MUJERES DE PIEDRA, MUJERES DE COCA - Women in Bolivia (45 images)

In the early 19th Century, Bolivian women fought alongside men for the country's independence from colonial Spain. They stormed into battle on horseback, seized cities and were on the frontline. However those equalities did not transfer into political arena or daily life. In January 2006, Evo Morales Ayma, a politician from indigenous origin, became president and things started to change for the better. Today women are involved in running the country as never before and the new cabinet has 10...
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In the early 19th Century, Bolivian women fought alongside men for the country's independence from colonial Spain. They stormed into battle on horseback, seized cities and were on the frontline. However those equalities did not transfer into political arena or daily life. In January 2006, Evo Morales Ayma, a politician from indigenous origin, became president and things started to change for the better. Today women are involved in running the country as never before and the new cabinet has 10 men and 10 women, three of them indigenous. Another sign that female political influence is on the rise is the fact that they now occupy an unprecedented 30% of seats in Bolivia's new legislative branch. Bolivia's women are often coca farmers and miners on top of their usual domestic chores, and it is not unusual for grandmothers to work in the mines, sifting through stones by hand. Mr Morales said that since his early days as a leader of the coca trade union, he had always worked towards getting women into decision-making posts based on the chacha warmi, a concept that in the local Aymara indigenous culture means that men and women are complementary in an egalitarian way.
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