WUNRN
Peace X Peace
Mary Liepold - Editor in Chief – 10 September 2012
COSTA RICA - PROGRESS IN RIGHTS
& EQUALITY FOR WOMEN
An Act Promoting the Social Equality of Women became law in 1990. The
Beijing Declaration and World Platform for Action that followed the 4th
World Conference on Women in 1995 inspired a new series of laws and policies in
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: http://www.oecd.org/about/
“Non-OECD” means that
So, yes, there’s a gap between law and practice. Those of us who live in one of the 34 OECD member, or most-developed countries, know we have gaps here too―some big enough to swallow lives.
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda is committed to closing the gaps. “Women continue receiving less salary for the same kind of job,” she said in a 2011 Forbes interview. “Women have a higher unemployment rate in our country. When you analyze the composition of poverty, you will find that most of the families in poverty are being run by a woman. Also, a big issue is violence against women.”
Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve learned about policy and practice, from both research and conversations with those who know the country best.
In 1973
The government of this predominantly Catholic country considers sexual and
reproductive health a fundamental right. Women’s access to contraception is
guaranteed by the General Health Act, and the Ministry of Health runs outreach
programs to increase the use of reproductive health services, including access
to contraception. According to the CIA’s 2012
World Factbook,
The legal marriage age is 18, but 15-year-olds can wed if both parents give permission. In 1986, 20% of marriages involved teens. By 2010 that number had been almost halved, to 10.5%.
And who does the dishes? As in the
According to UNICEF, enrollment and attendance rates at primary and secondary schools are higher for Costa Rican girls than for their brothers. The high school enrollment rate is 92% for girls and 87% for boys. High school attendance rates, at 65% and 59% respectively, are lower for both genders but follow the same proportion.
The rate of women’s employment grew 26% between 2000 and 2012, according to an August 2012 World Bank report. The law requires that Costa Rican women and men receive equal pay for equal work. Women are entitled to four months paid maternity leave at 100% of wages, plus three months more in case of medical necessity. Half the payment comes from the national social security system and half from the woman’s employer, as long as she was contributing to Social Security for six months in the year preceding pregnancy. When that’s not the case, the employer pays two-thirds of her salary. Pregnant or nursing mothers cannot be fired except for cause, like any other employee. These rules apply only to women in the formal economy, and not to the many in domestic service or the informal economy.
Even domestic workers have some security, though. Along with
Observers note that quotas have been more effective in
The country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) now requires that a minimum
of 50% of candidates for elective office be women and, significantly, that
women’s names be placed alternately with men’s on the ballot for each party
slate. In August the TSE reported that 49% of the candidates running for office
in the December local government elections are women. Women are almost 39% of
the legislature, holding 22 of 57 seats and including the vice president of the
assembly, the government party leader, and nine legislative committee
chairwomen. (The percentage is 17% in the
The National Institute for Women is particularly active on issues relating to violence against women, providing services to victims as well as advocating for better legal and practical protection. Sex work is legal, but pimping is against the law. Sexual violence remains a problem, with some evidence that rates have increased in recent years. Trafficking in women and even children is a growing concern.
The burgeoning eco-tourism, which has been a boon to the economy, brings sex tourism as well. Prisons, including the women’s prison, are overcrowded, mostly because of drug-related offenses. In the Forbes interview, President Chinchilla described her country as “caught between the producers in the South and the consumers in the North.” She was talking about drug traffic, but it’s also true of traffic in persons.
These are serious, serious problems. “It’s easy to break rules because there
aren’t a lot of police outside the capital,” says Sharon Ann Wildey, an
American resident of
Ticos support their government because it provides them with education and what Wildey calls “heroic” medical care. They don’t want government involved in their everyday lives, and outside the capitol and the coastal regions, where crime and police power are both concentrated, they have a rough, macho way of taking matters into their own hands. Overall, perhaps it’s still a good thing to have more teachers than police.