LA PAZ: The role of self-sacrifising wife and mother who stays at home is no longer the main goal of many Bolivian women. The National Survey on Women’s Perceptions of Exclusion and Discrimination found that in the life plans of most women in Bolivia, work comes first, and a decreasing number have plans based exclusively on marriage or motherhood.

The survey, carried out by the non-governmental Coordinadora de la Mujer, indicates that barely seven per cent of the interviewees said their priority was having a partner and children, “which was the main characteristic of the life plans of Bolivian women two decades ago,” the study says.

In contrast, working or studying was the top priority for 56 per cent of respondents.

However, 28 per cent said they thought combining work, a partner and children was the formula for happiness. “This is important, as it shows that being a wife and mother is an integral part of being a woman,” said the Coordinadora de la Mujer.

That traditional women’s roles are being displaced by other aspirations is an important step towards gender equity, the head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)’s Women and Development Unit, Sonia Montaño, told the news agency.

This is happening throughout Latin America, she said. Women’s participation in the labour market and in politics has increased, and most countries now have policies for the active promotion of gender equality.

“But women still carry the heaviest burden of work at home, they are still a minority in decision-making positions, they earn less than men and they suffer the effects of sexist violence,” Montaño said.

Working women and their contribution to the economy is actually one of the issues to be addressed by the 10th Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, convened by ECLAC, and taking place in Quito from August 6 to 9.

The share of women in waged employment is one of the indicators for monitoring achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2000, with most targets to be fulfilled by 2015 with respect to 1990 indicators. The MDGs are a worldwide commitment to halving hunger and extreme poverty by 2015, and include the goal of gender equity.

According to information available to the Women and Development Unit directed by Montaño, by 2015 women’s participation in Bolivia’s labour market will have risen.

This will not happen by chance, but will be a hard-earned right which should be supported by policies promoting employment and respect for labour rights, Montaño said.

In Bolivia, 51 per cent of the country’s 9.3 million people are women, and according to the National Institute of Statistics, 1.8 million women work.

In their analysis of the results, the Coordinadora de la Mujer emphasised that the survey showed that including work as a central aspect of personal fulfilment is not only about self-esteem, independence or wider opportunities. “It must also be understood as a means to social recognition and worth. And, ultimately, to becoming full citizens.” —Dawn/The IPS News Service