Housework is the occupation of 40% of women in Colombia, and 79% think pardon and reconciliation with the FARC is unlikely.
The Americas Barometer Colombia 2016: Opinions and Attitudes of Colombian Women, has recently brought to light revealing data on the opinions and attitudes of women in the South American nation.
The research, that was undertaken by UniAndes and USAID, conducted approximately 1,500 extensive, face-to-face interviews with women in 47 municipalities of all regions in Colombia and these interviews were performed between 2004 and 2016. Here are some highlights of the study.
Occupation
- In total, 40% of Colombian women are dedicated to housework, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2008. Only 1.4% of men do housework.
- While 18.3% of single women do full-time housework, among married women the figure increases to 54.8%.
- Only 34% of interviewed women are employees, whereas 63% of men are employed.
Gender roles & violence
- 46.5% disagree with a reversal of gender roles, such as the man caring for children and the woman acting as the primary breadwinner.
- 50.1% of women trust a male driver more than a female one (25.1%).
- Around a third of women do not approve of, but considers ‘understandable’, when a spouse hits the other due to infidelity, or threatens to leave the other due to changes in physical appearance.
- Two thirds agree that the efforts of the Colombian government to protect women against violence, and to punish male aggressors, have been effective.
Discrimination
- Women feel most often discriminated because of their socioeconomic condition (27.5%).
- 11.1% of working women in Colombia say they have experienced discrimination because of their gender in the past 5 years. The figure decreases to 3.9% among house workers.
Politics & the peace process
- More women trust female political candidates (49.9%) than male ones (30.0%).
- About half of Colombian women disagree with the peace agreement reached with the FARC.
- 79.2% disapprove of the FARC becoming an active political party, a figure 16.3% higher than men.
- 58% do not see pardon and reconciliation as a feasible option for FARC ex-combatants. The figure is 64.7% for the ELN. These figures are around 15% higher than when the same question was asked of men.
