Problem: There is a huge issue in Peru with gender-related violence.

One of the hardest things about this problem is that it most often takes
place in poor, rural areas where Spanish is not necessarily the primary
language spoken. Many of these cases are never reported because the
women fear their abusers or lack the communication/language skills to
discuss it with appropriate government officials. Sexual violence
continues to hold a prominent place in such societies and is seen both
in times of war and in peace. Rape has historically been used as a
military strategy in Peru and, as such, has created a cultural
perspective that a womans body is a tool. According to the 2011 DESC
Alternative Report, 12% of all Peruvian women have been raped at
least once in their life and those are just REPORTED rapes. That
number is EXTREMELY high especially considering that ANY percentage
is too high.
Cause: Peru has a very traditional, patriarchal and machista culture
deeply ingrained in their roots. Many take the traditional man being the
leader in the family to mean he can and must do whatever it takes to
keep everyone else (especially the women in the family) in line with
how he thinks things should be. The issue in many rural communities
has to do largely with the language barrier that exists; because there is
a gap in communication between indigenous people and governmental
officials, crime often is higher in these areas. Where there seem to be
fewer legal consequences, people will push boundaries.
Solution: The first thing that needs to be done is to address the issue
of rural women being unable to communicate their abusive situations
to law enforcement individuals due to language barriers. It is less likely
for the uneducated rural folk to learn another language (Spanish) than
for an educated Spanish-speaking native to be taught a new language.
Since this is the case, efforts should be focused on select
governmental officials being taught different indigenous languages
(focusing on the most common indigenous languages first). Tax should
be increased ever-so-slightly in order to fund this new governmental
expenditure and those funds should then be used to buy teaching tools
to teach the different indigenous languages as well as a monetary
incentive for governmental officials to learn that new language. There
will be many steps to follow after this first baby step, but the first and
most important thing to do is to increase communication between law
enforcement and those who are victims of such violence. The new
language program will be implemented over the span of 3 years. The
first year will be spent in intensive language classes followed by a year
spent with the indigenous people in order to truly master the language.
The third year will be used to calculate the success in lowering the rate
of abuse within such communities as strict records will be kept.
Problems could include the indigenous people reacting poorly to an
outsider wanting to live among them but the only way to see how

they will react is by trying it out. The short term goal will be for
governmental officials to learn different indigenous languages and the
long term goal will be for them to be able to bridge the gap between
communities and lower gender-targeted violence in that way.

Problem: Another gender-related issue in Peru has to do with

employment and positions in ministries and the government. In the
World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report of 2012, Peru is
reported as number 78 globally in gender equality; a number that is
embarrassingly high. A large factor that contributed to their score (and
the fact that they fell 5 positions since the year before) was the fact
that their wage equality ratio has decreased and the percentage of
women holding ministerial positions has also dropped. This is an
unfortunate problem because it shows that, at least in these specific
aspects, Peru is not moving closer towards gender equality but rather
moving even further away.
Cause: A large contributing reason to this issue in Peru is the idea of
traditionalism that exists there. Peru has a long history of believing in
traditional family and gender roles which hold that the man works
while the woman remains at home and takes care of the children.
Unfortunately, this causes a situation where if a woman opts to or
needs to work (such as in the case of divorce or financial urgency),
they are often paid less or even discriminated against to the point of
not even being considered for the position.
Solution: The Peruvian government already has some ideas about
how to manage this problem and I liked a few of them. President
Humalla intends on and has several goals aimed towards expanding
womens involvement in the government. One of the ways he will do
this will be through enforcing the Equality of Opportunities Law which
was enacted in 2007. As part of an international womens conference,
the presidents efforts to empower women was emphasized and they
brought up the different programs they are beginning to implement to
increase employment opportunities in the private sector for women as
well as entrepreneurship opportunities.
Part of the solution that I would add would be to increase women found
in the limelight of employment. They should be seen in very public
positions so that the culture begins to change as more women are seen
in leadership positions. The way that this can be done is by creating a
committee to seek out women who would do well in such positions and
then helping them to grow to be qualified for those positions. After
they are in those management positions, they should be monitored by

the committee to make sure they are respected and not discriminated
against. As more women are seen in more prestigious positions, it will
become a more normal thing and the culture will slowly grow to be
more accepting of it.