Indigenous Women's Rights, Bolivia

Bolivia is among the poorest and least-developed Latin American countries. It has a large indigenous population composed of groups such as Quechua and Aymara. Bolivia shares the Latin American culture of machismo and historically based gender and ethnic prejudices. Indigenous women are most affected by the resultant poverty, low educational attainment, economic inequality, unemployment, low skills and wages, poor healthcare, violence against women, and ethnic and gender discrimination. Grassroots indigenous and women's organizations have risen since the late 1970s to challenge discriminatory laws. Key areas in the struggle for indigenous women's rights include land redistribution and titles and political representation.

Indigenous women's rights activists seek to improve their quality of life. Most indigenous women in Bolivia live in poverty in rural areas or urban slums. They ...