Peru

Fertility. The total fertility rate in Peru has decreased from an average of seven children per family at the beginning of 1950 to three children per family in 2002. This reduction is primarily a result of a sharp decrease in fertility among urban women, who had a fertility rate of 2.4 in 2002, compared with 4.6 among rural women (INEI 2002).

Some qualitative studies reveal that patriarchal ideology and the low status of women in Peruvian society have a direct effect on the fertility of women. There is a general belief, held particularly by men, that giving birth to many children is a sign of faithfulness in a woman and that family planning is strongly associated with infidelity (Ruiz-Bravo 1995). In addition, a large number of children is believed to attest to male virility (Chueca 1985).

Moreover, having children is a way for women to keep their husbands, whom they need for financial support. Children are a means for men to keep women at home and to prevent them from being approached by other men. Some women consider wife-beating (which is common especially when a man has been drinking or when he is having affairs outside the home) to be an accepted part of heterosexual relationships. At the same time, women see the sexual freedom of their partners as a normal reflection of men's "different nature" (Sara-Lafosse 1998; Fort 1989).

Furthermore, children represent an economic value, an investment for the future. Having many children is important for parents' security in later years. Sons will support them, and daughters will provide company and care. This is especially important in a country such as Peru where organized Poverty is prevalent in Peru. In rural areas, 70 percent of people live under the poverty line, and 36 percent are extremely poor. CAROLINE PENN/CORBIS social security plans cover only a small proportion of the population. (Chueca 1985; Fort 1989).

Female-headed households. Women head at least 20 to 25 percent of families in Peru. Some authors define a household as headed by a female if the father is absent, the result of the father abandoning the family (Sara-Lafosse 1995; Fuller 2000). The census definition of "head of the family" considers the head to be "the person, man or woman, who other members of the family recognize to be the head" (p.16). It has been argued that this definition is subjective, given that it is based on the perception of the other members of the family, and it does not consider the shared responsibility of heading a family. Furthermore, given the patriarchal ideology, the very presence of a man (i.e., a retired father, a partner, or an unemployed uncle) would be enough to declare him the head of the family even the woman has the major economic responsibility (Ponce and Francke 1985).

Violeta Sara-Lafosse (1998) associated female-headed households with the subculture of machismo, which is internalized and legitimized by the family as well as by the social, legal, and police institutions. Machismo is "a form of masculine behavior which comprises the man's desire to take sexual advantage of women, the failure to assume responsibility for the consequences of such actions, and the self-praise for sexual exploits within the subculture of the peer group" (p.107). Machismo and patriarchy are forms of sexist behavior; they treat the women as sexual objects, subject to domination. But while the patriarch becomes responsible for his children, the macho man does not take care of them or simply does not recognize them as his offspring.

One characteristic of families abandoned by fathers is the informal nature of the couple's conjugal arrangement, which was established on a verbal or implied common agreement. Under these circumstances, children face the stigma of illegitimacy (Sara-Lafosse 1995; 1998). Marcella Chueca (1985) argued that rather than divorcing or leaving their original families, men form other families parallel to their original families. By doing this, they are able to avoid the economic burden because there is no formal desertion.