- Women have come a long way, winning political office and forming influential groups to lobby for their rights. The culture, however, is still dominated by "machismo", with women seen as objects to be conquered. This is manifested in the prevalence of beauty pageants featuring high school girls parading around in bathing suits and the common practice of men having "peqenas". While a "namorada" is a girlfriend, a "peqena" is a girl on the side. Many men will openly boast of their multiple peqenas, a practice that is quite accepted as "just the way of things". This apathy about the consequences of multiple partners and casual sex is reflected in the high teen pregnancy rate, as well as the abundance of families without a father figure present.
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