Honduras

The Republic of Honduras has a high adolescent birth rate. Mothers with formal employment have maternity leave, but others rely on extended family or combine work and childcare. Formal marriage is uncommon. Culture and religion influence traditional gender roles, which are evolving. Contraceptive awareness does not necessarily lead to usage; professional prenatal and delivery care is low. Women have organized to protest the disappearance and detainment of family members.

While the overall rate of 3.4 children per mother has fallen sharply since the 1970s, Honduras has the highest adolescent birthrate in Central America. More than half of 20 – to 24-year-olds are mothers by age 20. Being rural and poor and having little education are factors associated with early child-bearing. Many rural women and women with little education do not have adequate prenatal care. Half of births are attended by skilled personnel.

Women's educational attainment is low but exceeds men's. Only a third of women go on to secondary school. Mothers working in the formal sector have 10 weeks of maternity leave, and most working mothers rely on family and kinship networks for childcare, or work at home or in informal jobs with their children by their side. The Social Investment Fund created employment projects and welfare payments for single mothers.

Formal unions are infrequent, and common-law marriages are considered legitimate. Female-headed households increased to 50 percent in 2006 in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, when many men left Honduras to find work. Many women are the sole family income earners. Sexual activity begins early, especially for women with little education. Out-of-union births are uncommon. Gender responsibilities are changing due to girls' increased education and labor force participation, but women do the bulk of childcare and domestic work.

Most Hondurans are Catholic but often blend Catholicism with native religions. The Madonna image, marianismo, influences cultural expectations of selfless mothering. The Catholic Church is a strong social institution, but does not directly influence governmental family planning efforts. Knowledge of contraception is high, but there is a [Page 534]lack of knowledge by young women about where to obtain or use it. One-third of sexually active adolescents use modern contraception. Many men, however, dislike contraception because machismo encourages men to father many children. Abortion is common, although illegal except to save the life of the mother. In the 1980s, many Honduran women organized in response to human rights abuses and disappearances of family members. Women founded organizations such as the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared to advocate for justice. Sister Maria Rosa Leggol, often called the Central American Mother Teresa, gave about 40,000 abandoned and abused Honduran children a home, an education, and a future through the organization she founded, Friends of Honduran Children.