Women in Uruguay are women who were born in, who live in, and are from

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. According to ''Countries and Their Cultures'', there is a "very high proportion" of

Uruguayan Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

women participating in the labor force of the

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n country. The Uruguayan legislation maintains that the women of Uruguay have equal rights to power, authority, and privileges". In reality, however, women are still not occupying "higher economic,

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

, and

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

positions". In relation to the political arena,

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and focu ...

reported that a 2012 study made by the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; french: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an inter-parliamentary institution, international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and coop ...

(IPU) ranked Uruguay as being "103rd out of 189 countries in terms of representation of women in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

". Uruguay low ranking is partly due to its low political participation of women: only 16% of members of Parliament are women as of 2014.

Notable women

One prominent Uruguayan woman is

Paulina Luisi Paulina Luisi (1875–1950) was a leader of the feminist movement in the country of Uruguay. In 1909, she became the first Uruguayan woman to earn a medical degree and was a firm advocate of sex education in the schools. She represented Uruguay in ...

. Luisi was a leader of the

feminist movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...

in the country of

. In 1909, she became the first woman in the country to obtain a medical degree and was highly respected. She represented Uruguay in international women's conferences and traveled throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. She voiced her opinion on

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

, and in 1919, Paulina started the force for women's rights in Uruguay. By 1922, the

Pan-American Conference of Women Pan-American Conference of Women occurred in Baltimore, Maryland, US in 1922. It was held in connection with the third annual convention of the National League of Women Voters in Baltimore on April 20 to 29, 1922. Cooperating with the League in b ...

named Paulina Luisi an honorary vice president of the meeting and she continued to be an activist until Uruguay gave women the right to vote.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence is a very serious problem, especially so-called

crimes of passion A crime of passion (French: ''crime passionnel''), in popular usage, refers to a violent crime, especially homicide, in which the perpetrator commits the act against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as anger rather than as a premed ...

, which until 2017 were tolerated under Article 36 of the Penal Code (The passion provoked by adultery) – ''Artículo 36. (La pasión provocada por el adulterio)''. On December 22, 2017, Article 36 of the Criminal Code was modified to remove the crime of passion. There had been ongoing political efforts to remove this provision from the Criminal Code since 2013. Before 2006, perpetrators of rape could avoid punishment if, after the assault, they married the victim. Uruguay's law against domestic violence is ''Ley Nº 17.514'', enacted in 2002. According to a 2018 United Nations study, Uruguay has the second-highest rate of killings of women by current or former partners in Latin America, after Dominican Republic.

Abortion

The abortion law of Uruguay is very liberal compared to the other Latin American countries. In 2012, Uruguay become the second country in Latin America, after Cuba, to legalize elective abortion (during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy).

Women in politics

Unlike most other Latin American countries, women are not very present in politics. Uruguay has one of the lowest percentages of women in politics in Latin America. Only 12% of the members of the Uruguayan parliament are women. Though there are both national and international efforts being made to increase the presence of women in politics, bias in political systems has limited the number of women holding office in Uruguay. The first female vice president of Uruguay,

Beatriz Argimón Beatriz Argimón Cedeira (born 14 August 1961) is a Uruguayan politician and notary from the National Party (PN) serving as the 18th Vice President of Uruguay since March 1, 2020, being the first woman elected to that position. Graduated f ...

, was elected to office in 2020. The office of president has never been held by a woman in Uruguay. Beatriz Argimón was one of the founders of the Women's Caucus in Uruguayan parliament before she was elected vice president. Women's Caucuses in non-Western countries are often able to create visibility for women's issues and more effectively pass related legislation. Uruguay's women's caucus was formed in 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Women In Uruguay Uruguayan women

Human rights in Uruguay

Notable women

Domestic violence

Abortion

Women in politics

See also

Further reading

References