Women in Venezuela Wikipedia

Venezuela’s collapsing public health system also affects women and girls disproportionally. A lack of effective policies for sexual and reproductive health, combined with the absence of family planning services, has altered women’s sexual and reproductive health choices. These conditions have impacted heath indicators, creating a rise in maternal mortality, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (particularly HIV/AIDS), and unsafe abortions.

Without the perspective of women, reconstruction plans will fail to address the demands of its female population. Therefore, it is imperative to promote the political participation of women in Venezuela, where a variety of democratic actors are hustling to achieve a peaceful and political solution to compounding socio-economic and humanitarian crises. A new approach to the state-society relationship should be rethought with a gender and comparative https://fracturedstate.net/latin-women-stereotypes/venezuelan-women-stereotypes/ perspective. Evidence from Latin America and Europe shows the impact of innovative gender policies on the quality of democracy. This requires extensive training in human rights and gender for those who hold public office. We welcome the training and capacity building that are being carried out to position women in leadership positions.

The media, policy makers, and the general public tend to rely on overly simplistic tropes concerning what female political violence is and how it manifests. The five frames Nacos identifies as being frequently used in media coverage of female terrorists show how the media frequently represents women terrorists in a different way to their male counterparts which does not challenge gender stereotypes. Instead the common frames that portray women often relate to their victimisation or lack of rationality, and in doing so remove their capacity to be active agents. The international community can have an impact towards implementing the principles of Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Venezuela. Acts of persecution for political reasons in Venezuela intersect with the deprivation of fundamental rights carried out only against women. This is due to the conception of gender held by state authorities and the sexualized conception of women, and a need to control them exercising power over their bodies. Although most of the persecutory acts in the country were based on political grounds, once the victims were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, the impact was greater in the case of women.

  • In gender and human rights from American University Washington College of Law.
  • The five frames Nacos identifies as being frequently used in media coverage of female terrorists show how the media frequently represents women terrorists in a different way to their male counterparts which does not challenge gender stereotypes.
  • However, the beauty of Venezuela women is shown differently.
  • According to official figures, gender-based violence against Venezuelan refugee women in Colombia increased by 71% between 2018 and 2020, and in Peru by 31% between 2019 and 2021.
  • However, cases of persecution against women have a specific and differentiated nature that is justified by the existence of gender conceptions about their sexuality and role in society.

In Venezuela, « everything that comes from being black we think of as bad or … as exotic, that is, not the norm, » sociologist Zulima Paredes, who has written about the aesthetics of Afro hair, told AFP. Despite a 2011 law against racial discrimination, the country has a complicated relationship with its cultural identity. Today, more than half the population identifies as mixed-race or « mestizo. » Yet, it is widely accepted that the darker your skin, the likelier you are to be poor in Venezuela, and to suffer from prejudice. Venezuela has a racially diverse population as a result of mixing between Indigenous peoples, Spanish conquistadors who arrived in the 15th century and the African slaves they brought from the colonies.

For teenage girls, having access to period products is essential. Without them, they can miss school, be embarrassed and humiliated, and even get health problems. Unfortunately, many girls around the world face what is known as « period poverty. » This means they cannot afford to buy period products… The Venezuelan state has failed to publish credible data on the emergency. For humanitarian actors, the publication of disaggregated data with an intersectional perspective would allow for better planning and thus, better service.

Gender data gaps and country performance

In addition, another report in 2019 detailed how the already collapsing public health system has disproportionally impacted women, limiting their access to maternal health and sexual and reproductive services. The country’s humanitarian crisis has caused women to be at a significant economic disadvantage and has posed many societal risks for them, including greater exposure to gender-based violence, human trafficking and smuggling, and a detrimental lack of adequate health care.

In Colombia, as of the end of August, 27 Venezuelan women had already been killed violently this year – the vast majority of the cases involving sexual violence. From murder to maternal mortality, from forced sex work to being sexually abused in prison, Venezuelan women are paying a particularly high price as the oil-rich South American country continues its long and downward spiral. While much of the attention to the Venezuela crisis remains directed at events inside Venezuela, we cannot forget the millions struggling to survive in neighboring countries. They and the communities hosting them need to see that the international community is not abandoning them when they most need the help. Nutrition programs should incorporate a special focus on women and children’s health, in particular the needs of pregnant women. Empowering women economically in a way that builds resilience and independence is the most effective way of combating gender-based violence.

Economic

Many employers realized that the Venezuelan population, due to their desperation for work and often undocumented status, could be exploited. “This is not xenophobia because they come from Venezuela, it comes from many things that you can add up together,” said https://ceusnj.org/2023/01/06/seven-slovak-women-columbia-university-press/ Claudia. Some of these changes – such as women taking on more paid work, household chores being shared more equitably and families choosing to have fewer children – have pragmatic roots, grounded as much in the recession as in the displacement. http://www.californiajailguide.com/blog/uncategorized/china-standards-2035-behind-beijings-plan-to-shape-future-technology/ Whether the changes in roles and responsibilities will result in more permanent gender norm change remains to be seen. The attacks have also materialised during security operatives, in which female relatives taken by authorities to safe houses were sexually assaulted and or tortured with asphyxiation, beating, and electric shocks. Humanitarian crises are never gender neutral, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is no exception. Conflicts inherently affect women and men differently, and the Venezuelan crisis has had significant impacts on female Venezuelans inside and outside the country.

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Venezuela presents a significant example of groups of women seeking justice and the severe discrimination they find from authorities on this path. Mothers, wives, and daughters of those killed in police operations in Venezuela have decided to go to justice and, in some cases, organize themselves to give each other support in this search. In cases of human rights violations, female family members are often at the forefront of the struggle for truth, justice, and reparation. Patriarchal roles and stereotypes emphasize the ideal woman as a mother figure within the domestic sphere and sexualize young women outside this role”. However, the discrimination and persecution suffered by women in the country and its differentiated impact have not been widely acknowledged and discussed. The report analyses 73 cases of persecution against women including journalists, politicians, social activists, relatives of another victim of persecution and human rights defenders. At least 40 percent of the over 5.3 million refugees that have fled the country are women, and they face unique challenges compared to their male counterparts when it comes to sexual violence and exploitation, vulnerability to human trafficking, and a lack of basic hygiene supplies.