On International Working Women’s Day, the political plane is still in debt to women in terms of spaces. Carmen Alonso, head of Diben, highlighted the necessary role of women in decision areas, which is still not a priority.
Taking into account the series of struggles that make this day memorable, although time passes and undeniable progress is observed in various sectors, the reality that surrounds the female community continues to be characterized by a series of pending debts. Specifically in the political sector, the head of the Directorate of Welfare and Social Assistance (Diben), Carmen Alonso, emphasized various challenges.
“There are various difficulties on the political level for women. In Paraguay, we must open our own spaces, without having already established opportunities or sufficient openness”, commented Alonso, thus projecting the main weakness found for women in their performance within decision-making spaces.
In this regard, he made a special emphasis on the idiosyncrasy of Paraguayan society, which continues to stand out for the prevailing machismo, even among women themselves. The policy indicated that this can be seen from the visible lack of support and follow-up for female leaders.
“It is more comfortable to support male leaders because it is difficult for us to support female politicians,” Alonso stressed, drawing a parallel between our situation and countries like Argentina, which had more than one president and provides key spaces for women in the political sector.
Meanwhile, according to the head of Diben, in Paraguay the female figure in politics is still so absent that we have not even had a female leader throughout our history. Not to mention that today no woman is occupying the governorship of any department and her presence in Congress has considerably decreased.
WHAT HAVE WE ADVANCED?
Although Alonso determined that at the political level it is very difficult for our country to advance in terms of equal opportunities, in business, managerial and other similar positions it has evolved a lot. For the head of the Diben, in the aspects mentioned, a woman can be seen leading, with the possibility of developing an important labor empowerment.
“When it comes to elective positions we don’t have much of a presence and, in most cases, it is up to the women themselves to occupy significant spaces through the support of all of them,” she said, going on to say that it is therefore important to understand the need for role of women in decision-making spaces.
Alonso focused the leading role of women in determining sectors due to their focus on political issues, which are mostly directed towards social problems. However, to obtain public office, the professional she stressed the need to have strong political and partisan support.
“For my part, I recognize that I had strong support from the First Lady, Silvana Abdo, and that opened many doors for me. Being that important, in any case I had a lot of openness within the structure and the movement that touched me in the military”, explained the head of Diben.
Within the point, he ruled that he is talking with grassroots leaders to form consensus and determine the acceptance of his profile for the 2023 elections, since Alonso has aspirations to occupy a seat in the Senate.
“I believe that this is a moment in which Paraguay needs more elected women in decision-making positions. We need to strengthen the participation of women in the political sphere, open that possibility and encourage women to take up the baton as well”, she underlined.
MORE ABOUT CARMEN ALONSO
– Carmen Alonso, current head of Diben, has a degree in political science and psychology.
– His role with a social focus and his political figure come from his prominence as a trade unionist in the health sector.
– She was Vice President of the IPS Medical Association, apart from standing out in other positions with a strong social outlook.
– She had aspirations as a senator for the current period and will present her candidacy again for the Upper House, through the Republican Force movement.
