Peru: Women workers need greater recognition and responsibility in Peru

By Janett Chavarry Garcia

PERU:During this month, I have been traveling to different places around my country, Perú. Throughout my entire journey I was left in awe of the huge efforts, creativity and sacrifice of women who work day-to-day to earn money.
In my journey to three different cities, I saw special kinds of women, some of them with special professions as fishers, engineers, bank assistants, and publishers. People who studied at university and obtained benefits through their thoughts and intellectual abilities — a good point in favor of these women when we consider that in Peru more than 40 percent of women are studying for a career at university, and every year the numbers increase.
On the other hand, and obviously, the most interesting part of my trip was seeing the different kinds of jobs women can realize. In this journey, I saw Peruvian women working as tourist guides — only using their hands and voices, women rowing boats, some of them preparing and offering food to anybody who would buy it, people who have the strength to carry stones or anything just to get a bit of money for their families.
From this journey, I can prove that the statistics are true that say that more than 50 percent of the women in Perú are the heads of their families and support, not only the education of their children and care for them, but also the economy.

On May 1, in my country, and I suppose in almost all countries around the world, we celebrated The Labour Day. It’s special because it’s a day we remember the establishment of the rights of all working people.
But because of my journey, I have to ask the question: Why aren’t the people who don’t hold formal jobs with benefits, recognized by the government and society?

Indigenous Peruvian seamstress.
(Source: Janett Chávarry García)
In Peru, celebrating this day, the work department is publishing a special campaign with the main purpose of equalizing the work rights of women and men. In my country, one out of every ten people is discriminated because of their gender and sometimes, because of it, are reduced to low level employment.
This rule is now in the Parliament and only waits a vote to go into effect. It’s curious since in Perú we have three women ministers, almost forty women in the Parliament and while some women hold a public job, they still don’t receive equal opportunities.
I think the reason for this is because the education and the behavior of all the people, including company executives and government representatives, continue to think that women are not prepared to handle a job of importance inside a company or public institution.
Nowadays, the number of qualified women is increasing and not only that, the number of women that support a family and who are creating their own businesses are increasing as well. It’s difficult to understand why more women, in countries like mine, are not being recognized for their accomplishments.
In my journey, once again, I saw how we need big efforts to achieve more benefits for the people who work for themselves in jobs without government supervision. The main category of self-employed laborers are women.
It’s a big job to see women as equal partners in the labor force but I believe if we start by changing the traditional attitude towards women, and it begins with the children’s attitudes in appreciating work done by women, we can make the difference.
Also, Happy Mother days to all women around the world, specially to Peruvian girls and my wonderful mother also…..
Learn more about Janett:
Janett Chávarry García was born in Lima, Peru in 1977. It is where she still lives with her parents and three sisters in the same apartment near the city’s town square.
Janett has a degree in Communications from Lima University. These days, Janett studies the development of communications and mass media as it pertains to social issues.
As such, she has worked in human resources, television and has participated in public enterprise projects.
When Janett is not writing for Latina Lista, she loves to spend her free time either curled up with a good book of fiction and her dogs or working in a little exercise by playing volleyball or cycling around Lima.