In every country around the world, there are different customs.

One of the customs that varies a lot from country to country would be the custom of womens rights. In my country of Colombia, the womens rights and their customs are different from what we are use to in the United States. However, the United Nations has been there to make sure that their countries are making advancements towards gender equality. The United Nations have a commission on the Status of Women. According to un.org, The Commission on the Status of Women is the principal global policymaking body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Every year the representatives of the Member States meet at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate to progress on gender equality (un.org). The country of Colombia has been taking the right steps toward gender equality, but there has been slow uptake and some other challenges that have been making it hard for women to get their rights. Colombia has come a long way since the beginning. Last year, for example, law 1475 established a 30 percent quota of women candidates in all elections (Maclaren and Salahub, 2013). With the slow uptake of the gender equality issues in Colombia has made it still hard for women to get the same rights as men. According to The North-South Institute, Colombian women still suffer from regular forms of violence and exploitation. One of the worse things that is still happening to women in the country of Colombia is they are still being used as a weapon of war in the country. This

means that they are being threatened by sexual violence by the men that are participating in war. Among women not getting physical rights, they are also not getting rights in the area of the workforce. There is significantly more men in the workforce in Colombia compared to the amount of women. Figure 1 below is a map of the world and it shows the counties where the total income for women is the highest. According to worldmapper.org, the total income of women is highest in the United States, and second highest in China. If you look at the continent of South America where Colombia is located in the northwestern corner. You can see that the continent is very skinny compared to the United States, for example. This means that the women of Colombia arent making nearly as much in the workforce as other countries. This is because in the country of Colombia, the men are the dominate gender in the workforce. This is also because a lot of the people of Colombia believe that the women are the ones that need to stay home and be the housewife. They are expected to clean the house, make the food, and take care of the children. The women of Colombia are only expected to go into the workforce in their family is struggling for money.

Figure 1 (worldmapper.org) To make sure that the women of Colombia are heard and to make sure that they are known to be fighting for equality, there is a woman by the name of Patricia Ariza, who is an actress and the co-founder and director of Teatro La Candelaria, which is a Colombian theater group. She has be teaming up with other women of Colombia to do preformances that send a message to the Colombian government and the world about the corruption and violence of Colombias past, present, and future. Many of the things women show in these plays are what they are experiencing now and their ideas for solutions, said Ariza, who uses public places like plazas to put on performances. (San Francisco Forhorn, 2013) I think that this efforts that Ariza is putting forth is amazing. It is such a great idea for her to put on performances to show what the women of Colombia are really going through and what kind of solution they hope for. The gender equality still has a way to go in the country of Colombia but I do believe that it is headed in the right direction. The efforts of Ariza are amazing and

as she continues to grow her number of participants, I do believe that we will begin to see more results.