Shattered glass ceiling in Latin America doesn’t necessarily mean equality

Shattered glass ceiling in Latin America doesn’t necessarily mean equality
Shattered glass ceiling in Latin America doesn’t necessarily mean equality

Shattered glass ceiling in Latin America doesn’t necessarily mean equality

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A third of the world’s female presidents lead countries in Latin America. Dilma Rouseff in Brazil, Cristina Fernandez in Argentina, and Michelle Bachelet in Chile are just some of the women who have broken the glass ceiling. But this hasn’t necessarily led to gender equality in the region overall. Irune Aguirrezabal is UN Women’s Regional Advisor for Political Participation for the Americas. She says we have to be careful to say the glass ceiling in Latin America has been broken, because the region has some of the highest rates of gender violence, teenage pregnancy is still growing, contraception and reproductive laws are restrictive, and the wage gap is very large. She’ll tell us more about what female political leadership has and hasn’t been able to accomplish in Latin America. (photo: Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, left, shakes hands with Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, June 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres))