This document discusses the situation of women and children in Ecuador with regards to poverty, the economy, health, education, and violence. It notes that women and children, especially those from rural and low-income backgrounds, face significant hardships including higher rates of poverty, unemployment, lower wages, lack of access to healthcare and education opportunities. Violence against women and children is also a major problem in Ecuador according to the statistics presented.

1. Women and children
ECUADOR
Poverty, violence, cultural values, vulnerability and
hope
Alina Rodriguez-Velasco

2. Women and children and the
economy
 Largely divided by the prolonged socio-economic
differences and ethnic origins brought in the population
by the historical and institutional legacy dating back to
colonial times, social exclusion and economic
marginalization are huge constraints for the overall
population.
 Yet, women from all social strata suffer outright the
consequences of the poor economic performance of the
country, particularly during the last decade when the
worst economic crisis ever hit the country.
 The current economic crisis has brought upon setbacks
particularly to women, whose income has been largely
reduced as result of losses in employment due to low
agricultural and industrial productivity and the slowdown
of remittances flows, causing consequently an
enormous impact on children wellbeing.

3.  Women from high and upper-middle classes make up a
considerable portion of the workforce and are particularly
visible in banking and finance, university teaching and
research, and NGOs; yet, their work is lower paid.
 For women and children from low-class households, in rural
and urban areas alike, poverty is the major enemy. They are
the most likely to bear the heaviest burdens of poverty.
Women, especially from rural areas, are the ones who suffer
most deprivation.
 Gender gaps in wealth and income are intricately related to
ethnicity and occur in different markets as well as within the
households.
 Two points have been stretched out: the first is related to the
lower human capacities women develop in Ecuador since
they have the in-home responsibility of nurturing and child
bearing, and consequently spend less time on paid-jobs
outside the household. The second point raised and greater
supported about gender-based wage differentials lies in the
discrimination women are victims in the Ecuadorian labor
market, even though in some social structures women have
more years of education than men.

4.  Albeit the Ecuadorian women have substantially
bettered their education level, particularly those who are
part of the economically active female population, they
still hold lower positions and lower wages. This
tendency shows that female labor force is still
considered secondary and complementary to male‟s
work.
 Intra-household arrangements are likely to be
unfavorable to women. Budget-constrained parents can
make only limited investment in their children‟s
schooling, and household division of labor generally
limits females‟ opportunities to participate in the labor
force.
 Based on multiple regression on the determinants of
wages it has been noted that under similar conditions of
education, work experience, ethnicity, employment
segmentation, training and other variables, female‟s
wages are 15% lower than men‟s.

6. Women in the informal economy
 Women from poor households are in the disadvantage
condition of having lower education and years of experience
required in formal paid jobs. Notwithstanding this
difficulty, women have found jobs in the informal sector mainly
as short-term and part-time jobs, in which educational and
technical skills are practically null; this kind of jobs are difficult
to be counted in national statistics.
 The informal sector of the Ecuadorian economy is
vast, entailing different sorts of jobs, varying from domestic
part-time services, gardeners, hawkers, to more qualified jobs
as electricians and plumbers advertised on the streets; this
tendency is spreading out in a fast-speed due to economic
hardship.
 As a result, it is not longer possible to ascribe Ecuadorian
women with the specific role as wife and mother caring for the
household; they have become likewise men bread-winners
along with their children, who together come into play as
important financial sources for a household‟s wellbeing.

8. Some statistics
 Unemployment rate of women as  Unemployment, female (% of female
opposed to men: (2005) women 10.8% - labor force , 2009): 8.4%
men 5.6%
 Vulnerable employment, female (% of
 Percentage of women administrative female employment, 2009): 51%
and managerial workers: (2002) 25%
 Literacy rate, youth female (% of
 Women's wages relative to men: (2009) females ages 15-24, 2009): 97%
adult economic activity rate: women
47% - men 77.7%.
 Educational level of girls as opposed to
boys: (2008) years of schooling: girls 14
 Gender wage gap: (2007) 11.2% – boys 14
 Labor participation rate, female (% of  5 out of 10 illiterate people are women.
female population ages 15+, 2009):
47%
 5 out of 10 poor people are women.
 Employees, agriculture, female (% of
female employment), 2009: 23%
Data source: World Bank

9. Some cultural facts
 Ecuadorian women have been educated to marry young and
fulfill their nurturing and caring chores at home.
 Tendencies, however, have changed drastically, due to different
socio-economic causes, being one important cause the severe
economic and political crisis of 1999.
 Due to financial constraints, women in both rural and urban
areas and from different social strata continued or started to
work to make up for the resources needed to compensate their
husbands‟ wages during economic downturn.
 One of the factors affecting recruitment of women in Ecuador is
the cultural conception about women involving higher costs due
to the provision of maternity protection, higher
absenteeism, reduced willingness to work overtime and more
restricted mobility in relation to men. This is one reason that
heavily encourages discrimination against women.

10. Child labor
 When speaking about women and the economy, children
must be likewise taken into consideration since in current
times they are also bread-winners.
 Poverty is the main cause of child labor, but also other factors
come into play such as: the breakdown of the family structure;
migration of the father, mother, or father and mother together
going abroad or from the countryside to big cities leaving
behind children oftentimes without direct and careful
supervision of adults, and poor social welfare laws that
prevent children from working and ensure their enrollment in
schools.
 According to the SIISE statistics, there are many children
from 6 years old age and adolescents who work either part or
full-time. These children overwhelm the streets of the big
cities working as shoe-shining boys, hawkers
(fruits, vegetables, and sweets), peddlers, and street artists.
Other category has been determined for children who work as
factory and construction workers, and children working in
banana plantations.

12.  According to UNICEF, 8% of Ecuadorian children between
the ages of 5 and 14, - 7% boys and 8% girls - are still
engaged in some form of child labor.
 Ecuador‟ s banana sector has been intensely investigated
and plantations owners accused for turning to child labor to
keep productions costs down and stay competitive.
 Eradicating child labor in Ecuador not only depends on the
government institutions but also on all private sectors. The
1998 Constitution safeguarded the rights of children and
called specifically for protection of children in their workplace
against economic exploitation and any other condition that
may hinder their normal development.
 This statement was reinforced through the amendments of
the 2008 Constitution and in spite of the advancements
achieved thus far, UNICEF has stated that the progress is
slow and social policies are to be reinforced in practice to
protect children.

13. Violence against women and
children
 According to UNIFEM, 6 out of every 10 women in Ecuador are
victims of violence within their own households in 2008.
 Violence against women have far-reaching impacts on children and
society as a whole.
 Although Ecuadorian younger generations have changed cultural
chauvinist behaviors, the statistics are alarming and increasing.
 Violence includes physical abuse such as hitting, kicking
or beatings, forced sex, psychological abuse, such as bullying and
humiliation, and controlling behaviors such as isolating her from
family, friends, or denying access to economic assets or other
assistance.
 Violence against women is due to poverty, unemployment, gender
disparity, low levels of education and precarious legal system.
 In the public sphere, intimidation at work and sexual harassment are
common practices of violence against women.

14.  Women in the survey reported that the perpetrator of
the sexual abuse was either spouse/partner, ex
spouse/partner, boyfriend, ex-boyfriend. Only 8% of the
women reported that the perpetrator was a stranger.
 According to UNIFEM in 2008 46% of women =
2.455.304 women reported having suffered from
violence, either physical, sexual or psychological.
 Only 7% of these women turned to professionally
help, support and presented a formal allegations.
 In 2008, 65.000 allegations of violence were reported to
the 31Police Stations for Women existing in Ecuador.
 10.000 of these allegations reported were on sexual
violence, and only 3% of these passed sentence.

16.  Observing adult abuse at home during childhood and
adolescence has been identified as one of the major
risks for abuse in adulthood, according to a research
carried out by the public institution Cepar.
 36% of women reported having seen physical violence
between parents.
 Indigenous women reported having observed physical
and psychological violence in their homes that the
mestizo women or members of other ethnic groups.
 About 44% of indigenous women reported physical
violence against 35% in mestizo groups and 34% in
other groups.
 28% of Ecuadorian women reported having
received physical abuse and 25% reported emotional
abuse they had received when they were under 15
years of age, with a total of 31 percent having received
any of the two abuse.

17.  The experience of childhood abuse was most
commonly reported by indigenous women, 41%
reported physical violence and 35% psychological
abuse, compared with mestizo who reported physical
abuse by 27% and 24% psychological abuse.
 Women between15 to 49 years old, a 9.6 percent
reported any sexual violence in the course of life.
 The 7.2% reported a violation with penetration and
3.7% reported being victims of sexual abuse without
penetration. The 1.3% of women reported that they had
been victims of the two types of sexual violence.
 Sexual violence often occur first during childhood or
adolescence. 43% of women who had been sexually
abused reported that they were under 15 years old
when it first occurred; 18% of women reported to have
been abused for the first time at a younger age than 10
years.

18. Child abuse
 Child abuse is inevitably growing in Ecuador, although
is in constant fight.
 According to Observatory of Children and
Adolescents, violence comes primarily from their own
parents and is the result of lack of education and
misleading education.
 Teachers in schools play a great deal in child
abuse, mainly between children from 6 to 11 years of
age.
 The observatory reported that 1 out of 10 children have
been physically abused by the teacher, and / or teased /
insulted.
 A 52% of parents punish their children. The
punishments affect more boys than girls in schooling

21.  Social and cultural features play a great part in
child abuse: it occurs in 57% of poor
households compared with 44% of those
with greater resources.
 Violent punishment is more common in rural
areas (43%) than in cities (32%). The use of violent
punishment is more common in homes of the
Amazon than in the highlands and the Coast.
 The most common practices of punishments are
scolding, beating, showing indifference, locking
children in, baths in cold water, insults and teasing.

22. Women and children in the family
 Ecuadorians play great importance on the family, both
nuclear and extended.
 The family in Ecuador is indeed the basic unit of
society, within which fundamental values and principles
are taught.
 Ecuadorian women are the base of a strong family and
domestic life.
 Traditionally monogamist and dual-kinship based –
patriarchal and matriarchal – machismo is a very
common practice typically linked to the Latin cultural
conception of being man.
 Polygamy is socially unacceptable in every socio-
economic class and is not legally recognized.

23.  In extra-marital affairs situations the blame is more
commonly put on women, denigrating somehow
their status in society.
 Girls tend to be more protected by their parents than
boys, due to traditional social structures.
 There are variations in family structure, as well as in the
social and cultural structure in Ecuador depending on
the socioeconomic position of families.
 In families from high and upper-middle class usually
living in urban areas, albeit the machismo condition in
the Ecuadorian society women have a fundamental role
to play that goes beyond upbringing and caring for
children and the family as a whole.

24.  Their role far extends to managerial tasks and even
household-head decisions making; e.g.: money-
spending on food, household-needs provision, and
children‟s education and spare-time activities.
 Men have taken an inactive role in housework. This has
begun to change due to the economic hardship that has
forced women to join the workforce and obliged men to
do some chores of the housework.
 Men‟s role is likely to be a supportive one to get things
well done inside the household by providing all the
means needed.
 Civil and Catholic marriage in this socio-economic level
is extremely important to seal the couple‟s commitment
to God and to set up the basis in the society, which will
give the family the status and recognition.

26.  In families from low-middle and poor socio-economic
strata more commonly located in rural sector and
peripheral zones in the big cities, the family is pretty
much conceived in free marriage, with common
residence and more importantly reproduction-function
features.
 The Ecuadorian Constitution accords the members of a
Free Union family the same rights and duties as in any
other legally constituted family.
 Gender equity is a bit fairer since men and women‟s
labor is essential to bring the bread into the household.
 Even children are in many cases considered as labor
force; this is why it is very common for these families to
have many children.

27. Women and children and health
 The primary cause of maternal mortality and morbidity is inadequate
quality and coverage of prenatal and natal care.
 This condition has deteriorated during economic and political crisis.
 Less-educated and rural women as well as indigenous women have
less access to maternal care and consequently are more prone to
health problems.
 These also relates to adolescent pregnancy, high fertility rations and
birth pacing, these more common in rural areas.
 Although the use of contraceptive methods has increased, access to
and use of them are still low among socio-economic groups and vary
by level of education and urban versus rural residence.
 Family planning is more common among higher-educated women
from urban areas.

28.  One quarter of men use contraceptive methods, which means that the
responsibility for family planning is left exclusively to women.
 Lack of information on sexuality and contraceptive methods increases the number
of undesired pregnancies, particularly among youth and young women.
 In 2000 the 9,8% of all adolescent girl became pregnant.
 The Free Maternity and Child Care Act guarantees women the access to sexual
and reproductive health care.
 Women are less likely to have private health insurance than men.
 National health insurance in 2004 covered 23.9% of the employed economically
active male population versus a 6% of women workforce.
 In 2004 was reported that 65% of women ceased treating their illnesses, and
looked for alternatives and less costly methods, such as traditional medicine.
 Children are still affected by the incidence of TB, malaria and anemia throughout
the country.

29. Some statistics*
 Maternal mortality ratio per 1000 live births:140
 Maternal mortality ratio - Lifetime risk of maternal death: 1 in 270
cases
 Contraceptive prevalence: 73%
 Antenatal care coverage at least once: 84%
 Antenatal care coverage at least four times: 58%
 Delivery care coverage - skilled attendant at birth: 98%
Data source: UNICEF, 2009 and World Bank 2009

30.  Delivery care coverage - institutional delivery: 85%
 Delivery care coverage - C-section: 26%
 Women aged 50–69 years have undergone a breast examination or
mammography: 17%
 Women aged 20–69 years have undergone cervical cancer
screening: 45%
 Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1000 women ages 15-19: 82
 Prevalence of HIV, female (% ages 15-24): 0.2
 Under 5 mortality rate (per 1000): 20
 Estimated prevalence of anemia in pre-school children: 20-40%.
 Health expenditure % total GDP: 6.1%
Data source: UNICEF 2009 and World Bank 2009

31. Women and children and the
environment
 The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992 is the benchmark of the link between gender and
environment.
 The critical environmental issues in Ecuador are rooted in the side effects
of industrial and agricultural production processes, as well as the misuse
of resources.
 In the Amazon region, the problems are the high rate of
deforestation, severe pollution due to oil production waste; soil, water and
lake contamination.
 In the Andes region (highlands) the environmental problems are related to
land distribution and agricultural practices, such as overexploitation of
marginal lands.
 The indiscriminate mining activity is of great concern. It is carried out with
no protection for workers and the environment. The emission of heavy
metals, solids and chemical reagents have cause the deterioration of
water, soil and air.

32. Children in garbage Sewage water
dumps
Mining and Deforestation

33.  Other environmental issues entail overuse and misuse of pesticides
in agricultural production, spewing out residue in water, land and
food.
 Furthermore, garbage management has become an issue in larger
cities.
 All these problems affect largely women and children, because
they oftentimes engage in agriculture activities without
protection, being exposed to chemical substances eventually
harmful for their health, fetch water in polluted rivers, lakes and
streams, and work in garbage dumps being exposed to any kind of
diseases and dangers.
 It has been demonstrated in studies that the pesticides used in
flower plantations have been direct linked to the high levels of
abortion and malformation in babies among worker women in the
highlands.
 By 2010, 1900 children were rescued from garbage dumps
dangerous work in Ecuador after 8 years of intense work to
eradicate child labor in garbage dumps nationwide.

34. Women in power and decision-
making
 Ecuadorian women were the first women in Latin America to
win the right to vote in 1929.
 In 1995 the Law Against Violence Towards Women and the
Family was passed.
 The1998 Constitution specified equal rights between men
and women in many areas. It constitutes an important
document for justice and empowerment of women.
 The 2008 Constitution reinforces gender equity.
 Despite the progress made thus far, in promoting women‟s
participation in politics, there are still substantial gaps.
 Ecuadorian women are highly political active in elections.
They fill mainly local authority positions, particularly
municipalities and parish boards,

35. Indigenous leader
Former Vice-President
and President of the
Republic of Ecuador

36.  Women ministries have been appointed in the governments
since the last decade, particularly in foreign trade, foreign
affairs, tourism and education portfolios.
 Currently, the women that wield power being the heads of the
following ministries: of
justice, environment, culture, education, economic and social
inclusion, foreign trade, agriculture and fishing, transport and
public works, social development, natural and cultural
patrimony, political
coordination and decentralized autonomous
governments, political economy coordination, productivity-
employment-competitiveness. Also in the risk management
national secretary and migrant national secretary.
 In the worldwide raking „Women in Parliaments‟ headed by
Rwanda, Ecuador is placed in the 20th position, with the
following data of 2009, situation as of 31 October 2011: 120
seats at the national parliament, out of which 40 are held by
women, which means a 32,30% representation of women in
national decision-making process.
 Women in ministerial positions represent 35.3%, ranked in
th

37.  Article 102 of the 1998 Constitution establishes that “The
State shall promote and guarantee the equitable participation
of women and men as candidates in the popular electoral
processes, in instances of leadership and decisions in the
public arena, in the administration of justice, [and] in the
organisms of control and political parties.”
 In the 2008 Constitution, 50-50 gender parity as well as
alternation was approved. The National Electoral Council
determines the obligation to comply with the principles of
equity, parity and alternation between men and women on the
candidate lists.
 Only once, in 1996 the Vice-president of the Republic has
been a woman.
 The Vice-President, Rosalía Arteaga, was supposed to
succeed President Abdalá Bucaram after he was overthrown;
however, she was unable to do so because of a political pact
in the National Congress that declared it unconstitutional.
 By means of an Executive Decree the National Government
recently acknowledged Rosalía Arteaga‟s presidency.

38. Bibliography
 Economic data
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http://www.ceime.net/foros/images/foros/discriminacin%20y%20mercado%20laboral.
pdf
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 Violence data
http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/voices_from_the_field/story.php?StoryID=221
http://www.cepar.org.ec/endemain_04/nuevo06/violencia/violencia_m.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxMB5LNu54U
http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/el-maltrato-infantil-es-el-pan-de-cada-dia-
254972-254972.html

39.  Family data
http://www.fsdinternational.org/ntlopps/country/ecuador/women
http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Ecuador.html#b
http://www.mapsofworld.com/ecuador/people/ecuador-women.html
 Health data
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16060124/Crisis-and-Dollarization-in-Ecuador-Stability-Growth-and-
Social-Equity
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ecuador_statistics.html
http://www.un.org/works/sub3.asp?lang=en&id=67
http://data.worldbank.org/topic/health
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/ECUADOR-English.pdf
 Environment data
http://repository.unm.edu/bitstream/handle/1928/10944/Descorriendo%20velos%20en%20las%20
Ciencis%20Sociales.pdf?sequence=1
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/responses/ECUADOR-English.pdf
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 Pictures
http://www.google.it/imghp?hl=it&tab=ii