'Badly Behaved Women' Make History in Peru

A local woman in Peru is challenging the stereotype of the “bad girl,” after a local newspaper started regularly publishing images of semi-naked women in a special section called “Malcriadas,” translated as badly behaved women, or women with a bad upbringing who are consequently unsophisticated, spoiled, or rude.

Kelly Elfaro started published her own version of Malcriadas in response to the newspaper, Tome. However, instead of nudity the former engineering student has focused on ideology and even printed a calendar full of revolutionary female figures.

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The idea behind his calendar is to draw attention to other Malcriadas – women who, because of their bad behaviour, have made revolutions and changes throughout the history of our country.

“The idea is to highlight the attitudes and actions of women who inspire us to have more rights … and to show this so we can continue doing similar actions, with the same passion, because we still have a long way to go,” she said.

Elfaro told teleSUR that the idea for the project came to her while she was studying engineering and saw that women made up only 10 percent of her class.

Her second inspiration for the project came after a conversation with her grandmother. When Elfaro asked her elder what she would have liked to study, she responded, “The truth is that I never thought about it.”

“Then I realized how hard it was just two generations ago,” Elfaro told teleSUR, “Therefore, it is important to get to know women who have done things and had a vision for change.”

According to a study released this year by Peru's National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, major gender gaps persist in the country.

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The report, titled Peru: Gender Gaps 2001-2013, states that on average Peruvian women earn 30 percent less than men, even though they work nine hours more per week. Women also work a total of 75 hours a week, but out of those only 36.5 are dedicated to activities to earn money while 39.5 are devoted to unpaid domestic work.