How do we Balance Modern Ideas of Gender Equality with the Protection of rich Traditional Cultures?

Today in Latin America there exists a growing disparity between the cultural expectations of women and modern ideas of gender equality, as family obligations of women conflict with involvement in a professional life. In response, there are many organizations that are working to close this gap by encouraging a cultural shift and empowering women. For example, ProMujer is a nonprofit organization that provides Latin American women with free “business trainings… managerial and accounting skills, [and] the elaboration of successful business plans.”

Although I support the empowerment of women everywhere and feel that women should hold equal cultural power to that of men, I cannot help but think back to my semester living with a host family in rural Costa Rica, a traditional world that was (for the most part) free from modern cultural shifts. My host mother (and the mothers of my Costa Rican friends) spent her days at home—cooking, cleaning, visiting with family, and gossiping. My host father, on the other hand, would go to work at his construction job, drive around town, eat, and watch soccer on tv. When my father wasn’t working, he did as he pleased, with no exceptions. At nighttime we would all eat dinner together, before my host sister and I did the dishes and my host father settled in front of the tv. Occasionally he would ask me to bring him water or a snack or his cell phone, and I would do it without question.

Did I ever question my role as a subservient female in Costa Rica? Did I ask my host father to help me with the cleaning or to stand up and change the tv channel himself? No, I never did.

My host dad is not a mean man, and he cares more deeply for his family than most people I know. Nor is my host mother ignorantly submissive; she works hard each and every day to give her family the happiest life she that she can manage. Frankly, I think that if everyone in the world valued the same things as my host parents, there would be a lot more peace and relaxation and a lot less hunger.

Basically, I am confused. I don’t know what I think is “right.” Is it a breach of human rights and modern ideas of gender equality for life in the small town of Nuevo Arenal to continue this way? Maybe, but isn’t a rich traditional culture also something to be protected?