When confronted with headlines such as the deliberate neglect of baby girls in India, the veiling of women in the Middle East, and the flogging of a Nigerian teenager impregnated through rape, one can t help thinking that Latinas don t have it too bad compared to women in other parts of the developing world. I even wonder how much more discrimination women face in Latin America than they do in industrialized nations. While In the Land of God and Man sometimes portrays the United States as the promised land in terms of women s rights, in some respects Latin Americans are no more sexist than Americans and may in fact be less so. One Gallup poll, for instance, showed Colombians to be more accepting of non-marital childbearing than American respondents. But the right to abortion in itself is hardly a guarantee of women s equality.
Abortion is legal in India, for example, yet the status of women in that nation is very low.
In the Land of God and Man downplays the accomplishments Latin American women have made in traditionally male domains. For instance, Paternostro only cursorily mentions the fact that half of all university graduates in the region are women. When speaking of women in government, she points out that they are usually assigned to specific ministries, such as education, tourism, culture, and family and women s affairs. She never explains, however, why these positions are minor or subordinate compared to, say, the ministries of health or defense. Even more significantly, female politicians are criticized for not being feminist enough.