Country reportURUGUAY

Republica Oriental del Uruguay issituated in between two big countries:
Argentina and Brazil, in the south of SouthAmerica. The Guaraní word Uruguay
means River of the painted birds as its
capital city, Montevideo, lies on the River
Plate. This river ends up in the Atlantic
Ocean being an estuary, more than a river.
The population is almost 3 million.
Uruguay is divided into 19 provinces

GAUCHO
This is themaincharacterofUruguay,a nomad
who livesinthecountrysideMontevideo

The country is a democratic republic;so we have a president with his 13
secretaries of State (the Ministries) as
the Executive Power. The Legislative
Power is composed by two chambers:
the deputies (99 members) and thelegislators (151 members). The
Judiciary Power is independent fromthe Executive one. We have national
elections every four years

Houses of Parliament

Regarding export and home
production, there is a big request
for our meat which is one of thebest in the world; we also
cultivate rice and oranges, weproduce paper and vegetables.
However, the biggest income isfrom our tourism. People from allover the world come to ourbeaches on the Atlantic. Uruguay
main income comes fromservices. Our national flower isthe Ceibo; it is present in ournative forest

Oranges

Salto GrandePaperThis is the drink wehave at all times. It iscalled mate and it tastes
bitter

Tourism

Punta del Este

RiceSoriano

My job description:
I work as an executive assistant of theNational Territory Coordination Board at theMinistry of Social Development. The missionof the Ministry is to develop, articulate, monitor
and evaluate all social policies throughout thecountry in a decentralized manner. I am incharge of the activities that have to do with thedecentralization, as organizing national
meetings with the representatives of all theprovinces. These Seminars are held once amonth in different cities

CattleRío Negro

Soccer

It is the most exciting sport for our people
and the most popular as wellASADOASADO is our typicalfood. People comefrom all over theworld to have the best
beef

Three major issues andproblems regarding gender in
my country

Major gender issues
Education

Employment

Women have obtained
higher grades of educationthan men

Despite the higher levels ofeducation, women getlower rank jobs

Only 11% of the legislators
are women

There is no difference
between boys and girls inPrimary School

Lower job’s quality

Only 20% are Ministry Chief
Officers

Women represent 63% of
the students attending theUniversity of the Republic

In the last years the country
has obtained more womenat the University, in all fieldsof study

Women’s wages are 40 %less than that of men for
doing the same work.

Policymaking
decision

Although our womenparliament participation israther low, this year theParliament passed a law on
the equal rate of womenparticipation

Three major challenges andobstacles in mainstreaming
gender in my country

Major obstacles

There is still absenceof gender
mainstreaming inpublic social policies.
Even in the national
budgetThere is a big amountof the population thatare still in an
exclusive social
situation

There is a concept weall have in Uruguay,that we do haveequality regarding
gender. It is installedin the imaginary ofpeopleUseful knowledge and skills
gained through this seminarThrough the Seminar I got plenty ofknowledge about the Japanese life
in terms of gender, throughvarious ways. I have learned how
you think, your struggle to get to agender equal society and all you
got from old times up to know in
totally different fields as educationor health care.

Action plan on
mainstreaming genderin my country

Title: SURVEY ON THE NEEDS FOR GENDER MAINSTREAMING
Objective: TO FIND OUT THE REAL NEEDS OF GENDER
EQUALITY IN EACH PROVINCE
Activities: MEETING WITH ALL REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGNAQUESTIONNAIRE
Expected outcomes: TO ACHIEVE THE NECESSARY KNOWLEDGEFROM THE TERRITORY IN ORDER TO MAINSTREAM SOCIALPOLICIES AT A NATIONAL LEVEL

Thank you

Katina Bitlloch
MIDESkbitlloch@mides.gub.uy