[4] The Peruvian Government has begun efforts to combat the high maternal mortality rate and lack of female political representation, as well as violence against women.

After the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire, the culture became more patriarchal; and the resulting society has been described as being machista.

[5][6] During the republican revolutions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the concept of separate spheres (private vs. public) became a legally debated issue in Peru.

For the same reason, physical injuries resulting from the "punishment" of dependence (servants, wives, children) were usually considered "private", crimes and the rights of the perpetrators carried more weight than the protections due to the victims, who were not, after all, citizens.

Even as republican judicial officials tried to balance the demands of public and domestic order, they continue to trend, begun with the Bourbon reforms, of increasingly claiming jurisdiction in those cases pertaining to marriage, family, and sexual honor, in which the affected parties did press charges.

[9] During this republican state, men who were contributed to the public sphere and were either married, between the age of 21 and 25, owned property, had an independent profession, or paid taxes were granted "citizenship status".

became worthless because it was no longer recognized as a public contribution, but just a part of the private (patriarchal) system in Peru.

For example, a few months before Toledo's petition was denied, an “honorable man’s” sentence was reduced because his wife had indicated on the appeal that he was her family's sole provider.

On June 17, 1956, Peruvian women voted for the first time in general elections, after years of mobilization by women like María Jesús Alvarado, Adela Montesinos, Zoila Aurora Cáceres, Elvira García y García, and Magda Portal, among others.

In shantytowns, women established soup kitchens (comedores) and worked together to ensure that their families received enough food to eat.

One part of a woman's life was considered private which included the work that women did and how they were treated inside the home.

[19] The Peruvian armed forces, frustrated with the inability of the Alan García administration to handle the nation's crises, including the internal conflict in Peru, began to draft Plan Verde to overthrow his government and establish a neoliberal government.

[20][21] In one of the plan's volumes titled Driving Peru into the XXI century, the military planned to sterilize impoverished citizens in what Rospigliosi described as "ideas frankly similar to the Nazis", with the military writing that "the general use of sterilization processes for culturally backward and economically impoverished groups is convenient", describing these groups as "unnecessary burdens" and that "given their incorrigible character and lack of resources ... there is only their total extermination".

During his presidency, Fujimori conducted a program of forced sterilizations against indigenous Quechuas and the Aymaras women, under the guise of a "public health plan".

[24][25] Forced sterilization against indigenous and poor women was practiced on a large scale in Peru.

The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published in 2003, notes that during the internal conflict in Peru, there were numerous cases of women being forcibly sterilized; it was estimated that hundreds of thousands of mostly rural women were sterilized under deception or with insufficient consent in the 1990s as part of a campaign intended to combat poverty.

[29] The International Criminal Court condemned the Fujimori government's actions, describing them as crimes against humanity.

In order to combat those high figures, the government released a strategic plan in 2008 to reduce the total to 120 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

[5] The husband and wife share responsibility for household affairs, but in approximately 75% of marriages, finances are handled by the wives.

[32] Despite the fact that married Peruvian men occasionally openly take lovers, divorce is difficult to obtain.

[47] The government has attempted to address the issues, establishing the National Programme against Family Violence and Abuse in 2001, and passing a law requiring local authorities to deal with domestic abuse and stipulating punishments for rape and spousal rape.

[50] Some abusive husbands were caught in the general rise in criminal prosecution, particularly when their drunken or violent behavior threatened public as well as domestic order.

Salazar, on previous occasions not only injured his wife but also killed animals for spite and cut his brother-in-law's hand, was dangerously violent.

The republican courts defined vaguely the level of violence necessary to constitute assault in domestic cases.

Between 1784 and 1824, there were only two worthy cases filed by mothers de parte under the category of physical or verbal violence but neither made it till the end.

Going further, the penalties for rape convictions were "generally stricter than those for nonsexual assault: several months in jail while performing public labor and/or providing a dowry for the young woman".

Female politicians are often from richer families, as women from a lower income bracket must deal with housework.