The world, life, people of power, laws, men etc. take the future away from women. Femicide, is the viscous slaughter of woman or girl by a man specifically because her gender. In Latin and Central America, where ‘machismo’ is prominent, women were murdered on a daily basis. Machismo is the belief that women should succumb to the needs and desires of men with things such as taking care of a man, giving them pleasure, whether it be a wife, or a partner or being approached by a man who does not see a woman fit for marrying. Violence against women isn’t just murder or rape, it also has to do with violence in the workplace such as using women’s bodies being used up in factories then trashed to ensure flexibility of production (Wilson, T. D., 2014). It includes patrimonial violence meaning men are favored to inherit money, land, and property over women. The violence against women can be seen in many ways as a definition of femicide by domestic violence, torture, rooted from the political economy, globalization, expansion of capitalism, the ever-growing inequality between rich and poor nations and interpersonal relations (Wilson, T. D., 2014).
The first cases of femicide emerged in 1993 in Cuidad Juarez on the border of Mexico and the United States where media coverage reported bodies of women who were raped or murdered on waste ground outside the city (Prieto-Carrón, M., Thomson, M., & Macdonald, M., 2007). According to Amnesty International, it has reached to Central America, Guatemala, for example, an estimate of over 2,200 women were murdered since 2001. In other countries like El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the average number that die each year is at least a thousand due to femicide. Those numbers are the ones that are noticed, the ones that go unnoticed could be just as much. Leaving the corpses of the women in public place is used as a scare tactic for women. It means that if they don’t follow the rules they’ll end up dead on a side of a road at any moment. It’s a hate crime. (Prieto-Carrón, M., et. al, 2007). In Honduras, women’s dead and naked bodies are found with their legs spread open as a sign of male power. Femicide is backlash against women in power whether it be by wage employment, or those who move away from traditional female roles. According to the authors, the deaths do not cause any political upheaval and no bumps in the regions neo-liberal economy. The authorities fail to investigate the deaths, and the preparators go unpunished (Prieto-Carrón, M., et. al., 2007). Victims vary from social and economic backgrounds, however, certain circumstances come into account on which why women are killed depending on the country or what part of a country they live in. For example, in Costa Rica migrant women are specifically targeted and in Nicaragua, its specifically domestic violence. A targeted group in Cuidad Juarez, are called maquila workers (factory). These multinational companies, recruit young women, to work assembly line production of garments and electronic goods (Prieto-Carrón, M., etc., 2007). They are at high risk of assault because they are migrants and working overtime. Working overtime puts them at a high risk because they have to walk long distances in the dark night. Another factor that puts them at risk is if they are the head of their households. Women opt. out of working overtime and lose income than to risk their lives walking home alone at night (Prieto-Carrón, M., etc., 2007). The killers are not just strangers. They could be their own husbands, partners, gang members or close male relatives.
According Violencia Femicida: Violence against Women and Mexico's Structural Crisis, by Mercedes Olivera, in the 1990s, the rate of femicide increased directly with the in the direct expansion of neoliberalism. The government recognized it as a national problem due to the pressure of feminists (Olivera, 2006). Olivera views femicide as violation towards women’s human rights. Neoliberal policies are applied dogmatically. At all costs, they tend to transnational companies. Olivera mentioned how President Vicente Fox, had adopted a conversation that methodically denied social realities of the population. The government had reported that the economy had increased every year and poverty was decreasing when in fact, Olivera argued that they’d just reach levels of poverty that were before 1995. Poverty results in women joining the labor market, however, there is great inequality and join the labor market under conditions of great inequality and vulnerability because of their lack of training and with low and unreliable income. Poverty has forced women into prostitution and criminal gangs. (Olivera, 2006). The integration women in the work force has broken the traditional model of the sexual division; however, without changing the image that women are dependent on men and their sole obligations are at home. In Violence against Women in Latin America, Wilson also mentions that in the 80s, women being forced to take up waged work was because of the neoliberal structural adjustment programs (Wilson, T. D., pg. 11, 2014). Women tend to earn less than men because of the stigma that men are the household breadwinners. It may allow women to work and build skills, however, there are more negative results than there are opportunities. They get these jobs out of the needs of the economy and not out of there own will. If it weren’t the case, women would continue to struggle to get jobs that they want and deserve that tends to their skills.
Rise of different types of social violence has been due to the economic crisis. Olivera talks about the massacre of more than 50 people, most women, and children that were suspected to be supports of the Zapatistas in 1997 in Acetal Chiapas, but the paramilitary force. They were trapped and killed in a Catholic chapel, and the assassins hacked the women’s breasts with machetes and extracted the fetuses of those that were pregnant to mock the symbols of maternity (Olivera and Cardenas, 1998). Men and women would flee their land, the poverty, and the illness and women saw their freedom however, the violence also cause for women and men to defend their villages. The problem of violence is so deep. Women in Mexico must participate in building a different world. A world without sexism, oppression, and violence and to do that they must fight against the neoliberal system (Olivera, 2006).
Some have argued that the violence against women in the workforce is part of the process as Wilson mentions the argument of Leslie Salzinger book Genders in Production Making Workers in Mexico's Global Factories. Production is a product of the sexual objectification of women, and it established the constant watch and evaluation as sex and productive subjects. (Salzinger, pg. 176, 2004). Since anyone can remember, women are taught to shrink themselves, that they can’t be too successful, or it will threaten a man’s ego or worth. Women are taught to not be sexual beings by saying that they have to dress a certain way, that a tight dress makes you a whore, told to talk a certain way, to be a certain way however, no matter how much a woman tries to please the old society rules a woman will always be treated the way a man feels like they should be treated. There are women who are covered from head to toe because of religion and by choice yet they get murdered or killed. Women whose underwear is evidence that she was asking for it. A 7-year-old girl who just plays with her toys is touched by a man who has a disgusting mind and thinks just a 7-year-old girl can satisfy his sexual fantasy. A woman who graduated from Harvard, worked hard to be successful gets paid less than a man simply because men are greater than women. Its common that in Latino/Hispanic households, the women are supposed to cook, clean, stay in the house and the men are free to do what they want. Our fathers deprive us of freedom, that when we finally get it, we don’t know how to use it. However, there are women who have defied the laws and have proven how much they are not dependent on men.
It is common to list a name of famous women who have had an impact on the lives women everywhere; however, the Zapatista women have proved how you don’t need to, in a sense, publicize their gains. They do it in such a manner that isn’t loud and proud yet is still heard all over the world. In Participation of Women in Autonomous Government, the compañeras didn’t have the idea that women could participate; that they could be something outside of their paternal dependency. They believed in the ignorance of capitalism that was cemented into their brains. They felt fear being outside of their homes and having no freedom to talk because they believed that men were above them. The “Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional” (EZLN) was founded and women had rights and freedom to do what they pleased. It began on November 17, 1983, with six people, five were men and one woman (Ramírez, Carlsen, & Arias, 2008). There was less than 20% of women in the early year, but the percentage went up to 45%. Gloria Munoz, author of The Fire and the word: A History of the Zapatista Movement, was a Zapatista herself. She was a journalist. She worked for Punto, a Mexican newspaper, a German news agency, The U.S. newspaper, La Opinion and the Mexican Daily, La Jornada She left her work, her family, and friends to live in the Zapatista communities. Munoz learned another perspective. Instead of trying to fight for the scoop she learned the ways of the mountains. Gloria saw the reality of the inside and outside of the Zapatista Movement. Subcomandante Marcos, a Zapatista, pointed out how the book was mostly edited by women. That women are the majority and that is how life is. The book is written by a Zapatista woman. Written in her perspective while still using the dialogue of others.
Learning about Neoliberalism was mostly about how it affects a country and the people but singling out just women gives one has whole new perspective on how the ideas and ideologies of neoliberalism and neoliberals. Women have already been targeted for centuries based on their gender roles. The new thing is, now these rules have a word to be labeled by. There is some good of feminism and neoliberalism. Veronica Schild, author of Feminism and Neoliberalism in Latin America, argued that the participation in the economy has been a cornerstone of labor flexibilization strategies. Feminism thrived because the goals of the 80’s neoliberal era because it created an emphasis on culture and identity. The result of the new economy opened up to female employment and paved way for it to normalize women as breadwinners of their households. The feminist movement in Latin America during the 70’s. The Cuban Revolution in the 60’s was an inspiration. Highly educated women were recruited. They remained minorities but they were involved with a variety of activities. They were active in left parties as well as in women’s groups. They were known as the “feisty feminists (Schild, 2015). The idea of personal autonomy because it aimed to develop the consciousness of feminists and developing poor and working-class women.
Women will always struggle with pleasing the man but it doesn’t mean that they will live their life trying to do so. Jobs that were considered and still are considered lesser, women now make it their own without worrying about the opinions of a man. For example, sex work that has been considered a reason to kill women; women now love it and see it as a living. Women are just as capable as doing hard manual labor like men. There are men who now embrace their femininity because women have shed light on the beauty of being a woman.