Peru

Peru: a South American nation with a culture lush as the Amazon but just as old as the Incan empire…

In Peru, woman represent about half the population, but they lack equality in the work place and home as a result of their society’s discrimination and prejudice.

About one in every three women from rural areas are illiterate in comparison to one in every ten men, leaving women behind in the nationally sphere. Also, about 36% of rural females graduate from secondary school.

Seven of every ten women have experienced gender violence of some form. Out of the South American continent, Peru reports the second greatest amount of rapes.

“Peru is a country of rapists”- Indira Huilca, a congressional representative for Lima.

The Pontificial Catholic University in Lima found that 24.9% believe women provoke their own sexual assault.

During the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori, about 300,000 women were sterilized— even though his dictatorship ended about 15 years ago, his sentiment remains around the country.

Peru’s ombudsman’s office in 2015 held a study that found about 81% of the cases studied involved no measures taken to defend survivors. In addition, in about 24%of those cases, women who went for aid were murdered by the person they had alerted the authorities about.

According to another study, by La Católica University, it was estimated that at least 23% of women between the ages 18 and 29 in Peru had been touched inappropriately on public transport.

Peruvian women have been internally protesting within their country as “a cry against impunity”, said the country’s women’s minister. Over 50,000 people took part in the Lima march. The march itself was orchestrated to educate the international community about the femicide epidemic within Peru.

Women marched not only to educate the world, but to also proclaim their top agenda in solving the issue of protecting vulnerable women due to the judiciary systems frequent failure.

Many external organizations as well have been formed to help Peruvian women. The Sacred Valley Project in particular works to board and provide supplementary education for young women in low income families located in remote areas of the Andes so they can further their secondary education. The organization itself has helped give Peruvian women 22 years of education, 15,840 hours of safe travel, 11,880 meals for the year, and 12 jobs for local community members with the sole purpose of helping the future women of Peru.

Another organization Peruvian Hearts, works to help women reach their full potential through educational opportunities, mentorship, service, and structured empowerment classes. The organization proves financial scholarships, peer groups, and daily English classes.

Women from all over the world as well as the female Peruvian population have begun to raise their voices. The staggering statistics and wealth of studies reporting the ongoing tragedies against women in Peru are in surplus.

However, it is important to point out that several gender equality laws have been recently passed, the laws are in place, but the point of the matter is the country’s legislators have yet to apply the laws they have passed. How can progress be enacted if the country’s government won’t even follow through with their own laws?

 

 

 

Works Cited

Collyns, Dan. “Women in Peru Protest against Rising Tide of Murder and Sexual Crime.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Aug. 2016, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/13/women-peru-protest-rising-tide-murder-sexual-crime.

HOOP, Author Lucas from. “Closing the Gender Gap in Peru.” Helping Overcome Obstacles Peru, 7 July 2015, www.hoopperu.org/2015/closing-gender-gap-in-peru/.

“Our Mission.” SACRED VALLEY PROJECT, sacredvalleyproject.org/mission-statement/.

Peruvianhearts.org, www.peruvianhearts.org/whatwedo/peruvian-promise/.

“Project Peru.” Women in Peru, projectperu.org.uk/about-peru/women-in-peru.htm.