1.
Our debt to women. By Ramses
Vargas
The debt of our society with women is an ethical and moral imperative, before which we
can not resign ourselves to isolated quotas or affirmative actions.
Our countryhas had balancesinred,since itiscalled Colombia,withmanysectorsof whatwe call
society:withthe regions,withethnicminorities,withscience,withlowerincome strata,withhealthand
educationbutwitheverything,foreverythingandespecially,withwomen.
Whereveryoulook,there isno figure thatservestomake up the imbalance againstwomen.Noristhere
publicpolicythathassubstantiallyservedtohelpmatchthe accounts.
Advanceshave been,of course,butthe balance persistsandismore noticeablewhenlookingatthe cold
statisticsof the labormarketwhere the wage gap is25 percent,somethingthatcountswhenlookingat
income ina countrythat has gone fillingwomenwithheadof household:accordingtothe Dane,of 22
millionwomen,56percentcarry the burdenof the home.
The general figuressummarizeeverything.The EmploymentService of the Ministryof Labor,which
mustbe believed,saythatinthe overall rate of participationof the labormarket(64.7 percent),women
are at a disadvantage:54.9 percentagainst75 percent.percentof men -measure betweenMay2015
and April 2016-.
On the same path are the comparative ratesof unemployment:thatof them, inthe order of 11.8
percent,farfrom thatof men(6.7 percent).Andthe gap isdeepenedinyoungwomenwhocanexceed
20 percent,a fact that can not be takenlightlybythe vulnerabilitytowhichisexposedapopulationthat
justentersthe worldof work,includingmenof lessthan25 years.In those figures,some analystshave
foundthat there isa backgroundthat skewsthe participationof women.Theycoverthe provisionof
personnel,thisisrecruitmentandselection;promotion,traininganddevelopmentandperformance
evaluation.
But the biasesinlaborhave,inaddition,otherfacetsthatreflectthe divisionof laboraccordingto
gender:forthemthe workof health,education,trade,financialsector,care of people andbeauty
rooms,where sevenoutof tenworkerstheyare women.Forthemactivitiesassociatedwithmuscle:
constructionandminingandtransportation,forexample.Theyare alsoat a disadvantage whenlooking
for a job:it takesan average of three weeksmore (19.3) than men.Andinmuch more disadvantage are
our rural womenwhomustwaitupto five monthstoget hooked.
Perhapswhere the weightof the legislatorinfavorof womenhasbeenmore noticeable hasbeeninthe
lawof quotas(Law581 of 2000) that mandatesthatat least30 percentof positionsatdifferentlevelsbe
for women,amandate that Itis fulfilledbyfortune.Butdoesasocietythatclaims to be inclusive have to
distribute accesstopublicservice bygenderandnotbyskillsandknowledge?

2.
Andif the laborfieldbiasesfemaleemployment,politicsisstill primarilyamatterfor menanddesigned
for them,whichfromtheirseatspontificate onweeksof maternity,female feesandeventaxesfor
sanitarytowels.Of 32 governors,onlyfourare womenandmore than 360 congressmen,only55 are
mothersof the motherland.
A studentof the subjectasGreys JiménezBarrioshighlightsthe feminine influenceinthe labor,political,
sports,cultural or artisticor literary,butalsoraisesthe needto"breakthe moldwithwhichwe have
configured,questionmanyof the codesof behaviorthathave beeninternalizedasnatural,toimprove
coexistenceandpromote betterrelationships,more human,more justandmore empathetic".Towhich
it shouldbe addedthatitis not thatthere has not beenprogress.The problemisthatthe backwardness
has beensogreat thatthe conquestsare notnoticedyet.
The debtof our societywithwomenisanethical andmoral imperative,beforewhichwe cannotresign
ourselvestoisolatedquotasoraffirmativeactions.Thisisatopic thaturgesus to become citizensfrom
earlychildhood,andtostart acceptingwhatwe all know but donot say: womenare discriminated
againstinColombiaforthe mere fact of beingthat,woman.For all this,as longas the stereotypesof
'male'and 'female',blue andpink,whichhave made suchadentinour imaginations,subsist,the
problemwill not be solved.
By RamsésVargasLamadrid,MPA, MSc