21st Century

During the 21st century, the Peruvian government has been committed to supporting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. The support has led to a remarkable increase in women's participation in the labor force: from 2000 to 2014, the labor force participation rate of Peruvian women increased from 58 to 68 percent. This increase in the workforce has also had a positive impact on Peru’s poverty rates (Nathan Associates Inc, 2016.) One significant step in support of the role of women took place in 2019, when President Vizcarra signed a law establishing gender equality in congressional elections. The law requires that 40 percent of congressional candidates be female by 2021, 45 percent by 2026, and 50 percent by 2031 (hrw.org, 2019.) However, although the role of women in Peru has significantly improved, work still needs to be done to achieve gender parity. Gender-based violence still remains a significant issue in Peru: The Ministry of Women reported that 149 women were victims of fatal violence in 2018 (hrw.org, 2019.)

The constant struggle of the movements in favor of women has favored the image of women and has shown that they are also fighters, workers, independent and that can carry out tasks that were previously only for men and that they should not only stay at home and take care of children, cook, depend on the husband among other stereotypes. The woman in the family plays a very important role, both in performing household duties, in strengthening the family and in the emotional and moral development, and by playing this important role, she can fill her home with affection, love, and at the same time bring peace to men and mental health to children and that is why the importance of the presence of women in the family role, so that families can develop in a healthy environment and this will produce a better society. When we think about women's role in the family we noticed that this has changed through the years because nowadays the woman can work to help with the economic stability of her family and can even support her family entirely by her own without the need to depend of a man. The social participation of women in the family has been strengthened thanks to the fact that there are now laws that try to help and protect women in their homes and this is giving women more freedom and protagonism within society.

The woman in the family plays a very important role, both in performing household duties, in strengthening the family and in the emotional and moral development, and by playing this important role, she can fill her home with affection, love, and at the same time bring peace to men and mental health to children and that is why the importance of the presence of women in the family role, so that families can develop in a healthy environment and this will produce a better society. When we think about women's role in the family we noticed that this has changed through the years because nowadays the woman can work to help with the economic stability of her family and can even support her family entirely by her own without the need to depend of a man. The social participation of women in the family has been strengthened thanks to the fact that there are now laws that try to help and protect women in their homes and this is giving women more freedom and protagonism within society.

Nowadays women still represent just over half of the population of Peru, but they do not have equal access to resources or power as much we would hope will see since the many years of women fighting for equality. The society’s prejudice and discrimination that women historically have suffered has affected poverty and unemployment in the country. For example, in urban areas, with 7.4 % of women and 2.4% of men not being able to read and write, specifically on rural women’s ability to speak Spanish, and hence on their ability to engage with institutional structures, which is extremely important for the progress of marginalized women. There’s still some advances that have been made, but we still have a long way to go for women in rural areas, who are still in the shadows, neglected from receiving help being help by the government. For this reason is important to share information with the people around us and educate them about the problematic and bring more voices and any type of help for this situation, that currently some associations are trying to do.

While it is true that education has been advancing during all this time, currently women can have great quality of study, education and opportunities, however, this usually only happens at high levels since they have the economic possibility. On the other hand, in the lower levels and rural areas this does not happen, they are usually discriminated against and do not have a quality education. In 2020, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), the illiteracy rate affected more women aged 15 years and older than men, this percentage is 8% and 3% respectively, also, most of them are women belonging to the rural area population. Therefore, this aspect is something that should be improved since there is a great difference in the education of women from different social classes.

The constant struggle of the movements in favor of women has favored the image of women and has shown that they are also fighters, workers, independent and that can carry out tasks that were previously only for men and that they should not only stay at home and take care of children, cook, depend on the husband among other stereotypes. The woman in the family plays a very important role, both in performing household duties, in strengthening the family and in the emotional and moral development, and by playing this important role, she can fill her home with affection, love, and at the same time bring peace to men and mental health to children and that is why the importance of the presence of women in the family role, so that families can develop in a healthy environment and this will produce a better society. When we think about women's role in the family we noticed that this has changed through the years because nowadays the woman can work to help with the economic stability of her family and can even support her family entirely by her own without the need to depend of a man. The social participation of women in the family has been strengthened thanks to the fact that there are now laws that try to help and protect women in their homes and this is giving women more freedom and protagonism within society.

The number of women working keep growing, even more nowadays because the inititative of people to start an own business, that helps women in a 50,47% percent. Even thought there are a big advance in the participation of women in the working market, sadly inside this percent of women working exist a 60,47% that have a vulnerable work. That happens because the most of women work in the trade sector and service sector, that nowadays are the most affected for the health and economy situation of the country. And we also have to talk about that even now exist a big different in the salary of women and men, and there is the misogyny in the working market avoiding the progress of women.

A woman has never been seen in the presidency but women have been seen playing a very important role in politics, apparently it seems that only selected women have this important role that is closed by institutionalized machismo. however, 92% of the Peruvian population is against mistreatment of women, but according to surveys, women continue to suffer from political and social harassment. There is good feminist participation in the construction of institutions and groups that continue to support gender equality in the country.

Andrew Morisson (2021). Women's economic participation in Peru. https://www.nathaninc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/US-ATAARI-Peru-Gender-Assessment-final.pdf 

Nathan Associates Inc. (2016.) WOMEN’S ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION IN PERU. https://www.nathaninc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/US-ATAARI-Peru-Gender-Assessment-final.pdf

Hrw.org. (2019.) Peru, Events of 2019. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/peru#49dda6

Peru - Gender Indicator - Perception of gender equality, Unesco. https://en.unesco.org/creativity/peru-gender-indicator-perception-gender-equality

Illiteracy indicators (n/d). Infoartes.pe. Retrieved June 9, 2022. https://www.infoartes.pe/indicadoresdeanalfabetismo/

Las mujeres y la política: ¿cómo estamos y hacia dónde vamos? (2021, marzo 9). IDEHPUCP. https://idehpucp.pucp.edu.pe/analisis1/las-mujeres-y-la-politica-como-estamos-y-hacia-donde-vamos/