The Americas and the Caribbean

Legislation in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean has not succeeded in ending discrimination against women in political and public life, say participants at the 10th Regional Conference on Women being held in the Ecuadorean capital.
To read the full article, please visit IPS News

Indigenous and black women in Latin America and the Caribbean face three-fold discrimination because of their gender, race and social class, in politics and at work.That is how it was put by participants in a panel on "Citizenship and Political Participation by Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Women" at the 10th Regional Conference on Women that ended Thursday in the Ecuadorean capital.
To read the full article, please visit IPS News

Women town councillors in Bolivia are pressing for a law to protect them from discrimination and political harassment on the part of their male colleagues, whom they accuse of intimidation and even death threats, especially in rural areas.
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More than a hundred Latin American leading women will meet October 26 in Honduras, to boost political resources and commitments headed to the fight against Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
To read the full article, please visit the Prensa Latina's Website

Defying Latin America's longtime reputation as a bastion of machismo, women in South America are winning political power at an unprecedented rate and taking top positions in higher education and even, albeit more slowly, in business. The election last year of Michelle Bachelet to Chile's presidency and the all-but-certain victory of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina's presidential balloting next Sunday are the most visible examples of the trend
To read the full article, please visit the SACBEE's Website

The political and socioeconomic changes taking place in a number of Latin American countries are, no doubt, not only facilitating the rise of women to key government and administrative posts, but also their entry into all types of programs, and they are beginning to leave behind the historical marginalization to which they have been subjected.
To read the full article, please visit the GRANMA Internacional's Website

Ten women’s organisations from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela participated in the first ever Women in the Fight Against Poverty Regional Competition, sponsored by the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), whose mission is to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty.
To read the full article, please visit IPS News

The International Women Forum (IWF) staged a seminar bringing together about 500 influential women leaders from around the world to discuss such issues as globalization and poverty eradication.
To read the full article, please visit the People Online's Website.

Over the next three days women from across the Caribbean will be meeting in Belize to exchange ideas and discuss what can be done to have women not only become more active in politics but to train and prepare women for elections. According to the United Nations Fund for Women in the Caribbean, women’s participation and representation at all levels continues to be low, twenty years after the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women.
To read the full article, please visit the 7 News Belize Website.