Location and population
- Paraguay is a nation in South America, enclosed by Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil.
- The population is estimated at 6,000,000.
- Approximately 95 percent of the population is Mestizo (race of both Spaniard and American Indian decent).
The Population has almost quadrupled since the mid 1900’s, with a fertility rate of about 4 children per woman. Most of the inhabitants speak and indigenous language, Guarni, the language of Paraguay’s earliest people coincides with Spanish as the dominant languages of the country.
A Day in Paraguay
Women's roles
Women acquire the dominant figure in the household, and have had a major role in providing for their families well being. They constitute about 1/3rd of the economic activity in Paraguay.
Women have always had a significant part in contributing towards agriculture, both subsistence and cash crops. Women are commonly employed in domestic services and sales, where as men normally obtain a broader range of occupancy.
AGRICULTURE in motion
Women have contributed towards more active roles in politics and government affairs since the end of the Stressnor dictatorship in 1989. Although there have been significant strides in the areas of politics and government for women, men still hold most of the powerful positions concerning power, and association with the Catholic Church. Paraguay has been dominated by male members of society for long periods of time, but women have made significant impacts in recent decades. Before 1992, married women could not work outside of their homes without the consent of their male spouse. After the constitutional reforms of 1992, the disadvantages that women had placed on them were mostly taken away. Women have made strides both domestically, and economically, increasing their average salaries greatly in the last two decades.
Marriage And Relationships
The age of consent in Paraguay is 14 for heterosexual relations where as it is 16 for homosexual relations. Paraguay’s age of consent is 16 outside of marriage, but 14, as stated above, within marriage. Marriages are fashioned by the couple themselves and constituted by civil, consensual, or church unions. After 1992, around 70 percent of women over the age of nineteen were in unions. Although Paraguay consists of mostly Roman Catholic beliefs, there has been a rise in unstable consensual unions with higher illegitimacy rates. There is a lopsided affair of representation upon the family by men and female spouses. Where men encounter little criticism for their actions, women’s actions depict a good or bad image upon the entirety of the family.