Peru

Women make up approximately half of Peru's 29 million inhabitants. Although they hold a variety of roles within contemporary society, their rates of literacy, economic activity, formal schooling, and government positions continue to be lower than those of men.

Life expectancy is 72 years for women compared with 67 years for men. Over half of Peruvians are poor, and nearly a quarter are extremely poor. Peruvian women experience varying access to resources depending on region of residence, urban versus rural location, language, and race. Although just over one-third of the country's population lives in rural settings, the population in rural settings makes up almost 60 percent of those living in poverty. Women in rural areas have higher fertility and maternal mortality rates. Leading causes of maternal mortality include hemorrhage, toxemia, and complications related to abortion. Differences in maternal mortality rates are partly the result of the concentration of resources in urban areas and to the marginalization of rural areas, where the population is made up mostly of indigenous people.

The contraceptive prevalence rate among married women aged 15–49 years is 48 percent for modern methods and 71 percent for all methods. In 2008, women had an average of 2.4 children. The dominant religion in the country is Catholicism, and abortion is illegal except in cases in which it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman.

Over the last two decades, the government designed policies to address maternal and infant healthcare, as well as reproductive health. The National Program of Reproductive Health and Family Planning 1996–2000 made sterilization and reproductive health education free to all Peruvians. However, within two years of the program's implementation, over 200 cases of forced or coerced sterilization of mainly poor indigenous women had been documented. In 2001, the National Family Planning Program underwent reorganization, and family planning and reproductive health lost priority and funding.

Primary education is mandated for all Peruvians, and public schools are free, yet in practice, not all Peruvians have equal access to education. Women continue to receive less formal schooling than men, and women in rural areas have less access to schooling than women in urban areas. Peru's two official languages are Spanish [Page 1091]and Quechua—the most widely spoken indigenous language in the Andes—yet in practice, access to bilingual education is not guaranteed, and Spanish continues to be the dominant language within the education system. In addition to Quechua, there are several dozen other indigenous languages spoken across Peru, especially in the Amazon.

Peru ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1982 and the regional Convention of Belém do Pará in 1996, thereby formally recognizing violence against women as a form of discrimination and as a human rights issue. In 1993, Peru became the first Latin American country to pass laws specifically on domestic violence. As a result of modifications in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2003, the Family Violence Law includes physical, psychological, and sexual violence as forms of domestic violence, regardless of an individual's class, race, or gender. Women can file complaints in the family violence sections of regular police stations, specialized women's police stations, Women's Emergency Centers, and the public prosecutor's office.

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