Costa Rica – Progress in Rights & Equality for Women

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda

Costa Rica
ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, the international women’s bill of rights, in 1986, and its
Optional Protocol in 2001. (The US
has yet to ratify it.)

An Act Promoting the Social Equality of Women became law in 1990. The
Beijing Declaration and World Platform for Action that followed the 4^th
World Conference on Women in 1995 inspired a new series of laws and policies in
Costa Rica. Its
National Institute for Women (INAMU), established in 1998, oversees all
policies that affect women. A cabinet-level Minister on the Status of Women
serves as Executive Secretary of INAMU.

• At least in the formal sector, Costa Rican women earn
  90% of what their male counterparts earn.

• Women hold 39% of the seats in the national
  legislature.

• The 2012 Social
  Institutions and Gender Index ranks Costa
  Rica #2 overall among 86 non-OECD
  countries, up from 5^th place in 2009.

“Non-OECD” means that Costa Rica,
like first-place Argentina,
is classified as a developing country. What’s more, it’s a Latin country, one
of those whose language and culture gave us the word machismo, and its
complement, marianismo.

So, yes, there’s a gap between law and practice. Those of us who live in one
of the 34 OECD member, or most-developed countries, know we have gaps here
too―some big enough to swallow lives.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda is committed to closing the
gaps. “Women continue receiving less salary for the same kind of job,” she said
in a 2011 Forbes
interview. “Women have a higher unemployment rate in our country. When you
analyze the composition of poverty, you will find that most of the families in
poverty are being run by a woman. Also, a big issue is violence against women.”

Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve learned about policy and practice, from
both research and conversations with those who know the country best.

Family Status

In 1973 Costa Rica
became one of the first countries in the world to pass legislation granting
parental authority to both spouses. This law also provides for equality in the
case of divorce. A 1995 law on common-law marriages took it a step further,
providing for equality between cohabiting partners. The 2001 Responsible
Paternity Act outlaws discrimination against women with children born out of
wedlock or not recognized by the father.

The government of this predominantly Catholic country considers sexual and
reproductive health a fundamental right. Women’s access to contraception is
guaranteed by the General Health Act, and the Ministry of Health runs outreach
programs to increase the use of reproductive health services, including access
to contraception. According to the CIA’s 2012
World Factbook, Costa Rica’s
birthrate is 1.92, below ZPG and slightly below the US
rate of 2.06.

The legal marriage age is 18, but 15-year-olds can wed if both parents give
permission. In 1986, 20% of marriages involved teens. By 2010 that number had
been almost halved, to 10.5%.

And who does the dishes? As in the US
and other “developed” countries, the domestic power balance is tilting toward
equality, and it’s still far from ideal.

Education, Employment, and Economic Status

According to UNICEF, enrollment and attendance rates at primary and
secondary schools are higher for Costa Rican girls than for their brothers. The
high school enrollment rate is 92% for girls and 87% for boys. High school
attendance rates, at 65% and 59% respectively, are lower for both genders but
follow the same proportion.

The rate of women’s employment grew 26% between 2000 and 2012, according to
an August
2012 World Bank report. The law requires that Costa Rican women and men
receive equal pay for equal work. Women are entitled to four months paid
maternity leave at 100% of wages, plus three months more in case of medical
necessity. Half the payment comes from the national social security system and
half from the woman’s employer, as long as she was contributing to Social Security
for six months in the year preceding pregnancy. When that’s not the case, the
employer pays two-thirds of her salary. Pregnant or nursing mothers cannot be
fired except for cause, like any other employee. These rules apply only to
women in the formal economy, and not to the many in domestic service or the
informal economy.

Even domestic workers have some security, though. Along with Argentina,
Chile, Brazil,
and Panama, Costa
Rica has instated means-tested national
pension programs for both women and men that do not depend on money paid in.
This is especially important for women because we live longer than men. The
nation’s poverty rate is just 2%, according to the PensionWatch
Country Fact File.

Political Power

Central America

Observers note that quotas have been more effective in Costa
Rica than in any democratic country
anywhere. President Chinchilla Miranda, who took office in 2010, is the
nation’s first woman president, one of three currently serving in Latin
America and twenty worldwide. The deputy chief justice of the
Supreme Court is a woman and so are the presidents of the High Court of Civil
Appeals and the Constitutional Chamber and the ambassador to the US.

The country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) now requires that a minimum
of 50% of candidates for elective office be women and, significantly, that
women’s names be placed alternately with men’s on the ballot for each party
slate. In August the TSE reported that 49% of the candidates running for office
in the December local government elections are women. Women are almost 39% of
the legislature, holding 22 of 57 seats and including the vice president of the
assembly, the government party leader, and nine legislative committee
chairwomen. (The percentage is 17% in the US.)
There were 7 women in the 21-member cabinet as of May 7, 2012.

Violence against Women and Children

The National Institute for Women is particularly active on issues relating
to violence against women, providing services to victims as well as advocating
for better legal and practical protection. Sex work is legal, but pimping is
against the law. Sexual violence remains a problem, with some evidence that
rates have increased in recent years. Trafficking in women and even children is
a growing concern.

The burgeoning eco-tourism, which has been a boon to the economy, brings sex
tourism as well. Prisons, including the women’s prison, are overcrowded, mostly
because of drug-related offenses. In the Forbes interview, President
Chinchilla described her country as “caught between the producers in the South
and the consumers in the North.” She was talking about drug traffic, but it’s
also true of traffic in persons.

These are serious, serious problems. “It’s easy to break rules because there
aren’t a lot of police outside the capital,” says Sharon Ann Wildey, an
American resident of Costa Rica
who loves the country and its people and generously shared her impressions.
Even one incident of sexual violence or child abuse is one too many. Yet there
is no widespread impunity, according to the US Department of State’s 2010 Human
Rights Report.

Ticos support their government because it provides them with education and
what Wildey calls “heroic” medical care. They don’t want government involved in
their everyday lives, and outside the capitol and the coastal regions, where
crime and police power are both concentrated, they have a rough, macho way of
taking matters into their own hands. Overall, perhaps it’s still a good thing
to have more teachers than police.