Women in the Americas

[5] The first historical evidence of people in the Americas from scientific study comes from mitochondrial DNA of Paleoindians who crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Beringia into the area now known as Alaska around 13,000 years ago.

), and a shift from procuring food from available sources was made, societies were transformed toward more settled communities often developing social classes, trade and economic specialization of labor.

Figurines from throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean region, depict women in postures of respect demonstrating power and prestige and participating in varied economic, political, religious and social activities.

In some patrilineal groups, women gained prestige from their relationships with men but were allowed to own their own property and were honored for their participation in crafts and ceremonial functions.

By the time of contact with Europeans, most North American women were farmers, and had accepted supporting roles to their men, who performed hunting, trade, and diplomatic functions.

[20] Though bondage had existed among native cultures, captives or slaves were treated as pawns to be used in diplomatic relations, for resolving disputes, to right wrongs, or as punishment for crimes and often had multiple functions, as laborers, prisoners, or property.

[25] In the earliest period, individuals were put ashore to explore areas, learn the language and customs and prepare to be translators and guides for later expeditioners.

[29] Spanish and Portuguese missionaries strongly opposed sexual behaviors, including adultery, polygamy, premarital sex, as well as nudity, which were tolerated by some native populations.

[23] Throughout the Americas, bondage existed—in warmer climates, where plantation systems developed,[45] or in the northern areas, where women were either transported as criminals[46] or worked as indentured servants.

[53] Church authorities in areas in which indigenous people and non-natives mingled, were prone to accuse natives of practicing witchcraft[54] and Inquisitional auto-da-fés or torture were used to spur conversion to Catholicism.

[23] Though initially indigenous people used female slaves as manual laborer, currency in diplomatic alliances and as sexual objects,[23] as the plantation economy grew, tribes in the southeastern United States adapted the way they used slavery to fit the European model.

Emulating and competing in the commerce systems of the white settlers, the Five Civilized Tribes not only used slave labor on their plantations in the South, but also transported the practice to the plains in the 1830s, when they were removed to Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma.

[75] After waiting for months, or even years in a British prison, transportees were loaded onto convict ships and sent abroad,[76] often becoming mistresses or unwilling sexual partners to sailors during the voyage.

[90] When slavery was abolished and new means of cheap labor were sought, crimping inducements soared in Chinese ports[91] and officials were loath to allow females to emigrate.

[87] They encountered societal and family oppression, poverty, lack of power, sexual abuse and violence during their indenture, but most remained after their contracts were completed.

[101] Lucretia Mott and William Lloyd Garrison eventually founded the American Anti-Slavery Society[102] and both were supportive of women being equal voices in the fight against slavery.

[109] In Latin America, the 19th century was a time of revolution with Nationalist movements and Independence Wars erupting throughout the Spanish colonies, many led by Simón Bolívar.

Women were not simply spectators or support for men in the wars of Latin America, but took up arms, acted as spies and informants, organizers and nurses.

It was the largest non-denominational women's organization in Canada during the 19th century, as abuse of alcohol was widely credited as the cause of disease, immorality, poverty, prostitution, unemployment and violence.

The relational feminism which developed in Latin America was more geared to protect the rights that women gained as wives and mothers—rights that made them inherently different from men.

[118] Though different in some ways, in others, women's situation was the same, as 19th-century politicians believed that granting rights to minorities would undermine the authority of the state and threaten stability by overturning the social order.

[122] U.S. interventionism, which had expanded during the end of the colonial era through World War I, increasingly brought criticism from Latin America and the Caribbean region.

[120] Early hemispherical conferences looked for ways and means to improve education for women, provide for children, and promote social welfare programs.

[35] There were at least 102 of these women who were political agents, had access to large amounts of wealth, had been granted hundreds or thousands of Native people to work for them as slaves.

[145] After the 1979 Nicaraguan Revolution in which the Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega deposed the dictatorial president Anastasio Somoza Debayle, they implemented a number of social reforms, including trying to eliminate gender inequality and improve female literacy rates.

[151] Women hold 48.9% of the parliamentary seats in the Cuban National Assembly ranking sixth of 162 countries on issues of female participation in political life.

These characteristics were "high levels of self-efficacy," "an internal locus of control believing that success results from one's own behaviour" and "a need for achievement and a preference for challenging tasks.

A common job for the Maroon women in French Guiana include cleaning work in coastal areas, particularly in the markets of Saint-Laurent and Cayenne to earn income that would support their children.

[166] The legal and government institutions that currently exist in Paraguay were developed in part through the efforts of feminist organizations in the country that held significant awareness-raising campaigns during the 1990s to formalize the guarantees of women's rights.

"[23] In Latin America, often those who commit acts of violence against women go "unpunished by legal systems that are ill-equipped to prosecute offenders or that sometimes show little interest in doing so.