Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository Women in Panama: Navigating Upstream Against the Current Raad, Nayla 2007 Find more at https://preserve.lib.lehigh.edu/ This document is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WOMEN IN PANAMA: NAVIGATING UPSTREAM AGAINST THE CURRENT1 Nayla Raad Introduction present, it must take more concrete measures to capitalize on the potential of women’s Over the last twenty years, women have contributions to that goal. been gaining representation in many areas of In this article I present several issues that Panamanian society. Women now comprise either affect the welfare of women or that are more than 50 percent of students in secondary affected by the activism of women in Panama. and post-secondary schools, and women’s labor The topics I address are education and work, force participation has been steadily increasing healthcare, domestic violence, sustainable since the early 1990s. (Duryea et al.) However, development, ecotourism, and politics. women’s leadership in Panama tends to be Although the lives of women in Panama are structured in a triangular fashion with improving over time because of the burgeon- representation of women decreasing as the ing economy and because of the leadership hierarchical structure increases. (Htun) Despite of women in social causes, I argue that most advances in education and training, women are women are still not reaching their full still struggling to increase their social and potential in many facets of the workplace economic status in Panama and are not being and in political leadership. utilized to their full potential. The gender inequality that exists in Panama is not only 1 harmful to women but to the country as a The author wishes to thank Jose Ibanez for help in translating Spanish articles, Mrs. Judy Aronson for insight- whole, as it impedes greater and more rapid ful revisions, Dr. Karen Hicks for never-ending support and development. If Panama wishes to benefit from consistently challenging me to do better, and Dr. Robert the economic boom that it is experiencing at Thornton for general assistance. 103 Education eligible to go on to some form of tertiary education in 2005, more women than men were In 2005 the estimated primary school enrolled (55 percent of post-secondary women enrollment of both girls and boys in Panama versus 34 percent of post-secondary men). (UIS was 99 percent. However, only 67 percent of Statistics in Brief) Women also attend graduate girls and 61 percent of boys continue on to programs in higher numbers than men and, on secondary education. (UIS Statistics in Brief) average, perform better than their male coun- For those who do attain a primary or even terparts. Even in traditionally male-dominated secondary education, there is no guarantee that fields such as engineering, women earn over it will be of a high standard or that they will be half of awarded degrees. (Díaz) With the able to access it easily due to transportation prospect of many professional positions open- issues and financial barriers. (Country Strategy ing due to the real estate boom, the growth in Paper…, p. 12) the free zone, growth in call centers, and port There are serious implications for family and canal expansion, it would be prudent for life when girls end their education too early. It Panama to improve the socio-economic status has been shown that poor or minimal educa- of its own citizens by recruiting qualified tion for women results in higher levels of child women for these positions. mortality, poorer health, and lower income. If women with higher education degrees Some theorists argue that having the general are actually encouraged to enter the skilled population attend school exposes them to workforce, one does not see the evidence. “modernity”2 and hence helps speed up the During the Martindale trip to Panama in May process of economic growth in a society. 2006, we met three college women from (Benavot) Universidad Technológica de Panamá who were Educating women also affects fertility being trained as engineers and, we assumed, rates. According to Benavot, moderate popula- would soon be in the workforce. However, all tion growth contributes to more sustainable three women admitted that they were unsure economic growth when it results in a popula- about going to work after graduation. Instead tion that is able to support itself with a uniform, they planned to marry, raise a family as stay-at- relatively balanced age distribution. Decreasing home moms, and did not see themselves enter- the fertility rate also allows more resources to ing the market economy. They also expressed be allocated to each individual child. the desire to continue to live with their parents Finally, educating more girls through the and care for them once they had attained their secondary level will have a favorable effect on degrees until they got married. the health of the entire population. Schools can Certainly it is unwise to extrapolate a trend test routinely for malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other from a sample of three, but it is possible that diseases; and students can be taught about the talented women are not being drawn to the symptoms of common diseases. With this workplace because of pay and advancement knowledge, women will be better able to care inequalities. The income gap in Panama for themselves and their families. In fact, between men and women is large and persis- UNICEF has set universal education as a goal tent. Between 1985 and 1995, women at each for Panama by 2011, stating that the expected education level earned between 70 and 80 results will be not only to promote gender percent of the earnings of men. (“Gender equality but also to combat diseases. (“Panama Assessment for…”) Country Programme…”, p. 2) Víctor Herrera and Manuel Madrid-Aris (“Earning Profiles and Returns to Education in Higher Education and the Job Market Panama”) explain that the gender differential in pay for those with no formal education is prob- Although a relatively small number of per- ably the result of migration from rural to urban sons of both genders go to university, of those areas where women were employed mainly as maids, pulling in lower wages than men who 2In sociology, modernity is commonly defined as the were hired for labor. As for women with formal social patterns resulting from industrialization. (Macionis) secondary or technical education, most are 104 employed in the service sector, with clerical, counterparts. Fewer than 15 percent of the secretarial, or lower management jobs. (Herrera women who do become radio personalities are and Madrid-Aris) given the opportunity to express their opinions According to 2004 World Bank statistics, on issues rather than simply reading a given women at that time made up 38 percent of the script. Griselda Lopez, a professor at the entire workforce, a steady increase from 30 University of Panama, argues that large corpo- percent in 1980. (“Summary Gender Profile”) rations that own radio stations benefit from At the same time about 88 percent of the female keeping men in more powerful positions as it workforce was employed in the service econo- reaffirms cultural norms and brings in more my. (“Human Development Indicators 2003”) profit. (Lopez) It is estimated that women in the service econ- Cultural norms are reflected in another omy, who comprise about 75 percent of the type of job discrimination in Panama. For exam- workforce, make only 58 percent of the earn- ple, some positions are closed to women ings of their male counterparts! (Mordok) In because of a perceived threat to women’s phys- August 2007, the front page of a national ical well-being, such as jobs that require night Panamanian newspaper, Panama America, bore shifts. (Díaz) Such over-protection of women the headline: “Mujeres Sufren Disparidad occurs despite the fact that women have longer Salarial,” which means “Women Suffer Salary life expectancies than men, and is further exem- Discrepancies.” The article highlighted that plified in the legal retirement age, which is today salary inequalities between men and 55 for women versus 60 for men. (Díaz) This women are still large and pervasive. (Mordok) pervasive and culturally accepted over-protec- Unemployment is also higher for women. In tion of women may create an atmosphere in urban areas the unemployment rate for women favor of the more traditional life and an antipa- is 23.5 percent while for urban men the rate is thy against ambition. 16.5 percent. Additionally, urban women earn A study entitled “Perceptions of Couple only about 76 percent of the earnings of men. Decision Making in Panama” may provide an (“Gender, Health and Development…”) insight into the reluctance on the part of Women are noticeably underrepresented women to pursue careers and how barriers are in many business realms. The Panama Canal set up by their husbands. The study was under- Authority official website lists twelve positions taken in part to investigate whether the phe- on the Board of Directors. (Panama Canal nomena of “machismo” and “marianismo” Authority Board of Directors) Only one of the affected family life and decision making. The twelve upper level administrative positions is investigators describe machismo as “exagger- occupied by a woman — Ms. Chiquilani, ated aggressiveness and uncompromising Director of the Department of Human stance in male-to-male interpersonal relation- Resources. (Panama Canal Authority ships,” and a “callousness and sexual aggression Organizational Chart) All of the banks visited in male-to-female relationships.” Marianismo during the Martindale trip to Panama reflected is defined as women being spiritually superior a similar absence of women in high paying, to men.