An XX in an XY world

example of a brigade workshop

It’s pretty fun being an American women in a Latin American country.

Actually, it’s exciting to be a woman in many places in the world today. Women are more visible than ever, taking on more business leadership positions and acting as a strong force in the economic market and political arena.  For example, women currently make up the majority of the U.S. workforce and Costa Rica just elected their first female President, the 5th in Latin America’s history. Things are changing.

What is exciting for me as a young professional and woman in a country normally marked by “machismo,”  is the cultural-exchange/shock and the social affects it has on me and on those around me. For example, there is not a large cultural norm for girls to play sports. Yes, there are girls that do play, but in the various Latin countries I have lived I rarely saw a group of girls in the park playing soccer, basketball, or any other kind of organized sport. Therefore, girls just don’t join in when a group of boys get together and play.

Now, what is fun about my job is that we bring down groups of about 15-30 university students from the U.S. to do a “brigade” — a week of workshops and community development/assessment based on the specific needs of that particular community. Many of those in the group are women that have grown up playing sports their whole lives. Now, you throw them in a Panamanian community where boys have never seen girls play sports as well as they do (or just ever) and BAM, paradigm shift. It’s written all over the shock on their faces.

Not only in a basic example such as sports, but in the actual “brigade” (the project week) we are invited to help run workshops to the leaders of a farm, about business, legal, or environmental issues. Most of the leaders of these communities are men – serving as heads of households and providers. They are often surprised to see that many of our students giving the workshops are women.

One of my colleagues said in our business brainstorm meeting today, “The men in these communities see women leading and leading well, and then think ‘Hey my wife or daughter could do this.’ Or the women see it and think ‘Hey, I can do this.’”  It’s sometimes is simply that they have never seen an example and we come in with 15.  In this sense, our basis as a “development organization” is  breaking all kinds of social stereotypes and broadening the idea of “gender roles” in a community.

Apart from the rural communities, on a day-to-day basis here in Panama City myself and the girls I work with are full-time examples of breaking these cultural expectations. People are shocked that I am and my roommates are 22-25 working/living far away from home supporting ourselves. I received the mostly ghastly looks when myself and 2 other girl friends told people we were going to hike Volcan Baru (an intermediate day hike), without a male guide. And just the other day, a male friend of mine was shocked to see me driving.

These things excite me. We aren’t just preaching that women are just as capable and intelligent as the next man in the community  — we are showing it: in each workshop, in each soccer game, and in each small interaction with those around us.

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