exactly what the social movements are. Some of them focus on human rights and collective consumption like the cost of living.

An audio clip of a woman telling her story of her illegal abortion and the repercussions it had on her body and her presence within her society. Again, we see the struggle between the religion of Mexico and the push for women's rights.

Bold move for Mexico due to its strong, cultural foundation in the Roman Catholic Church. Here, we watch as the religious opposes the social and vice versa. It's women's rights vs. Roman Catholic doctrine.

This article interviews a woman named Lidia Cacho who runs a crisis center and discusses the domestic violence issue in Mexico. Many women's rights activist say that domestic violence is one of the ugliest consequences of Mexico's machismo culture. Many domestic violence victims are silent, because of fear and the lack of support from the police. Victims are often followed by their husbands or sent death threats. Lidia Cacho tries to work with domestic violence victims by protecting them and offering them as much support as possible.

In 2005, Mexico declared that a sexual attack by a husband is still defined as rape. In 1994, the country ruled that it was simply "an undue exercise of conjugal rights". Under this ruling, women could not report rape by their husband. The article states that 47 percent of women report being the victims of violence, and 84 percent of domestic violence victims are silent.

To date, nearly 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region have enacted laws against domestic violence or have characterized the violence as a crime. Despite these laws, many women in Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be failed by the legal system. (October 2001)

This is an article discussing the lack of protection for women against acts of domestic violence in Latin America. The article addresses the difficulty for women to report these crimes due to lack of rights and enforcement of the laws.

Legalizing abortion has been a slow process in Latin America. Only a handful of countries, including Cuba and Guyana, have legalized abortions in the first trimester. In 2007, when this article was written, there was a legal debate deciding whether or not to legalize abortion in Mexico. The Roman Catholic Church is adamantly opposed to legalizing abortion, and studies found that people in rural areas were antiabortion. Thousands of women die in Latin America from unsafe and illegal abortions, and it is apparent that the illegality of abortion does not reduce the number of women getting them.

Dalia Acosta's article addresses the gender equality issues throughout Latin America. Her interview of Julio César Gonzaléz presents an engaging, and possibly controversial, argument that women are not the only victims of Latin America's dominant and rigid patriarchal system and hierarchy: men also face an oppression, although different, due to the socially constructed concept of masculinity.

This article explains the issues of gender roles in Latin America. Julio César González, the Cuban General coordinator of the Ibero-American Masculinity Networkstates, "Until we scrutinise men's social roles and the concept of masculinity, we'll just be drawing circles around the women victims of the system." After completing 20 years of research in gender studies he tried to implement his findings in the real world, but faced resistance from people who only wanted to continue with the traditional stereotypes. Although the Cuban authorities have allowed women to be integrated into once all-male domains, there is still a long way for women to go to reach full equality.

In most of Latin America, abortions are a crime, but this does not decrease the amount of abortions that are performed. Criminalizing abortion has become increasingly dangerous, especially in an area where there is little sex education and women are kept from using contraception. Up to 5,000 women die each year and thousands are hospitalized.

In most of the region of Latin America abortions are a crime, but criminalizing abortion doesn't decrease abortion rates and only endangers the lives of women. The abortion rate is far higher than in Western Europe or the United States. In Columbia, abortions are illegal even if a woman's life is in jeopardy. There is little sex education and social taboos keep unmarried women from exploring the options of contraception. Up to 5,000 women die each year from abortions in Latin America, and thousands more are hospitalized. In Cuba, however, abortion is legal on request. Latin Americans are looking at abortion as an issue of maternal mortality.