"It is important that the Academy is involved in women's issues"
On Friday, December 4, the University of Azuay -together with its Department of Equality and Gender- held the talk "No to violence against women", around the commemoration of November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
“Thanks to the Gender Department, the University takes actions based on this line, actions that originate in meetings where the issue of gender and violence is reflected upon. Why does violence historically increase instead of diminish? ”This is how the Academic Vice Chancellor, Martha Cobos, began the talk.
The Vice Chancellor emphasized that these academic spaces such as the talks help to identify these situations of violence and allow us to look for alternatives that help us to reduce this phenomenon, which has taken the lives of 103 women throughout this year in Ecuador.
Likewise, María del Carmen Calderón, director of the Gender Department, affirmed that “the Academy has the moral imperative to act to change this situation”, since these spaces allow an early influence on young people and help in the formation of values and norms relating to gender equality.
This talk was attended by Carmen Barreto, Secretary of Human Rights of zonal direction 6, and Janeth Garzón, first elected president of the National Council of Rural Parish Governments of Ecuador in Azuay (CONAGOPARE).
Barreto addressed the issue of women's rights in the framework of human rights and highlighted three elements.
The first element is that violence is a public health problem worldwide, it does not look at socioeconomic level, religion, absolutely nothing.
The second is that not because we do not experience that problem, it ceases to exist, sometimes we only believe that we do not experience it when in reality it may.
The third element is that the fact that there is a declaration of human rights does not guarantee them until the authorities, public policy, academia, citizens know how to work with them and can defend them.
For her part, Janeth Garzón spoke about the situation of rural women around violence.
Garzón chairs the Conagopare for the second time in a row and spoke from her experience as a rural woman in the political sphere.
He affirmed that the difference in political participation between men and women is still enormous, because according to statistics from Conagopare 2019, of the total of 4094 members of the rural parish councils in Ecuador, only 1106 members are women, 27%.
On the other hand, with respect to the province of Azuay, of the 61 Parish Governments, there are only 2 women who preside over it, in addition, of 244 members in the province, only 72 are women with a representation of 29%.
UDA Correspondent
