Research Paper on "Latin American Women's Cultural Decision in Labor Force vs. Procreation in Past vs. Present"

Research Paper 20 pages (5451 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Latin Women and Vocational Empowerment Issues

Women have achieved great strides in modern societies, especially when compared with the historical role of females in ancient societies, and even in relatively modern-era societies. One of the most important aspects of female empowerment relates to the incorporation of females into the modern workforce. The greatest documented increase in female empowerment in this area was in American society immediately after the Second World War, mainly by virtue of the extent to which female labor was required during the war effort to replace the positions vacated by males involved in overseas military conflict. That conflict was, in retrospect, a watershed event in the progress of females during the 20th century.

In Hispanic societies, specific social and cultural attitudes, beliefs, and values have always played important roles in shaping male-female relationships and the position of women in society. In the United States, the other most significant factors responsible for female social and especially vocational empowerment since World War Two were the introduction of oral contraception for birth control and the evolution of reproductive rights and autonomy after the legalization of abortion in 1973.

Generally, Hispanic women have progressed at a slower rate, largely because prevailing cultural attitudes and beliefs contradict the increasing independence of women from men. In that regard, the interplay between two competing components is especially important: specifically, the concepts of machismo and familism within Hispanic societies and communities.

Statistical Data

This research provides some background on family life in the Hispanic world, drawing mainly on the research done in a few key countries such as Mexico and Colombia, and with special focus on how the struggle for economic survival affects that life. It has been reported that 40% of families in Latin America have insufficient income for essential needs, and that another 28% can be categorized as "working poor" (David, 1987). In 1980, 41% of the population was under fourteen. Population growth in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin America in particular, has exceeded that of the Old World for some time (Stycos, 1968). With this trend continuing, poverty is the way of life for most Hispanic children.

Drawing on census data, Elsa M. Chaney (1984) gives the following snapshot: In looking at twenty different countries, the most common minimum age for marriage for females is fourteen. Colombia and Mexico have declared eighteen for both sexes, but the others range from twelve to sixteen for females, and fourteen to sixteen for males. Other research indicates that the average age of marriage for women is about eighteen, and that these young brides will give birth to an average of more than five children in the course of their married lives (Balakrishnan, 1976).

Marriage and Social Status in Latin Communities

Chaney also points out that childrearing is still the highest social status available to women. Because of the costs involved, many of the poor cannot afford to marry, and legal divorce is usually difficult to attain. Thirty percent of households are headed by females (similar to the United States), and the typical household has 3.5 to 5.3 members. Among the lower classes consensual unions may significantly outnumber formal marriages. For instance, among poor blacks in Venezuela, 57% of couples are not married, in spite of the influence of Catholicism.

Furthermore, these families tend to be matrifocal (mother-centered) and characterized by early motherhood, migration, and poverty (Pollak-Eltz, 1975). Despite the fact that the mother is primarily responsible for fulfilling all of the needs of the children in the family, the father is the final decision-maker, even where he is regularly absent from the family. This pattern also holds true in Mexico where traditional patriarchal values and social norms make it much more difficult for women to support themselves independently (Chant, 1993).

When the Spaniards came to the Americas, they worked hard to impose their family ideals on the indigenous populations. That ideal was a patriarchal, monogamous, nuclear family (Munoz, 1983). Before this pressure, there had been significant variety among local peoples, including polygamy, cousin marriages, extended clans, and the more familiar patriarchal power and strict separation of tasks by gender (Boremanse, 1983).

One of the most important factors in understanding the Hispanic Family is migration. Males often migrate to the United States or other places in search of work in order to support their families (Weist, 1983). In some respects, this allows the family to live better; in others, it puts tremendous strains on marital relationships. As in many other cultures, there are very strong biases and socially accepted gender-based expectations and behavioral norms within Hispanic communities in relation to extramarital sexual relations (Schaefer, 2006). Generally, married men are expected to support their families but not necessarily to be sexually monogamous, even in marriage.

Married men frequently entertain girlfriends and, as in many other cultures, these transgressions are frequently condoned, at least tacitly, by society. Moreover, it is not particularly rare for married men to father children out of wedlock and even to support two different families simultaneously. Naturally, the additional factor of long-term separation and geographical distance in connection with the pursuit of work by married males only greatly exacerbates this tendency.

Meanwhile, the same social mores and norms that are very forgiving about male infidelity in marriage are much less forgiving when it comes to female infidelity, regardless of circumstances (Schaefer, 2006). Wives rarely have affairs, because if their infidelities are discovered, they risk being severely beaten by their husbands or being abandoned by them entirely. As is often the case across different cultures, promiscuous and unfaithful males routinely escape any significant negative social consequences of their transgressions; conversely, females known to engage in similar behavior typically suffer by virtue of having their reputations damaged throughout their communities and are subjected to intense shaming from which males are almost entirely exempt. Furthermore, in some Latin cultures contraceptives are withheld from married women, even when the family is experiencing great difficulty supporting the children they already have. This is not a result of strict religious convictions but is a reflection of concerns among males that any form of birth control could tempt married women to have extramarital affairs (Haffner, 1992).

This differential has undoubtedly been a feature of human societies since long before even the earliest recorded history. While female infidelity no longer justifies murder in most modern societies, that is not the case in some others, most notably in some of the wealthiest nations in the Persian Gulf area. In Latin communities, contemporary civil law protects females from such reprisals; on the other hand, social mores and the persistence of so-called "traditional" patriarchal social rules still operate to make life much more difficult for women than for men in this as well as in myriad other situations.

Poverty and the Social Status of Women

Impoverishment breeds ignorance. One illustrative example of this principle in connection with female empowerment (or lack thereof) is in the area of reproductive health. In Mexico, anesthesia is often avoided in childbirth, because many uneducated Mexicans believe that the mother must endure pain in order to be a "real" mother. This belief has absolutely nothing to do with the various benefits and risks associated with natural childbirth; instead, it is related to the biblical idea that women must bring forth children in sorrow (Haffner, 1992).

In fact, a related belief attributes miscarriages and other medical complications associated with birthing to susto, which means a "terrible fright." Even when their health is in grave danger, some Mexican women will avoid birth control, because they have absorbed cultural beliefs that their main purpose in life is to reproduce. Having children is considered proof of the husbands' virility (Haffner, 1992).

In other subcultures, such as the black Caribs of Guatemala (Gonzalez, 1983), women change companions fairly frequently in search of economic support. They have also discovered that they can provide for themselves as well as their migrating menfolk can, and as a result, are less likely to look up to males as leaders than they used to. To a large degree, female dependence on males is perpetuated by social values rather than dictated by any objective principles or human biology (Henslin, 2002).

The Carib culture is only one of many examples throughout the world of the ability of women to provide for themselves and their families without relying on male companionship. This is equally evident throughout modern Western societies, (such as in the United States, in particular), where the emergence of equal rights and opportunities available to women have substantially eliminated many of the traditional manifestations of social and economic dependence on men (Henslin, 2002).

Marital Quality

What, then, is the typical Latin American family like? Some research (Ingoldsby, 1980) indicates that psychological intimacy is not as highly valued as it is in the United States. In comparing couples from the United States and Colombia, it was found that high satisfaction marriages in the United States were correlated with a high level of emotional expressiveness between spouses. Specifically, other differences in interests and… READ MORE

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