Introduction Women's organizations have benefited from Guatemala's political opening launched in 1985 by a new constitution and the first free and fair elections in twenty years. Women have, in turn, contributed to Guatemala's democratization process by creating wider political spaces for expression. The Situation of Guatemalan Women Women make up one of the most marginalized sectors of Guatemalan society, suffering from high levels of poverty and violence, abysmal levels of education, difficult access to health care, lack of political representation and ignorance of their rights. Women's inequality has a negative impact on Guatemala's development, particularly as about a third of Guatemalan households are supported by women.
Women have higher unemployment rates than men.
Only 22,000 women collect a pension, as compared to 71,000 men. As women all over the world, Guatemalan women often juggle full-time work with childcare and domestic obligations. Recent studies show that rural women in Guatemala work, as a part of a family unit, as much as 18 hours a day without remuneration, bearing the greatest burden of the country's poverty. Women's health in Guatemala has improved somewhat over the past years, but the situation is still among the worst in the Western Hemisphere. Women in Guatemala also suffer from malnutrition and lack of access to health care.