1. Panama's Women's Issues:Reproduction & Human Rights In 2008 there was a major conference about women's issues. It was called the 2008 Caribbean Regional Seminar: Women Making a Difference. The focus was on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. Gender is a system of social organization; socially constructed differences between the sexes. Gender is about the social, economical and political relations between women and men { www.unece.org/stats/ender } Gender differences really have to do with behaviors, roles, and responsibilities. Gender differences have to do with rights, entitlements, and power. The Caribbean Family operates with very fundamental distinctions between boys/men and girls/women...by the age of 14...boys and girls expect to be treated differently...men and women are expected to perform different roles {Family and the Quality of Gender Relations in the Caribbean, Bailey et al}

2. Panama women educating about mammograms. Breast cancer, HIV/AIDS are very serious diseases in Panama

3. The fact that women in Panama see themselves connected to women in countries around the Caribbean reflects the writings in Evolution of Transnational Feminism. Margaret Snyder writes, “my concept of feminism {is} search for justice: women's Empowerment cannot be complete in an unjust society, and a just society cannot be Achieved without empowering women.”{Evolution of Transnational Feminism,p. 25} In Latin America working class women have limited access to financial resources and are the main persons responsible for the domestic sphere, a role which is not Highly valued. In Latin America middle class and upper class men and women have access to financial resources, but the male is not responsible for the domestic sphere.

4. There are many critical issues facing women in Panama. #1 Gender Based Violence. In 2009 the Report on Human Rights Practices indicates that the law now Criminalizes rape, including spousal rape. Domestic Violence against women continued to be a serious problem, With few convictions for domestic violence. #2 HIV/AIDS high percentages of women have the HIV/AIDS cases in Panama and throughout the Caribbean area.

5. #3 Education. Since most of the people in Panama are poor, doesn't Education equal advancement for both men and women? #4 Participation in decision making. Aili Tripp writes, “the global South ...focused on women's health, reproductive rights, peace, human rights, poverty, prostitution, and violence against women...{Evolution, p.60} #5 Poverty. In Panama society is a patriarchal pyramid. Men have most of the power, women some power, and children no power. {2008 Caribbean Regional Seminar is an excellent presentation. It is located at www.authorstream.com/...panama-gender-presentation-08}

6. I am learning a lot about the power structure of Latin America in these readings about women in Panama. Everything is connected—the church people belong to, big business, the government, the military—they all determine, right now, the status of poor men and women in Panama. It will be interesting to learn how these women are meeting, what they are discussing, and how changes can be implemented in Panama.

7. This is me! I'm at a company Halloween party years ago. This picture is one of my wife's favorites, so I thought I would Share it with you!