Women in Venezuela:

another dimension of the glass

ceiling ?
Felcitas Kort
Professor of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy
Postgraduate Training in Psychiatry and Clinical
Psychology, Central University of Venezuela

felicitaskort@gmail.com

THE VENEZUELAN FAMILY OF LOW

ECONOMIC INCOME
Binomial relationship mother-child
Woman-without-a-man
Male is seen as a son, not as a man
A woman dismisses her partner, when she
has one
_______________
*Moreno, A. (1997) La familia popular
venezolana

THE VENEZUELAN FAMILY OF LOW

ECONOMIC INCOME
Women are the most important
figure of the venezuelan family
She is the only voice of authority
For this reason they are put in
charge to lead the barrios

A DIFFERENT VIEW OF GENDER:

MENS ROLES
A man as an individual is not understood.

He relates-to-the other in an irrational and

emotive relationship
Out to Kill 18 - 24 who act violent
behavior are recoverable if they had a
mother, but not if the bond with her is
broken.
Men have a bland and weak discipline, this

A DIFFERENT VIEW OF GENDER:

MENS ROLES
Men are submissive to their mother
A man has not a home, he visits his
mothers house
Women in the family keep him away
from his siblings. As a father he has no
power.
He is a weak , excluded and lonely
figure.

i.e. Pedro has 15 brothers and sisters,

supposedly
7 of them share the same mother, but not
the same father. The other 8 have the
same father, but not the same mother.
From his own father and mother he is an
only child, yet this is not his family
because they never
shared together the same home.

Our family does not exist

.
While we reconstruct the
family, many generations
will go by, therefore
necessarily the State is the
father

THE LIFE OF FELICIA VALERA*

*Moreno, A. (1988) Conicit

Proactive towards modern technology

Her body is only to bear children
Perceives herself as family, not alone
Violence in the relationship man-woman
Conflicts are solved within the community

GLASS CEILING: A DEFINITION

WOMEN ARE INMERSED IN

PREJUDICES THAT UNABLE HER TO
ASCEND HIERARCHICAL POSITIONS.
LIGHT PASSES THROUGH IT,
APPEARS INEXISTENT BUT IS STRONG
AND RESISTENT TO ACCESS

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

(Commission on the Status of Women 2009)

3 PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY

AND
EMPOWER WOMEN

UN-INSTRAW
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH
AND TRAINING INSTITUTE FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF
WOMEN

To make a difference in womens lives

Action-oriented research from a gender
perspective
Create knowledge and information
exchange
Build sustainable, efficient institutions.

PRINCIPLE OF SELF-DETERMINATION
Bandura, A. (1977) Self-efficacy : the exercise of control

You have the power to modify

the destiny and the environment
where you live.
Human beings are products of
and produce their environment and
their social system, thanks to the
flexibility of self-determination.

SOCIAL COGNITIVE
THEORY (Bandura, 2001)

Motivation, behavior and

emotions are based more
on how you think and
perceive them rather
than on what is objectively
the situation.

Behavior matters: what each

woman does, the way she thinks and
acts determines her future.
To be passive, abstain and give up
generates negative consequences.

Learned helplessness is the

inefficacy of not knowing how to
act

SPECIFIC SHORT TERM GOALS

Inmediate incentive
Stimulates efficacy.
Reduces the risk of demoralizing
Structured to evaluate progress

BASIC
NEEDS

HUMAN

Learning occurs by :
OBSERVATION
MODELLING
IMITATION

HUMAN BEINGS ARE ABLE

TO:

Modulate their behavior

Self-regulate emotions
Plan strategies
Self-reflect

SELF-EFFICACY
a definition
It is your belief in
your own capacities to
organize and complete
successful actions to obtain
predetermined goals.

SELF-EFFICACY
Where does it come from ?

LEARNING BY IMITATION
MASTERY OF EXPERIENCES
SOCIAL PERSUASION
PHYSIOLOGICAL STATES

SELF-EFFICACY
What is it good for ? It
influences in :

The EFFORTS you make

The duration of PERSISTENCE
when faced with obstacles and
failures
Your EMOTIONS
Your DECISIONS

COLLECTIVE EFFICACY

Bandura et. al (2000),

Journal of Communication
Vol 50 No.4
Perceived
self-efficacy
refers to beliefs
in
ones capabilities to organize and execute
courses of action required to produce a
given attainment

through collective action, people can

improve their lives by modifying the
character and practices of their social
systems.

"It is our duty as human beings to

proceed as though the limits of
our capabilities do not exist
~ Teilhard de Chardin~