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Nicaragua THE LIVES OF WOMEN
Collectively, the lives of Nicaraguan women are shaped
by
traditional Hispanic values regarding appropriate sex
roles and
high fertility, the prevalence of female-headed
households, and
an increasing rate of participation in the labor force.
Although
the Sandinista revolution drew thousands of women into
public
life, encouraged females to work outside the home, spawned
a
national women's movement, and enshrined gender equality
in the
national constitution, it left largely intact the values,
beliefs, and social customs that traditionally had
regulated
relations between the sexes.
Virility, sexual prowess, independence, protectiveness,
assertiveness, and a drive to dominate have traditionally
been
expected of the male. Dependence, devotion,
submissiveness, and
faithfulness are attributes that the female ideally
reflected.
From adolescence, men are encouraged to demonstrate their
machismo (masculinity) through acts of sexual conquest.
Married
men commonly have regular extramarital relations and even
maintain more than one household. However, premarital and
extramarital relations, more or less expected from men,
are
stigmatized in women. The ideal female role, glorified in
the
culture, is that of mother. Her place is in the home, and
her
duty is to raise her children.
The ideal expectations of the culture do not prevent
most
Nicaraguan women from becoming sexually active early in
life: 38
percent by age sixteen and 73 percent by age nineteen,
according
to one study. This phenomenon contributes to the high
birth rates
noted earlier, as does a lack of use of contraceptives. In
1986
the Ministry of Health estimated that because of lack of
knowledge and the limited availability of contraceptives
only 26
percent of sexually active women practiced contraception.
An
informal poll of 200 Nicaraguan women of diverse
educational and
class backgrounds revealed that only ten were aware that
women
are most fertile at the midpoint of the menstrual cycle.
The
Nicaraguan Roman Catholic Church has publicly condemned
contraception other than the rhythm method. Although most
Nicaraguans are probably not even aware of the church's
position,
it appears to have influenced government policy.
In most cases, abortion is illegal but not uncommon in
Nicaragua. Although affluent women have access to medical
abortions, poorer women generally depend on more dangerous
alternatives. During the 1980s, when lax enforcement
expanded
access to medical abortion, studies conducted at a large
maternity hospital in Managua determined that illicit
abortions
accounted for 45 percent of admissions and were the
leading cause
of maternal deaths. Relatively few of the victims of
botched
abortions are single women, and the majority have had
pregnancies
earlier in life. The most common reasons for seeking
abortion are
abandonment by the father and strained family budgets.
Many Nicaraguan women spend at least part of their
lives as
single mothers. Early initiation of sexual activity and
limited
practice of contraception contribute to this phenomenon,
as does
the very character of the Nicaraguan economy. The key
agro-export
sector requires a large migrant labor force. The long
months that
agricultural workers spend away from home harvesting
coffee and
cotton greatly disrupt family life and often lead to
abandonment.
The steadily growing proportion of women in the labor
force
results, for the most part, from their being single heads
of
households. The vast majority of female heads of
households work,
and they are twice as likely to be employed as married
women.
Women's share of the labor force rose from 14 percent in
1950 to
29 percent in 1977 and to 45 percent in 1989. By the
1980s, women
predominated in petty commerce, personal services, and
certain
low-wage sectors such as the garment industry. Peasant
women
traditionally have performed agricultural labor as unpaid
family
workers; their economic significance thus probably has
been
underestimated by official labor statistics. By the 1980s,
however, they formed a large and growing part of the
salaried
harvest labor force in cotton and coffee. Because men
assume
little of the domestic workload, the growth in female
labor force
participation has meant a double workday for many
Nicaraguan
women. Middle- and upper-class women have a good chance of
escaping this trap as they are much less likely to work
outside
the home and can depend on domestic help for household
duties.
Data as of December 1993
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