Women in Panama are the women who live in or are from

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. Panamanian women, by tradition, are

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

and they are treated as equal to men, accorded with "deference and respect".

Panamanian culture

Young women in Panama, particularly those who are single, are regarded as persons with "very high symbolic status", including giving them roles as Carnaval Queens. One particular example of such reverence of female adolescents is the celebration of the ''inna suid'' by the Kuna Indians, which is a three-day celebration of the adolescent girls'

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

. Some Panamanian women occupy high positions in a range of professions, including education and government service. Panama had a female

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

as their national leader, in the person of Mireya Moscoso, who was Panama's first female president, serving from 1999 to 2004.Panama
everyculture.com The

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

(as of 2015) is estimated at 94.4% for females and 95.7% for males (aged 15 and over).

Family life

As in other Latin American countries,

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...

is today very common in Panama, and most children are born to unmarried women: in the 2000s, 58.5% of the children were born to cohabiting mothers, 24.4% to married mothers, and 17.1% to single mothers (not living with a partner). But unlike other countries in the region, births outside of marriage have been the majority for decades: in the 1970s, only 30.4% of children were born inside of marriage. The

total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...

(TFR) is 2.38/children born per woman (as of 2014).

Domestic violence

Domestic violence is a problem in the country. Panama enacted ''Ley No.38 del 2001'' against domestic violence. In 2013, the country enacted Law 82 - Typifying Femicide and Violence Against Women (''Ley 82 - Tipifica el Femicidio y la Violencia contra las Mujeres'') a comprehensive law against

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often c ...

References

External links

Typical girl from Panama - main features
{{North America topic, Women in *

Panamanian culture

Family life

Domestic violence

See also

References

External links