Gender inequality in Honduras

A Honduran girl. Honduran traditional societal norms dictate a primarily domestic role for girls and women.

Traditional gender roles have men dominating the public sphere and women occupying the domestic sphere: it is very taboo for women to participate in what are believed to be traditionally male positions in society. Although, there are women who occupy these traditionally male dominated position, the representation is extremely low. Men are expected to be the main provider of the family and head of the household. Traditional gender roles can give men power to make important decisions over women such as when they may procreate, how many children women may have, what chores need to be done to maintain the household, if they may receive education, and whether or not they may participate in the workforce.[3]

Gender roles in which men occupy more space and hold more power, is taught at a very young age. As children, boys are free to run around unclothed, play without supervision, are less often disciplined for unfavorable behaviors, and enjoy greater freedom overall. While girls are to be well groomed and dressed with care, are watched over carefully, are expected to act in a helpful and quiet manner, and enjoy very little freedom.

Honduran men are expected to father many children, and there is little social stigma attached to men's premarital and extramarital sexual relationships. However, when marrying a woman, men expect their bride to be a virgin.[4] As seen in various news reports, women who do not conform to what is socially deemed as appropriate behavior are often subjected to violence. In 2018 Honduras had 388 cases of femicide (according to Merriam Webster Dictionary femicide is a gender-based murder of a woman or girl by a man) - an average of 32 women killed per month.[5]

According to UNAH Violence Observatory statistics, killings of women decreased from 9.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2016 to 8.2 per 100,000 in 2018, and to 7.9 per 100,000 as of June. Women in domestic situations were the most vulnerable group, accounting for approximately 40 percent of these deaths.[6]

Each year the United Nations releases a Human Development Report and in this report they measure various dimensions of society. One of those dimensions is gender inequality where levels of disadvantage between genders is demonstrated. This index shows disadvantages among genders in three key elements: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor market. Countries are given a rank based on their gender inequality index value. The value is measured from 0 to 1. 0 represents men and women prospering equally and 1 being the opposite, in which one gender prospers as poorly as possible compared to the other.

In the 2011 UN Human Development Report Honduras was ranked 121st out of 187 countries and given an index value of 0.511 [1] However, in the 2019 report that ranking dropped to 132nd out of 189 countries, but the opposite trend for the index value, which improved to 0.479.[2] These statistics can give a general idea of how a country fares on gender inequality overall and if improvements are being made, relative to all 187 countries in the report.

As the index value moved closer to 0 by 0.032, this indicates that the country is indeed making improvements, although small, toward gender equality. However, the drop in ranking shows that Honduras is not making strides towards gender equality on the same scale as other countries that moved ahead.

Economic activity in the GII is based on only one statistic: the proportion of females compared to males in the labor force. As of 2014, women made 34.6% of the labor force in Honduras.[13] Many women work in low-skilled jobs, often in bad conditions.[14] Honduran women have a much lower participation in the workforce than other Latin American women, due to Honduras being more conservative than other countries in the region.[15] The labour opportunities in rural areas are very limited for women, owing to a combination of lack of jobs and social views which dictate that women belong in the home.[15]

In the 2008 Global Gender Gap Index, Honduras was ranked 21st out of 74 countries on their general index value.[16] Pulled from the same data but for the economic participation, in the opportunity sub-index they were ranked 47th.[16] That is a change of 26 spots when talking about general-well being versus economic inclusion. This is yet another indicator that gender inequality is lower in economic dimensions of society.

There has been a recent wave of immigration consisting mostly of young women moving from rural to urban areas in order to find work. This has led to urban centers in Honduras being made up of over 53% women.[16] According to Sister Namibia this has resulted in "rapid urban growth in recent years has spawned various social problems, including unemployment, lack of adequate housing and basic services, all of which affect women most severely."[16]

Wealth distribution by gender

Woman with horse

The share of wealth that a certain group has can be a strong indicator of the amount of power that particular group holds in society. Women in Honduras have a very small share of the overall wealth, and the distribution of the type of wealth women possess reinforces their roles as homemakers and caretakers. This data shows the ratios of ownership of various goods:

Home ownership:

Women: 38%

Men: 59% Joint: 3%

Land ownership:

Women:12.8%

Men:87.2%

Cattle:

Women:13%

Men: 72%

Joint: 15%

Work animals: Women:10%

Men: 85%

Joint- 5%[12]

Women have a slight edge in ownership over chickens and pigs, but the place where women clearly have more ownership is in consumer durables. They tend to own more sewing machines, blenders, irons, stoves, toasters, and fridges, whereas men tend to own the computers, bikes, motorcycles, and cars. The assets that are predominantly owned by the women are of relatively small value compared to the high-value items that are owned almost exclusively by the men. Additionally, the items owned predominantly by the women all revolve around household care.

The underlying message given here is that in general, women own the chickens and the pigs, because they can then prepare them into a meal. They also own the items necessary to sew, blend, iron, cook, bake, and prepare and serve food. They do not, however, have the assets necessary to gain physical mobility through the means of owning a car or bicycle, check email, or cultivate a field, while the men do. This distribution of ownership reinforces the stereotypical and traditional gender roles in society.

School girls in Honduras.

Due to the traditionally patriarchal nature of Honduras, girls are often educationally disadvantaged. The reason for this being that if times got tough and only one child in a family was going to be educated, any female children would lose their chance at education before the boys. This is due to the fact that it is much harder for a female to find work regardless of educational achievement. The sought-after, well-paying jobs are commonly associated with masculinity in Honduras, including heavy manual labor, technical work, and anything that requires extensive training or an advanced degree.[9]

The main reason that girls are pulled out of school in the first place is usually to help in the family, leading to differences in educational attainment. The situation is changing, as the school life expectancy is today estimated to be higher for girls (12 years) than boys (11 years) -as of 2013.[9] Honduras does have a fairly high literacy rate, which is similar for both sexes: 88.4% for males and 88.6% for females.[9]

Violence against women occurs in public and in private, and demonstrates the inequality of power between women and men. This has led to women being dominated and discriminated against by men and this violence forces women "into a subordinate position compared with men".

The most common form of gender-based violence is sexual in nature. Understandably, sexual violence involves exploitation and abuse and is related "to any act, attempt, or threat that results in physical and emotional harm". Sexual violence can occur in the family, through rape or marital rape, coercion, by attempt, in the form of harassment and as a weapon of war or torture. There are four more types of gender/sexuality-based violence:

• Physical violence
• Emotional and psychological violence
• Harmful traditional practices violence: This consists of female genital mutilation (FGM), early marriage, forced marriage, honor killing and maiming (murdering a woman as a punishment for dishonoring or bringing shame to the family), infanticide, and denial of education.
• Socio-economic violence: This involves discrimination or denial of opportunities, social exclusion based on sexual orientation, and obstructive legislative practice (inhibiting women from using their social or economic rights).

In Honduras, the rate of femicide, is rated in 6th out of 111 countries according to a study done in 2011.[17] Femicides make up 9.6% of the total number of homicides in the country.[18] In current years the rates of violence against women have increased. In this country, femicide is extremely brutal. Sometimes bodies are found burned or with the feet and hands tied. During the autopsies, it is often discovered that rape has occurred before the victim's death. In Honduras, any form of rape is considered a public crime and a report will be made even if charges are not pressed by the victim.

In Honduras and in many countries surrounding it, justice against femicide does not get served. Although there are women’s rights activists trying to take a stand, "fewer than 3% of reported femicide cases are resolved by the courts".[17] The Honduran government does not have the necessary and appropriate resources available to address the countries increasing violence against women. Currently, the country does not have a designated team or program to compile data regarding femicide, therefore making it almost impossible to form policies and plans to combat it.[5] This only gives the perpetrators more power and confidence to commit these crimes knowing that they will not be convicted, which makes femicide the norm in Honduras.

Women's organizations have been in existence since the 1920s, when the Women's Cultural Society (Sociedad Cultural Feminina Hondureña) was formed and began to fight for women's rights. One leader, Visitación Padilla, actively opposed U.S. intervention in Honduras in 1924. Women also played important roles in the development of the labor movement, which became particularly active in the 1950s. According to Gladys Lanza, a trade union activist, women were extremely active in the 1954 national banana workers strike.[4]

They controlled entrances to towns and markets, closed the bars so men could not get drunk, and ran collective kitchens. Despite the extent of this logistical work, there was not a single woman on the strike committee. In the 1950s women also became active in the fight for women's suffrage, which was obtained in 1955.[4] The current Constitution of Honduras enshrines gender equality: art 60 reads: "Any discrimination on grounds of sex, race, class and any other injuries to human dignity are declared punishable". (Se declara punible toda discriminación por motivo de sexo, raza, clase y cualquier otra lesiva a la dignidad humana).[21]

Currently, there are designated groups and organizations dedicated to empowering and fighting for the lives of women and girls, from the United Nations Women to hundreds of nonprofits.

Nevertheless, the numbers have increased in recent years. According to the United Nations Human Development Indexes, in the percentage of women holding seats in national parliament was 18.0%, following an increase in 2015 which women made up 25.80% of the Parliament.[22] However, in the 2019 Human Development Index the percentage of women holding seats in the national parliament saw a decrease down to 21.2% There have been many international conventions and affirmative actions measures signed with the intention of creating more political representation for women, but that has not happened. Men in political power are unlikely to offer support these institutional changes, out of fear for changing the status quo, having their own political agendas hindered, and a refusal to share power.[11]

In Honduras, there are many transnational families: members of the family (typically males) migrate to other countries,[23] usually seeking economic opportunities.[24] A decent number of Hondurans had been living in the United States since the 1950s, but this number increased significantly starting in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2010, there were about 523,000 Hondurans residing in the United States, the majority of which were individuals rather than whole families.[25] That number increased significantly to 940,000 Hondurans residing in the United States in 2017.[26] As a result of this mass migration, the Hondurans who still reside in Honduras rely heavily on remittances. Remittances have been a greater source of domestic income than any other sector of the economy of Honduras since 2000: twenty percent of Honduran households were receiving remittances.[24] Statistics reveal that men are much more likely to migrate than women. Eighty percent of Hondurans receiving remittances are women, which demonstrates that more women remain behind than men. The majority of these women are between the ages of 20 and 40. Approximately 40 percent of the remittances come from children, 30 percent from siblings, and 20 percent from spouses.[27] This large-scale migration driven by the need to improve economic situations particularly impacts the women left behind in Honduras.

There are economic, social, and emotional impacts on the women left behind in Honduras as their male family members, such as brothers, husbands, fathers, and sons, migrate to countries such as the United States in order to earn money for their families. These migrations especially affect women who become the head of the household after their family member leaves. Personal interviews and anecdotal evidence reveal that women suffer from significant emotional distress as their loved ones embark on often dangerous journeys. Typically, the men who migrate must stay away and work for several years in order to make enough money to adequately provide for the survival of their family members remaining in Honduras. This long term separation and the worry it gives rise to can be incredibly taxing. Interviews with Honduran women revealed that they typically feel much less safe than their male family members. One Honduran woman had been robbed since the criminals knew her husband had migrated and thus targeted her house. Furthermore, this emotional burden and anxiety manifests itself into physical illnesses.[24]

Not only do the women left behind in Honduras have to deal with emotional (and sometimes physical) strain, but they have more tasks to complete once their male family members migrate. These migrations often significantly increase the amount of work and responsibilities that Honduran women must accomplish and bear. Some of this additional work results from jobs that these women already had but shared with their husbands and brothers. For example, women become the sole caregivers of their children - the great physical distance separating their husbands from their children precludes these men from sharing this responsibility. Additional work comes in the form of the jobs their male family members used to take care of before they migrated. Some Honduran women must not only care for the children and their home, but also tackle additional tasks such as farming and other agricultural jobs.[24]

There are several other ways in which already strongly prevalent gender inequalities in Honduras are exacerbated by the migration of males to countries such as the United States. Often, these men must employ the help of "coyotes" in order to safely cross the border. These "coyotes" require an incredibly large fee: thus, the women left at home become the managers of their husband or other male relative's debt. This inheritance of the debt not only restrains and pressures women financially, but it also increases their emotional stress as it extends the amount of time the men must stay away from home in order to make enough money to provide for their families and pay off this debt.[24]

Additionally, the increase of work for women does not also lead to an increase of political or social power and influence. Thus, women are given an extra burden without being given extra resources, benefits, or support to handle this increased workload. Several Honduran women revealed in interviews that they did not feel more empowered by taking on these additional responsibilities. Not only are their jobs physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially demanding, but these extra jobs were not their choice. Several Honduran women said that if these burdens had been freely chosen rather than thrust on them, they might feel more empowered.[24] Notably, more research needs to be done on the topic of the political impacts on women after the men migrate from Honduras. The effects are likely to differ between rural and urban areas.

• Human rights in Honduras
•  Honduras portal

Sources

• Ruben, Ruerd; Van den berg, Marrit (March 2001). "Nonfarm Employment and Poverty Alleviation of Rural Farm Households in Honduras". World Development. 29 (3): 549–560. doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(00)00107-8.
• Unterhalter, Elaine. "Fragmented frameworks? Researching women, gender, education and development." Beyond Access (2005): 15.
• Von Grebmer, Klaus, Bella Nestorova, Agnes Quisumbing, Rebecca Fertziger, Heidi Fritschel, Rajul Pandya-Lorch, and Yisehac Yohannes. 2009 Global Hunger Index The Challenge of Hunger: Focus on Financial Crisis and Gender Inequality. Vol. 62. Intl Food Policy Res Inst, 2009.