Hope, horror, humor close out International Women’s Day in Bogotá

FEMALE CHARACTER (Bogota Anglo Theater)

Hopeful stories of economic empowerment. Horrifying stories of sexual abuse. Humorous poems of friendship and love.

These and more made up a fascinating evening to close out International Women’s Day in the Colombian capital.

Entitled FEMALE CHARACTER – A Celebration of International Women’s Day – the event was conceived and presented by The Bogotá Anglo Theater (BAT) and hosted by Madame Club in the city’s fashionable Parque 93 neighborhood.

This year’s theme is “Press for Progress” and to kick off the evening BAT co-founder and event MC Tigre Haller invited  speakers to introduce themselves by recounting their childhood ambitions.

MC Tigre Haller invites input from the audience. (Delaney Turner)

Among them were doctor, astronaut, painter…and spy.

Against these childhood ambitions Haller created a stark contrast with a reminder that gender parity is still more than 200 years away (217 at the current rate, to be exact). Further, global gender parity is for the first time actually moving backward.

For example:

• In 2017, the average progress on closing the global gender gap stands at 68% – meaning 32% remains to be closed worldwide across key dimensions of Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In 2016, the gap stood at 31.7%
• On average, the 144 countries surveyed (including Colombia) have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes (unchanged from 2016); however, the gaps between men and women in Economic Participation and Political Empowerment remain wide. Only 58% of the gap has been closed, marking the second straight year of reversed progress and the lowest value since 2008.

Colombia has over the last decade made significant economic and social progress. The country legalized gay marriage in 2016 and a 2015 ruling gave everyone the right to have their gender identity legally recognized. Further, of 144 countries, Colombia ranks 36th with an overall gap of 73% – five points above the global average. However, the country ranks 59th in Political Empowerment, just slightly ahead of East Timor.

[Download the PDF (11MB)]

The heartfelt stories recounted at FEMALE CHARACTER gave a powerful and often painful voice to the data. What they made clear is that in Colombia, the march to equality remains long and difficult. For example: 3,014 women have been abused by their partner or ex-partner so far in 2018 – one every 28 minutes ; only three in 10 report these crimes to authorities.

She was certain she was being taken away to be disappeared.

But there are victories, too: consider that of Ana Sophia Garcia, a 21-year-old transgender woman who, having survived a knife attack, police harrassment, and life on the punishing streets of central Bogotá, achieved physical security and financial independence through the support of Bogotá’s Fundacion Groupo de Accion y Apoyo a Personas Trans (GAAT) and ACDI/VOCA.

[Read Ana Sophia’s full story in The Bogotá Post.]

Further, listen below to former UK Sex Crimes investigator Amanda Dempsey recount how one young woman overcame a personal history of human trafficking and sexual abuse to create a unit within the police force to educate officers and change attitudes toward sex crimes.

There is also hope. Gender issues and the status of women are significant components of the recent peace agreement. Bogotá entrepreneur Tiffany Kohl read from the work of conflict researcher Roxanne Krystalli, whose work Stories of Conflict and Love explores the intersection of gender, violence, and transitional justice.

FEMALE CHARACTER also featured eloquent voices of pioneering feminists and trailblazing women not present. For example: Bogotá entrepreneur Tiffany Kohl gave a reading of the poem Planetarium, by American poet Adrienne Rich:

The powerful women of FEMALE CHARACTER, with MC Tigre Haller (Delaney Turner)