Women and Honduras

The norm for women in Honduras makes me really sad. The majority of women here seem have a very specific goal in life, and that goal is to be a mother. I am going to include two disclaimers here. The first- I'm not pretending to know how all of the women in Honduras feel. But based on talking to my neighbors (and the strange looks I always accrue when I try to share my liberal, feminist ideas with them), and the high school students at our school, it really does seem that most of the women here just take it for granted that they need find a husband and make babies....and sooner, rather than later. For this reason, there are an incredible amount of teenage mothers here. One of the 22-year-old Honduran teachers at my school has a five-year-old son and another on the way. She’s married to a 35-year-old man.

My second disclaimer is that, of course, there is nothing wrong with being a mother. Being a mother is a wonderful and important thing. The part that makes me sad is the lack of choice. Women here have to fight so hard if they want to do something different. They are met with huge societal obstacles when they dream about something else. This reality upsets me the most when I think about the girls in my class growing up with that mindset. They will have to fight so much harder to not only fulfill other dreams, but to even have other dreams to fulfill. I want my students, both the girls and the boys, to know that their dreams have no limits! They can do whatever they want to do! Especially the girls. Some of the girls in my class are just such bright children, it breaks my heart to think that they might ever doubt their potential to soar.

I don’t want my students to ever, ever grow up and think they can’t do something. I try to tell them every day how smart they are. I try to tell them every day that they can do anything they want to do when they grow up. It's not much at all, but what else can I do? I have always been someone who strives to effect change. I like to try and change things, even on a very tiny scale. But here I am faced with a situation that I really can't change. For now, all I can do is be a strong role model and show these girls that they don't have to be teenage moms, if they don't want to be. It's hard to not get down on myself for not doing more...but I don't know what else to do.