Twice a Woman (Twee Vrouwen)

Wake up, woman The day has begun

Wake up, woman Light up the kitchen stove

Brew the coffee For your creatures

The morning announces Another difficult day

After cleaning the floor And fixing the food

After cleaning the dishes And getting the kids ready

On the road to work You climb up the hill

You walk through the farmlands And you recognize yourself

Among the smiles Of the working women

That weed out their dreams Ever since they were children

And you recognize yourself Among the wounds

That your hands present Farming woman

At 6 in the morning, the day laborers start their working shift in the field.

Good morning.

They are women, and for this reason from the early morning,

They have to attend to the domestic needs of the family.

When they reach the farmlands they have already been awake for a long time.

- Good morning, how are you? - Morning, I'm OK, pura vida.

Despite this visible and palpable example of the day laborers,

Many people deny to admit that this is the reality.

It is often heard that women do not work.

That their only role in life is to stay at home, for the domestic chores.

And to take care of the children.

But in that simple affirmation, two mistakes are accumulated.

The first mistake is avoiding the affirmation that

Domestic labor is a long, continuous and strenuous work.

The second mistake is to affirm that this is the only role for a woman.

Maybe it is hard to believe, and even harder to accept.

But the truth is that in Costa Rica

The 52% of households are commanded by women.

Which means that the way of life, the education, the nutrition, the health,

And the general necessities of a big number of Costa Rican children

Are entirely the responsibility of the mother.

It's a fact that the situation of women in poor countries

Is far more disadvantageous than it is for men.

Because on top of suffering firsthand the effects of economic poverty,

They are victims of strong discrimination for being women.

This is true either in the household or the labor market.

The agricultural tasks, the work of the women

Is considered lesser than the work done by the male counterparts.

For that reason, even if they fulfill exactly the same kind of work,

Women are paid less.

But as it has always been, the justification is there, easy and ready.

The woman of the fields is catalogued only as an agricultural helper.

Even though they fulfill essential tasks

In the production of vegetables, grains, and overall agricultural crops.

The women clean the terrain, prepare it for the sowing and water the seeds.

They transplant the seedlings, and take the weeds out of the grooves.

They fertilize the crops, and collect the harvest.

They wash and pack the products.

Each of these tasks must be done with tenacity, delicacy and much patience.

Precisely because of those reasons women are hired for the job.

However, when the salary is calculated

Their work is considered as simple and auxiliary.

And for that reason they are poorly paid.

It is not considered that they spend many hours either folded or crouched.

Under the sun or the rain, and to gain more profit they work 10 or 11 hours.

It's even less considered the fact that most of the time

These women are the only support of the family.

And that this is the only way they can provide for their family.

On top of that, they constantly shift from one farm to the other

Trying to find work, because they are rarely hired for stable positions.

This causes them to feel anguished and insecure.

They don't have a fixed salary, payed vacations or end-of-year bonuses.

They are not included in the Social Security healthcare

And they have to work until the last months of their pregnancy

Because they don't have the rights to a proper protection.

Despite how much good is said about mothers and maternity.

They are payed less because they are women,

Even though the code of labor expressly states: "Equal salary for equal labor."

And in theory, the discrimination of a worker

In regards to their gender is illegal.

But women don't know about their rights

Ever since their youth, they have been instilled with their duties,

Always their duties, but not their rights.

Me, ever since I was 8 years old I have been working in the fields.

Started as a little girl.

We were very poor in our house

And we had to work to help our parents in order to keep our home.

With me, we are eight brothers and sisters, and we all had to help.

- Were you the oldest one? - I was, of course.

- Who knows where they are now, right? - Right.

And so, we worked to help our parents.

Our work consisted in taking out the weeds, cleaning with the machete.

We took care of the cane, we piled the cane for when the trucks came.

We were there, unloading the trucks, three or four women.

When I was 9 I left school, so I could help my parents because we were poor.

Very poor, we were many siblings.

After working here in the fields, I had to help my mother back at the house.

There was always something to do in the house.

Then I got married, and I kept helping like that, my husband--

I would've liked to keep studying so I could get some kind of diploma.

I would've felt happy then. Not having to endure the mistreatment of the field.

I'm almost 47 years old. And I've been working since I was 8 too.

Because my father took me out of the school when I was in 5th grade.

To wake up at 2 AM to prepare lunch and things like that.

- You always woke up at 2 AM. - All the time, I woke up very early.

Back then, I helped my father.

Where does the submission of the woman begin?

Why does she accept to be passively marginalized in the labor market?

Why does she not fight for her rights?

Is she the way she describes herself?

A good person whose only purpose is to give love and tolerance in the home?

Open your eyes!

What are we seeing?

- Mom and dad! - Very good, mom and dad.

Let's remember that mom loves us and takes care of us.

Who can tell me, what does mom do in the house?

Raise your hand.

- You. - Mom kneads the dough.

Good! Mom kneads the dough.

What is dad doing? Carlos, you?

- Dad reads in the living room. - Good! Dad reads in the living room.

Society mandates separate behaviors for men and women.

Which are instilled at a very young age.

The home, the close relatives,

And the members of the community model the personality of the children.

Each one of us that form part of this society contribute to this system.

Subsequently, the school also influences deeply in the mentality of the children,

By teaching them or reinforcing a series of values, beliefs and behaviors.

From a very young age, our children get divided,

And they are prepared so that they can learn different kinds of labor.

The girls learn how to cook, how to sew, and how to take care of the home.

Implying they will never need to expand outside of the four walls of their home,

Not to uphold the family, or even to gain their economic independence.

The boys are simply separated entirely from the domestic labors.

They are taught how to cut, how to paint,

How to read the press and to worry about the development of the country.

But they are not taught about sharing the domestic tasks, or maternity.

This way, with tenacity and patience, society utilizes the school in order to

Impose unto their future citizens a way of being, that separates the sexes,

While assigning each with different roles in life

However, the consequences of this education resonate harder for women.

It is expected from women to take full responsibility of the domestic labors.

The mothers themselves train their daughters in this kind of work,

Preparing them for their future lifestyle,

And since their youngest age, they are forced to take on the domestic tasks.

Slowly, the mothers plant into their daughters the duties of the woman,

That according to society, is reduced to washing the dishes, clean the house,

Prepare the food, wash and iron, run errands and take care of the kids.

For many, both men and women, domestic labor has no weight.

Anyone can do it, because it doesn't require a specially physical effort,

Or any kind of educational training.

Anyone can do it, and yet, in practice it's weight is held by women alone.

Which consumes her time and energy,

And leaves her in a social disadvantage when looking for work outside of home.

The woman has only been prepared to serve as a housemaid.

And as a consequence of this imposition

She has to dedicate approximately around 8 hours to the domestic labors.

This amounts to 56 hours per week.

240 hours per month.

2920 hours per year.

Time, life and day-to-day struggle.

An effort that is undervalued by society.

Because domestic labor is the benefit of a free and mandatory service,

That almost entirely absorbs women, preventing them from their studies,

From their economic independence, from being part of time-consuming groups.

Preventing them from properly knowing about their civil and political rights.

Preventing them from participating actively as part of their society.

To justify this marginality that affects hundreds of thousands of women,

Several theories have been made by philosophers, artists, politicians,

Clerics, scholars and the like,

That have elaborated treaties around the nature of women.

They give a mystical mask to the domestic labor,

Up to the point where it is no longer considered work,

But rather an innate vocation in women.

The home must be the only important aspect of their lives.

All of her concerns, her aspirations,

All of her wishes must be focused around the well-being of the homestead.

And if they fail, they are considered bad women.

A woman that did not understand her role in life.

A role of submission, of obedience, of servitude.

That is the preparation that a woman receives in order to confront life.

And this is the way she confronts life when she is outside of her home.

8 hours of wage labor, and 8 hours of domestic labor.