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. Advances notwithstanding, women's status remains vastly inferior to that of men in Guatemala; a recent legal initiative to guarantee women a minimum percentage of political representation is unlikely to pass in Congress.

Analysis
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. While women represent 50.85% of the Guatemalan population of 10.2 million and 60% of the working population in both formal and informal sectors, they make up only 19% of the economically active population in the formal economy (a minor increase from 14% in 1981). 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.
Compounding women's lack of access to the formal economy and well-paid positions is their poor educational attainment: while Guatemalans on average complete 2.7 years of education, for women this figure is a mere 1.3 years. Some 60% of Guatemalan women are illiterate; the Human Rights Ombudsman's office argues that 75-90% of Guatemala's indigenous women are illiterate.
Women's health in Guatemala has improved somewhat over the past years, but the situation is still among the worst in the Western Hemisphere. Life expectancy for Guatemalan women is 66.4 years, the lowest in Central America, while maternal mortality—248 deaths per 100,000 as compared to 26 per 100,000 in Costa Rica—is the highest in the region. Women in Guatemala also suffer from malnutrition and lack of access to health care.
Another problem facing Guatemalan women is violence and discrimination in the home. UNICEF estimates that 76% of all violence against women in Guatemala occurs at home. A woman who wants to participate in the formal economy will often have to obtain permission from her father or husband in order to do so. Indigenous women suffer triple discrimination stemming from their gender, poverty and ethnicity.

Political Representation of Women
Women occupy fewer political positions than men do in Guatemala. Of the 80 deputies in the national Congress, only 13 are women. Of the 12 Cabinet positions, only the Minister of Education is a woman. Women constitute a mere four of the 24 vice ministers. Of all the judges and magistrates in the country, 17% are women. Only 9% of union leaders are women, and women's representation in the parties of the left is also very low. Some 325 of the 330 (or 98%) mayors are men in Guatemala. In general, women occupy even fewer leadership positions in the rural areas of the country.
Guatemalan women have not achieved the levels of political representation of women in Costa Rica or Nicaragua. Guatemala has never had a female vice president like Nicaragua, Honduras or Costa Rica, much less a female president like Nicaragua. Guatemala has hardly any female mayors or governors, as opposed to Costa Rica, which boasts strong local participation by women. Guatemala's lack of women leaders can be attributed to the long history of political repression, conservative society, structural constraints engendered by discrimination, as well as lack of education, which undermines women's preparedness to take on leadership positions.

Women and Political Transition
Women have organized throughout Guatemala's history, but political repression has constrained their efforts. Despite their marginalization and political exclusion, women have contributed to Guatemala's political transition. Mutual Support Group (GAM) and National Coordinating Group of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA) were the first women's organizations to mobilize against the military repression of the 1980s, and played an important role in efforts to eliminate impunity and human rights violations, bringing international attention to the situation in Guatemala.
The political opening in 1985, the return of exiled women from Mexico, and the exchange of ideas at the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encounters have all contributed to the blossoming of Guatemala's women's groups. For their part, women have been the frontrunners in strengthening Guatemala's incipient civil society through protest, mobilization, negotiation, and the formation of governmental and non-governmental organizations. They have introduced, proposed, and pushed through laws and public policy guidelines to promote women's political participation, organizing the women's movement around the issues of violence against women, human rights, education, health and political participation. Women have also played a key role in mass mobilizations as members of organizations of popular movements, such as labor unions and student groups. Like elsewhere in Central America—and as opposed to elite transitions in the Southern cone countries—women's efforts at mass mobilization have proven instrumental in Guatemala's democratization.

Women's Sector of the Assembly of Civil Society and the Peace Accords
Through Women's Sector of the Assembly of Civil Society (ASC), Guatemalan women participated forcefully in the process leading to the December 29, 1996 signing of the country's Peace Accords between the government and the guerrilla group Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). Made up of 32 different organizations, the Women's Sector was launched in May 1994 after various individual women and women's groups called for a specific women's program within the ASC, composed of 14 different sectors. The Sector's objective is to make the women's movement a significant social actor in the consolidation of Guatemala's democracy, and to introduce the demands of Guatemalan women in the peace-building process.
Through arduous negotiation, the Women's Sector secured the inclusion of gender issues in the URNG's agenda and the political platform of the leftist Guatemalan National Democratic Front (FDNG). Even more importantly, the Sector succeeded in placing women's demands in the Peace Accords. Some of the demands include—but are not limited to—the elimination by the government of all forms of discrimination against women with respect to access to land, housing, credit and participation in development projects. The Accords also opened a space for participation and cooperation between indigenous and ladina women. For the first time ever, women from diverse backgrounds chose to work together on gender issues on a national level.

Women's Organizations
Guatemala's women's groups are currently split between organizations considered as a feminist part of the women's movement and those allied with the popular movement. They differ on how to advance women's rights with respect to reproductive rights, autonomy and identity, and political ideology. Moreover, indigenous women usually do not describe themselves as feminists, and have a more humanist approach to attaining gender equality. They consider seeking equality separately from or in confrontation with men as "anti-Maya." These distinctions amongst women's organizations and between Maya and ladina women constrain the formation of a united women's movement and a strong women's lobby.
One of the most important women's groups in Guatemala is the National Women's Forum. Created under the auspices of the Peace Accords' Agreement on Socioeconomic and Agrarian Reform, the Forum initiated operations November 12, 1997, and was signed into force by President Alvaro Arzú March 3, 1998. It represents an important vehicle for women to organize in all spheres of the society, and to propose policy recommendations at the national level. The Forum's greatest success thus far has been giving voice to women from all 23 linguistic groups representing the multiethnic plurality of Guatemala. The Forum also acts as a training ground for women to organize and enter political leadership positions. It is currently consulting women on their needs at the community level. The foremost concerns expressed thus far include illiteracy, scarcity of land, and lack of access to education and health care. The results of the consultations will be discussed at eight regional meetings throughout the country scheduled for October 1998; the conclusions will be presented in the capital in a nation-wide event in November. Final recommendations will be brought before Congress next year, possibly on International Women's Day, March 8, 1999.
Another influential organization is the National Permanent Commission for the Rights of Indigenous Women, a part of the Coordination of Mayan Organizations (COPMAGUA) set up under the Peace Accords' 1996 Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Commission has recently introduced a bill, Defense of Indigenous Women, to support indigenous women's integral development in the areas of education, social services, culture, and economics. The bill also supports programs to foster the rights of indigenous women. Currently, the Commission representatives are visiting various women's groups in the rural areas to inform women of their rights and to hear their input.
A significant governmental women's organization is the First Lady's Secretariat of Social Work (Secretaría de Obras Sociales de la Esposa del Presidente, SOSEP). SOSEP has instituted the Program for Promotion of Rural Women as well as the National Women's Forum of Political Parties, which is lobbying for the passage of the affirmative action bill on quotas for women’s political participation.
The largest and most important NGOs in the women's sector include Tierra Viva, GGM (Guatemalan Group of Women), Mujeres en Solidaridad (Women in Solidarity), Mujer Vamos Adelante (Women Move Ahead), and the family planning organization APROFAM. The Catholic church, most notably through Women's Pastoral Diocese, is also supporting women's organization and development projects; the most conservative sectors of the church remain, however, adamantly opposed to abortion and reproductive health programs. Individual women—such as Rosalina Tuyúc, Helen Mack, Nineth Montenegro, Rigoberta Menchú and Karen Fischer—have fought for human rights and improved the legal system in Guatemala.

Feminist Journalism and Radio
Guatemala has several feminist journalists such as Laura Asturias and Marta Altolaguirre, and the country's oldest and largest newspaper, Prensa Libre, is presided over by a highly respected woman, Teresa de Zarco. Feminist newspapers did not, however, emerge until March 1998, when the political and cultural association La Matria published La Cuerda. La Cuerda represents an important step in Guatemala's political transition by providing an outlet to previously unheard women's voices. Promoting women's political participation and reviving women's cultural contributions, the paper provides a forum for debate and discussion on topics such as reproductive health, violence against women, and women's involvement in the Peace Accords. Another venue of expression is Voces de Mujeres (Women's Voices), a radio program transmitted from San Carlos University three mornings a week. This program began in 1993, with opinion segments on subjects ranging from health, society and culture, justice, ecology and politics.
In July 1998, Guatemala hosted the first Forum of Central American Women Journalists, where forty women representing Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama met to discuss gender issues and their role as journalists in the region's political transitions. They also resolved to form a network of female journalists and to host future forums.
Voicing of political views by feminists and non-feminists alike in a conservative society such as that of Guatemala is a positive indication of tolerance and fosters the freedom of expression, an essential ingredient for democracy.

Legal Reforms
Many legal changes favorable to women have been passed over the recent years in Guatemala. Two such advances include the change in the Penal Code Article 232 that states that a married woman is no longer punished for unfaithfulness, and the passage of the Law to Prevent, Eradicate and Punish Intra-family Violence. Thanks to Article 4 of the 1995 Constitution—which states that men and women have equal opportunities and responsibilities, and that all are free and equal in dignity and rights—Guatemalan women felt that they had for the first time legal and political backing for liberty and equality. This sense was strengthened by the inclusion of gender issues in the Peace Accords.

Quota Proposal
On September 29, 1998, President of the Women's Forum of Political Parties Flora de Ramos and Anabella de León of the governing National Advancement Party (PAN) presented to Congress a bill proposing a system of quotas to increase women's political participation to 44% of all party lists at both the municipal and national levels. The bill has, however, left room for negotiation, setting 30% as the minimum acceptable percentage. Many women feel the bill represents a historic chance to make concrete advances toward equality of opportunity. It was written by the National Women's Forum of Political Parties, Convergencia Cívico Política de Mujeres, and the Women's Project for Judicial Reforms of the National Office of Women.
The bill's passage would require a two-thirds majority—or 54 votes—in the 80-member Congress. In the first of the three required readings on the floor of Congress, the initiative mustered more support than expected. However, most of the deputies of the ruling PAN, which holds slightly over 50% of the congressional seats, are opposed to the measure.

NGO and International Support
Gender programs sponsored by NGOs, international organizations, and foreign governments have helped Guatemalan women's organizations in several ways. They educate, raise awareness, and give training workshops on topics ranging from education to political organization; offer opportunities for organization and leadership; promote leadership at the rural, regional, and national level; allow for an exchange of ideas between different cultures and countries; and participate in the promotion of legal and political reforms.
A recent example of international aid for Guatemalan women is the Inter-American Development Bank-Government of Norway joint Fund for Women in Development, which in August offered US$1.1 million to Mujer Vamos Adelante to foster political participation and leadership among indigenous women in rural areas. Other major external donors for Guatemalan women's groups include the European Union; United Nations bodies; the UK-based NGO Christian Aid; and the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Their support is clearly helpful and needed. However, since gender programs currently attract international funding, many organizations set up gender programs with the sole purpose of receiving money that may not necessarily be spent on gender issues.

Constraints
The constraints facing Guatemalan women are still numerous. As recently as June 1998, 35 members of women's group Mamá Maquín came under armed attack and robbery at dawn after one of their meetings. The group claims the attack was politically motivated. Women are prevented from participating in workshops and meetings by their husbands, fathers, and brothers; the patriarchal division between public and private spheres keeps women at home. Other hurdles facing women include poverty, poor health, and lack of access to education, as well as divisions between ladina and indigenous women, and between feminist and non-feminist organizations. Gender experts regard education as the key to fostering women's situation in Guatemala.

Conclusion
Although women continue to be a marginalized and discriminated sector in Guatemala, the country's recent political opening has provided a momentum for women's regrouping and participation. Peace and democratization have benefited from women's initiatives, which have often had significance beyond gender issues. Achieving organizational unity, improving the rights of women, changing patriarchal and discriminatory attitudes, enforcing existing laws, and gaining equality of opportunity in the public sphere continue to be an uphill battle for Guatemalan women.