Dominican woman faces inequalities during all stages of her life
SANTO DOMINGO. Beyond the gender violence, which year after year leaves a wake of deaths in the Dominican Republic, of consist of victims of the inequalities since nacimiento to old age. This is how the Center for Gender Studies of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (CEG-INTEC) in an analysis document presented in order to commemorate the Winners will be announced in March el International Women's Day.
With the title "Inequalities between women and men in all life cycles show social exclusion in the Dominican Republic", the CEG-INTEC affirms that it is necessary to efforts more effective and energetic to move along to the footing, especially in the defense of Women´s rights, such as parity in the political participation, the right to a life free of violence, Yet the Sexual health y reproductive, Integral education en sexualityAs well as law al employment under equal conditions and non-discrimination in salary matters.
At a press conference held at INTEC, the doyenne of the Social Science and Humanities Area, teacher Elsa Alcantara; Lourdes contreras, director of the CEG, and Desireé del Rosario, academic coordinator of that body, warned that the gender inequalitiesor have been constituted in obstacle for human development in the Dominican Republic.
In childhood
- Food insecurity
They still exist in the country more than a million undernourished people, whose group includes 65 thousand girls and boys who suffer from chronic malnutrition due to a poor intake of micronutrients. The figures indicate that the prevalence of chronic child malnutrition is particularly high in children from the poorest households, and those of mothers with no education and with education up to the primary level.
- Education
The CEG-INTEC analysis document establishes that a broad pending debt es increase la coverage for the Initial education, which barely reaches 32.8% of the girls and 34.86% of the children Dominicans It underlines the big deficit in matters of ecomprehensive ducation en sexuality in all educational levels, and highlights the information from UNFPA 2012 that only 9 out of 100 schools implemented the affective sexual education program at the time, in which only 7 out of 100 students participated. On the other hand, it is observed that in the university environment, as of 2016, women represent 64 percent of enrollment, but these are located in traditional careers such as education, psychology, nursing and bioanalysis, while men do so in engineering and careers associated with technology.
- Early unions and child marriage
It is estimated in 11.7%, the proportion of Dominican women from among 18 and 22 years which got married o live as a couple since before turning 15 years old, and 35.9% of women between 20 and 24 years old declare to have married or been in a stable relationship before the age of 18, which places the country at the head of the child marriage figures in America Latin.
According to ENHOGAR 2014, 35% of adolescent girls, aged 15 to 19, currently married or in a union, have partners between 5 and 9 years older than them and 23.4% are with men 10 or more years older.
In Adolescence
- Pregnancies, sexual health and reproductive health
It is estimated that about half (46.5%) of Dominican adolescents among 15 and 19 years old faces contraceptive services shortage and this figure is 40.4% among young people between 20 and 24 years old. In this sense, around 47.7% of all pregnancies are unplanned, especially among adolescents and young women. Of the total number of women of reproductive age, it is estimated that 11.4% of women have an unmet need for the use of contraceptive methods.
Regarding early pregnancy, official data indicate that 22.3% of births between the 2010-2015 were from mothers between the ages of 15 and 19, placing the Dominican Republic 34% above the average for the Latin American and Caribbean region.
In Adulthood
- Poverty and human development
Although data from the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development show a decrease in moderate and extreme poverty, women show higher levels of poverty than men.
Of the group of people in extreme poverty, the women's segment represents the 6.35% nationally, with greater affectation at rural level (9.49%), compared to 5.58% of men. While the moderate poverty affects the 30.37% of women at the national level and 40.41% of those who live in rural zone. In recent years, according to UNDP, human development in the country has been reduced by 47%, precisely because of inequalities according to sexual condition and gender roles.
- Employment and salary
In the document, presented on Tuesday, March 6, the INTEC Gender Study Center points out that the rate of participation of women in the labor markethe has increased in recent decades, but still records inequalities regarding men. As of 2017, only 49.1% of women over 15 years of age are part of the labor force, while in men this proportion stands at 75.9%.
It is estimated that the average monthly labor income of the employed female EAP is equivalent to 83.8% of that received by men. Regarding unemployment, it continues to affect women and young people to a greater extent. As of 2017, the expanded unemployment rate for women was 22.7% and for men it is estimated at 10.7%.
- Female share in power structures
The analysis document states that the representation of women in political decision-making spaces continues to be low, despite the increase in women in candidacies and having a higher educational level than men. For example, they note that in the Junta Monetaria de 10 members solo one is a woman. “In the Executive branch, although a woman holds the position of vice-presidency of the Republic, female participation continues to be a minority at the ministerial level, where hardly four women occupy the positions of ministers de 22 ministries existing.
In the Chamber of Deputies women occupy the 28.1% of the scales to the 2016, while in the Senatethere is hardly three senators de 32 posts, showing that compliance with Law 12-2000 on 33% of the female quota has not yet been achieved. At the level of stewardships (34.1%), And the mayors, just the 12.1% They are managed by women.
- Gender Violence
The proportion of women who reported physical, emotional and sexual violence grew in the last 10 years from 28% to 35%; while only the emotional violence increased from 18% a 31% in the same period. Emotional violence is the most frequent of all with 31% of complaints, followed by physical violence (19%) and sexual (10%). The incidence of violence is higher in separated, widowed or divorced women (48%), those with five or more children (50%), those with primary education between 5-8 years (42%), those in the quintile poorest (40%), adolescents and young people (40%) and from urban areas (36%).
Femicide numbers, as the most visible dimension of violence, remain high, calculating 177 femicides on average per year, in the period 2005-2017. As of November 2017, there were 170 femicides and homicides of women, of which 83 intimate femicides stand out. These levels place the Dominican Republic in fifth position in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016, surpassed only by Honduras (466), El Salvador (371), Argentina (254) and Guatemala (211).
- Maternal mortality
According to data from the Ministry of Health, the Dominican Republic managed to reduce maternal mortality from 101.8 in 2014 to 99.3 in 2015 and to 90.1 per 100 live births in 2016, which represents a decrease of 9.2%. Despite this, we continue to be one of the countries in the region with the highest rates of maternal deaths when exceeding the average 82 by 100 thousand live births. It recognizes the abortion as one of the causes of maternal deaths in the country, the Dominican Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology when revealing that 20 out of every 100 maternal deaths are the result of unsafe abortions.
In old age
At Old Age, Disability and Survivorship Insurance es less number women beneficiaries rspect of men. The official statistics of the Superintendency of Pensions (SIPEN) show that at the end of 2017 there were 1.8 million contributors, of which 55.6% are men and the remaining 44.4% are women. This old-age insurance coverage is equivalent to 36.50% of the male EAP and 42.43% of the employed female EAP.
Gender gaps are also evident in the affiliation to the Occupational Risk Insurance (SRL). In this insurance, the number of insured people reached 2.08 million people in 2017, of which 56.6% are men and 44.4% women. Furthermore, it is emphasized that the people with the greatest difficulties in the labor market are women over 60 years of age.
Finally, the document concludes that in order to advance towards equality, it is necessary to define and implement public policies that take into account the needs and vulnerabilities of men and women throughout the life cycle, the review of policies and programs in implementation, and the development and implementation of new policies to combat discrimination, the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education policies, among other initiatives.
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