On street harassement and gender parity

Most foreigners moving to Chile want to know as much as possible before they get here. Some information is easy to come by, other not so much. After 3 years here I think it is fit to write a short summary on gender parity in Chile.

First of all a disclaimer: I can only capture my experience which is limited to my own life and also the current timeframe of reporting (from 2011 to 2014). Things evolve quickly in developing nations and I wouldn't say Chile is an exception, we have noticed big changes in the 3 years we have been here. If you do want a more scientific/statistical report, you can always try this report from the World Economic Forum: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2013.pdf (in short, Chile is closer to Japan in terms of gender gap than to Spain or the UK).

Any woman moving to Chile needs to be prepared for the following:

1. The number of women in full time employment is much smaller than you would expect, particularly among the richer strata of society (38.5% only apparently, which is well below the South American average - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/13/michelle-bachelet-chile-president-legacy)
2. The number of business women is very small considering the level of progress that one can feel in Santiago's business district.
3. Therefore, it is not that uncommon if you are a business woman to be mistaken for a secretary for example (nothing wrong with secretaries - male or female ones - it is just frustrating to be mistaken for one after spending a few hard years in a good engineering school, purely on the basis of your gender). This can make any networking quite interesting (though that being said, you do stand out so if you manage to break through the resistance, you may be able to enjoy some small advantage too?)
4. As a woman, when you say you are an engineer, it is not uncommon for others to assume that your degree is in business administration (they call that "ingeniero commercial" or "Commercial Engineer" - except, I didn't think business admin had anything to do with engineering)... I admit I do get a bit of a kick out of setting things right ;o)
5. You will have to pay between 30-60% more than any man for your private health insurance (as clearly all women have babies... on their own (?)... which makes them a lot more expensive for the private health system...). Note: this also applies if you are sterile, have had your uterus removed, have no intention of ever having children or are a lesbian or purely a nun. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12942596) I think it is very likely that if any human rights lawyer bothered to look into this, it would end up in tears for the private health companies which, by the way, make a mint every year (http://www.emol.com/noticias/economia/2013/03/08/587488/ganancias-de-las-isapres-llegan-a-us-168-millones-en-2012-y-suben-37-interanual.html)
6. I am not really going to go into wages as my salary is really not representative of the average woman (nor the average person in Chile!)... My salary gets decided abroad so I'd say I am a very unlikely exception. Let's just say, in general women get paid significantly less for doing the same job. This short article has a few pointers on this: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/08/womens-rights-chile-international-womens-day
7. If you eat out with a man, be prepared that the bill/check will be handed to him (the natural breadwinner)... even if you ask for it.
8. You will have to be prepared to endure a significant amount of street harassment. No matter what you look like or what you wear (not that this should be of any significance in any case, I am just trying to point out that the street harassment bar is set pretty low over here so be prepared). I have to deal with this every week on my commute to work (this is in a nice area of the city and when I cycle I wear an antipollution mask which makes me look like predator...) 

The silver lining is that some of these issues are being tackled... it is very slow progress but for example there is now a group called "Observatorio contra el acoso callejero" which aims to (re)educate men and women on street harassment by making public the experiences of women who suffer from this and share their experiences (not too dissimilar to the everyday sexism project)

In general, over here there is the attitude that cat calling is part of the culture and a very normal behaviour for men. Not long ago, I had a chat with some educated men and one of them was very vocal about how he would prefer to have a son rather than a daughter. When I asked him why, he replied very seriously: "They are just a lot easier to educate" (erm... you mean you don't need to educate them? that makes a lot of sense with the social fabric)...

What I think is missing at this point is empathy... Many men in Chile don't think there is anything wrong with saying something to a woman because they think they wouldn't be bothered if the woman did that to them.... (this video illustrates this point - though erroneously and counterproductively from my point of view which I will explain very shortly)



The problem is that the situation doesn't translate very well if you swap around the harassed and harasser... (without mentioning that most of the men that engage in this sort of behavior are not as appealing or unthreatening as the lady in the video)...

First of all, because the harassed has been intimidated with this behavior from the tender age of 9 to 13 (if you are a man and don't believe it, you can ask most of your lady friends and they will be able to confirm, or you can read this pretty incredible post, in Spanish, http://elblogdematina.blogspot.com/2013/05/como-se-siente-una-mujer.html).

Second, because there is a power game in place: the harasser often makes comments because they know they are in the stronger position (perhaps even in a group?) and the other person will not be able to do anything - on this, I have found that most men who engage in this behaviour in Chile do tend to freeze/hide/run away if you answer back. I quite like this video because it is a much better example to show what it feels like to be harassed:


(it gets pretty good from min 3:20)

It is in Spanish but the plot is simple: there is a woman as bait, on different occasions a man she doesn't know goes near her and makes comments about her appearance. Then, 2 hunks follow the man who made the comments and repeat to him the same thing he said to her as he walks down the street and while he is being filmed. They feel embarrassed and intimidated, they feel they are in the weaker position, that is the point (some of them even take off running).

I also like this one (in English):


I don't agree with women copying inappropriate behaviour and inflicting it on unsuspecting men who have most likely than not done nothing wrong... what I think makes this video powerful is how obviously bizarre and inappropriate this behaviour is and how easy it is to see when we swap the genders around.

There is no issue with men and women talking to each other (even if they are total strangers) but there needs to be an implicit code of conduct: embarrassing or intimidating behaviour cannot be acceptable or tolerated. It is pretty essential that men (especially those that don't engage in this type of jeering) get behind this idea and not because it affects the women in their lives, but because it affects 50% of people in the world. I hope Chile can start moving from viewing women in relation to men to viewing them as individuals:

 

Lastly (and hopefully a bit tongue in cheek!), if you are still confused about flirting vs harassment, this guide should be able to help!