Costa Rica 2006
♀
♂
Experience and Project
of
Kirsten Wood
About Me
•Issaquah, Washington
•Sophomore at University of Washington
•What to study?
•Mechanical Engineering
•Latin American Studies
•Environmental Studies
•Math
•Chocolate
•Soccer
Why Costa Rica?
•Latin America
•Environmentally significant
•Various ecosystems
•Cultural changes
•Sustainable practices
•Attracts attentionconservation
Goals
•Practice Spanish
•Learn about sustainability
•Experience tropical environment
•Multiple terrains
•Gain global perspective
•Independent project
Conclusions
•Spanish-inherent in being in
Costa Rica
•Project forced use
•Use of ‘Usted’ and ‘y’
•Environment
•Recycling
•So much Waste!
•Impact with burn/burry
garbage
•Constant warmth, noise
•Storms
•Fauna/ Flora-evolution
and defense
•Global perspective
•Ticos have better
understanding
•Value relationships
Independent Project
•Gender Roles
•Social perceptions of
Ticos and Ticas
•Value in society
•Views of life
•Why?
•Force cultural
interaction/observation
Objective
• Male vs. female
perceptions
• Do opportunities for
men/women differ?
• How does gender
affect daily life?
• Significance of
gender in society
• Variations of equality
across communities
• Compare societal
views of gender roles
with US
• Collect personal
accounts
– emotion, experience
and the culturally
unpredictable
Background
•Male dominated society
•Strong Catholic cultural base
•Recent female empowerment
•Fischel Volio
•1998-2002 2nd Vice-President
•Elizabeth Odio Benito
•1998-2002 1st. Vice-President
Astrid
Background
•Locations
•Mastatal
•Rural
•Monteverde and Alajuela
•Urban, Western influence
Methods
•Observations
•In the home
•Between family
•Personal
interactions
•Survey
•Questions from
WorldValuesSurvey.org
•Range over gender
and age group
•Interview
•Open-ended questions
•Focused on females
•Troubleshoot
Methods
•Survey
•Became supplemental
•More value in verbal survey
•Participants added anecdotes
•Allowed flexibility
•Essentially lots of interviews
•Interviews
•Imbalance: women more likely to open up
•Welcoming, open, fascinating
•Observations
•Informal
Data
•Analyzed 5 questions
•Compared with USA
results
•Also looked in
comparison to other
countries
•Experiences harder to
record/present
If someone says a child needs a home with both a father and a
mother to grow up happily, would you tend to agree or disagree?
Question 8
120
Percentages
100
CRMale
CRFemale
USMale
USFemale
80
60
40
20
0
1
Disagree
2
Responses
Agree
Results
•Some Americans feel both are not needed to raise a child well
•Every Tico believed both are needed
•Rural (majority of sample) vs. Urban
•Man brings in enough money, Women does domestic duties
•Both parents need work to provide for kids
•Women bring kids to work with them
•Importance of mother influence and special bond
•Commonly absent fathers
•Generation differences
•Women refuse to be trapped at home
•Value of family remains
•Men still not active in child rearing
For the following statement, tell me how much you agree:
University education is more important for a boy than a girl
Question 11
Percentage
70
60
50
40
CRMale
CRFemale
USMale
USFemale
30
20
10
0
1
Strongly Agree
2
3
Response
4
Strongly Disagree
Results
•More women than men disagreed that college education is
more important for males
•More Costa Rican women were strongly against that statement
than American women
•More American men were strongly against it than Costa Rican
men.
•Power of education
•Dominant men- attempt to keep power
•Women have newer right- hold tighter
•Informal Observations
•Girls took school more seriously
Do you think abortion can always be justified, never be
justified, or something in between
Question 31
120
Percentages
100
CRMale
CRFemale
USMale
USFemale
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Responses
Never
Always
10
Results
•Vast majority of Tico sample thought abortion was never justified
•American opinion is far more disperse with relative equality
between the male and female opinion
•Females are slighted more towards abortion never being
justified
•Abortion is illegal
•Many people still get abortions
•Had abortion despite religion
•So she could work/care for other children
Do you agree or disagree with the statement:
When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job
than women.
Number 37
90
80
Percentage
70
CRMale
CRFemale
USMale
USFemale
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
Response
Agree
Disagree
Neither
Results
•Many Costa
Rican women
agreed
•Most Americans
disagreed
•Costa Rican
men said neither
•Women still feel less valuable in the working world
•Fight for female rights in Costa Rica stronger
while the economy is up
•Men somewhat neutral
•Partial acknowledgement of the passing of
chauvinism.
• A woman said that if the wife makes more than the
husband, then the wife would simply leave him
• Suggests women need men for income, if
financially independent do not want husband
•Old cultural values still an influence
How much freedom of choice and control you feel you have
over the way your life turns out.
Question 38
100
Percentage ge
90
80
CRMales
CRFemale
USMales
USFemale
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
None at all
3
4
5
6
7
Amount of Influence
8
9
10
A great deal
Results
•Costa Rican women averaged 7.25 compared to the 8 for Costa Rican men
•American women averaged 7.94 and men at 8.02
•Women in US and CR averaged lower than men
•Difference of American means < .1
Costa Rican mean discrepancy .75.
•Possibly: US women’s rights movement lost fervor and
•Americans like to feel total control
•Women’s movement taking root in younger generations in Costa Rica
•Younger girls feel lowest amount of control, older women feel the
highest
• Possibly: With age one understands how life unfolds, determine
power individual decisions
•New generation of women feel restrained, see opportunity for
change, see possibilities
Conclusion
•New generation focused on
equality
•Options vs. duty
•Strong females everywhere
•Urban and Rural
•Social expectations exist but
normal to break
•Typical female=domestic
•Men in tough spot
Future
•Similarly structured questions to WorldValuesSurvey
•possibly subtle affect on the responses
•Extremely narrow sample
•focused on a specific area
•More samples and to extend the study to more urban areas.
•Charted results to other questions with several other
countries’ data
• Interesting but brief
•Compare across several international communities
•more questions
•age ranges
•each gender
Personal Effects
•Definitely go back
•Beautiful country
•Will I stay changed?
•The people
•The land
•Will I remember?
•Influenced me
•Life without materials
•Importance of family
•Minimize impact
Works Cited
•Beletsky, Les. Costa Rica: Travellers' Wildlife Guides. Northampton, MA:
Interlink Publishing Group, Inc, 2005.
•"Bienvenidos al Rancho." Rancho Mastatal: Enviornmental Learning Center
and Lodge. 19 Aug 2006. Rancho Mastatal. 18 April 2006
<http://www.ranchomastatal.com/home.php>.
•Biesanz, Mavis Hiltunen, Richard Biesanz, and Karen Zubris Biesanz. The
Ticos:
Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica. Boulder, CO: Lynne
Rienner
Publishers, Inc, 1999.
•"Cloud Forest." Monteverde Costa Rica. 1998. Instituto Costaricense de
Turismo.
22 Sep 2006 <http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/>.
•Inglehart, Ronald. World Values Survey. 200. 10 Sep 2006
<http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org>.
•Leitinger, Ilse A. The Costa Rican Women's Movement. 29. Pittsburg, PA:
University of Pittsburg Press, 1996.
•Stein, Laura Guzman and Anne Letendre Morales . "Gender and education
in Costa Rica." (2004) 11-15. 06 June 2006
Lo que paso, paso
Entre tu y yo
THE END
Any Questions??