Basic Rights Violated Gender, ethnicity and geography present a triple challenge to indigenous, rural women who are perceived as socially inferior. While many countries in the region have achieved equality for women and men in education, indigenous girls are still at a disadvantage when compared to indigenous boys and even other rural girls. According to this same study, indigenous girls in Guatemala complete an average of one year of schooling, while boys complete 1.8 years. In many regions, this situation is compounded by the fact that indigenous women often do not speak Spanish or speak only very little. The situation of extreme poverty endured by rural women, and by indigenous women in particular, is also reflected in high rates of fertility, malnutrition, and maternal and infant mortality.
Rural women lack adequate health-care services.
Nearly half of all children born to rural women in Bolivia suffer chronic malnutrition. One out of every three indigenous women in the rural areas of Ecuador prefers to not seek professional care for health problems because of the abusive treatment in the public health care services. Another aspect of rural life and labor is directly related to certain types of work that often involve the use of chemical products which have been proven to be extremely toxic. In Chile, a number of cases of poisoning have involved women employed as seasonal workers harvesting and packing fruit and other agricultural products for export. Recent research has shown that the use of these chemicals causes vomiting, fainting, stomach pain, chronic headaches, and respiratory illnesses.