Nuevas Trenzas Informs
January 2013 N˚5
THE NEW PROFILE OF YOUNG RURAL WOMEN IN GUATEMALA María Frausto, Ana Victoria Peláez Ponce y Samuel Zapil, Nuevas Trenzas Program - Guatemala Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales de la Universidad Rafael Landívar This document presents the main findings of the work carried out by the program NuevasTrenzas in Guatemala, which focuses on the new dynamics of young rural women. This analysis is necessary for creating development strategies, especially due to the trans-generational effect of programs aiming at women’s development. The information gathered and analyzed allowed two key readings: the first was confirming that gender gaps persist in important fields, such as access to formal employment and division of labor; and the second refers to possibilities for transformation that allows education, as well as the presence of institutions for empowering women, whose contribution to rural economies is as important as the contribution of men. What inequality gaps do young rural women face? Young rural women are a collective marked by ‘intertwined inequalities’, that is to say, by the existence of different gaps that intersect, generating a situation of disadvantage in relation to other groups. We consider five gaps that determine the situation of young rural women in the region: • Gender gap: separates young rural women from rural men belonging to the same generation. • Area of residency gap: separates young rural women from their urban contemporaries. • Generational gap: separates young rural women from their rural mothers and grandmothers. • Poverty gap: within the group of young rural women, it distinguishes those who live in a poor household from those who live in a non-poor household. • Ethnic belonging gap: distinguishes young rural indigenous women from young rural non indigenous women. These gaps directly affect young rural women’s ‘ability to do’. This ‘ability to do’ may be broken into the following competencies: technical competence (managing the necessary skills to do something), legal competence (existence of a legal framework that allows doing something), and subjective competence (the subject’s capability for perceiving herself with the ability to do something). This, ultimately, affects young rural women’s possibilities of having an autonomous life strategy. Which gaps affect young rural women in Guatemala? In Guatemala, women represent 51.3 percent of its 14.5 million inhabitants. Within this group, young rural women represent slightly more than 1.4 million, that is, around 10 percent of the country’s total population; slightly over 19 percent of the rural population, and 26 percent of the young population. The main findings regarding the gaps that affect young rural women correspond to different fields.
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www.nuevastrenzas.org Schooling: young rural women have less years of schooling, which concentrate mostly in the primary level, in comparison to their urban peers who have a more diversified schooling. Also, the highest percentages of young women who do not have any years of schooling concentrate among rural and indigenous women. However, the gender gap has reduced in relation to young rural men, mainly expressed in the schooling years reported by young rural women.
10.0
Graph 1
9.5 8.0
8.4
Women’s average schooling years, by area.
7.4 6.5
6.0
5.8
4.5
4.9
4.4
4.0
2.1
2.0
Source: 0.0
14 to 17
18 to 25
Elaborated by the authors with data from ENCOVI 2011.
26 to 35
Age Rural non indigenous
Urban
Rural indigenous
Access to new technologies: in the case of mobile telephony, we find that it reaches rural women less than urban women. The same pattern is true when comparing indigenous women with non indigenous women. Regarding the consumption of Internet, we find once again a strong lag of rural women in relation to their male and female urban peers. The largest population of young rural women that consume Internet corresponds to those between the ages of 18 and 25 (30 percent), followed by those between the ages of 15 and 17 (25.4 percent), and by those between the ages of 26 to 29 (16.9 percent).
Civil Status and number of children: in comparison to urban women, we find that rural women tend to move in with their partners sooner in all the age cohorts. Some of the processes behind this trend are the lack of opportunities in education, of finding work, of accessing information, and of sexual and reproductive health education. Regarding the issue of reproduction, rural women have a higher average of children than urban women. Among rural women, indigenous women have more children in comparison to non indigenous women.
Graph 2
4.0 3.7 3.1
3.0
2.6
1.4
0.0
2.0
1.7
2.0
1.0
Average of children
1.0
1.6
1.1
14 to 17
Urban
18 to 25 Age Rural non indigenous
26 to 35
Rural indigenous
Source: Elaborated by the authors with data from ENCOVI 2011.
Note: the average was calculated it taking into account women in the age cohorts who reported having at least one child.
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Maternal healthcare: young rural women’s relationship with the healthcare system is still weak: within this group, only 44 percent received care in a hospital or healthcare facility. Women from rural areas were precisely the ones who were serviced less frequently by a hospital or other healthcare facility when they last gave birth. On the contrary, these women gave birth mostly in their own homes, risking their children’s health as well as their own. Nevertheless, there is some progress among young rural women, who are better prepared than their mothers and grandmothers.
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www.nuevastrenzas.org Participation in the Economically Active Population: rural women apparently participate less in the Economically Active Population (EAP). This group’s main activity corresponds to the agricultural sector;this is mostly for the case among indigenous women. This work is non-remunerated because it is inscribed within the dynamics of family work. On the other hand, in the case of non indigenous women, work in commerce is registered as the main activity, resembling more to the dynamics of urban women. Among other situations, another problem has been identified concerning agricultural labor: even if the great majority of young rural women work in parcels, very few are landowners. Citizen participation: in this field, important progress has been registered concerning the personal identification systems. On the other hand, the exercise of citizenship through voting has increased among rural women. However this is constrained by gender barriers, mainly due to the sexual division of labor that conditions women’s social and political participation to compromises concerning household care. Poverty: young rural women register the highest poverty rates throughout the country. The difference with young urban women is significant. However, in comparison with contemporary rural men, the rates are very similar. Likewise, among rural women, non indigenous women have lower poverty rates than indigenous women. Distribution of the female population,by poverty levels, age cohorts, and geographic area (percentages)
Indigenous
Non indigenous
100.0
100.0 17.8
19.7
21.0
80.0
80.0
60.0 40.0 20.0 0.0
39.9
40.7
45.1
44.3
46.6
44.4
60.0 54.7
55.8
53.6
27.5
24.5
25.3
14 to 17
18 to 25
26 to 35
Extreme poverty
Non extreme poverty
40.0 20.0 0.0
Non poor
15.8
12.7
10.5
14 to 17
18 to 25
26 to 35
Extreme poverty
Non extreme poverty
Non poor
Source: Elaborated by the authors with data from ENCOVI 2011.
Conclusions In effect, a generational change has been observed in rural areas, mostly defined by a greater coverage in education, access to ICTs, road infrastructure, and the presence of institutions that promote the equality of rights. This situation, however, does not allow transforming the structures that permeate gender relations, and its result manifests in rural women’s marginality and poverty. In spite of the gender gaps, we have found a bigger gap between rural and urban areas that manifests in the access to education, in the quality of employment, and in the access to ICTs. Therefore, this situation allows acknowledging that public policies have privileged investment in urban sectors, limiting opportunities for the rural population, which affects women in a greater measure. We find that this situation becomes more acute due to historically rooted social constructions that assign and value differently the functions and meanings of “being a woman” and/or “being a man”. In the midst of this complexity that has obstructed rural women’s development; encouraging transformations do arise, mainly from education.
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