- In the towns and urban areas, women are expanding their roles in government, education and business, although men still tend to hold the higher positions of authority in government and business. The expansion of women’s roles seems to be occurring as more women achieve higher levels of education.
- In the rural areas, women continue to accept a more traditional role of tending the house and the children. In traditional rural villages, women tend to marry or begin child bearing during their teenage years and families tend to be large. Maya women in the villages often continue to marry at 14 or 15, but Maya women who continue their education and delay marriage are moving away from the strict gender roles of traditional Maya.
- In terms of social mores, neither male/female friendships nor casual dating are the norm in . If a woman goes out socially with an individual of the opposite sex and/or she is entertaining him in her home or apartment, it assumed that she is dating the man. If the woman is seeing/dating the man, he would expect that it is an exclusive relationship.
- Women are expected to be monogamous in relationships, but it is accepted and expected that men will seek multiple female relationships.
- In rural areas, women are held to a stricter code of conduct as compared to males. Such activities as drinking, going out alone at night, or hanging out with the opposite sex are frowned upon for women, but are socially acceptable for men.
- Belizean men tend to openly and aggressively flirt with women, particularly women walking down the street or traveling alone on public transportation. Their flirtation may include comments about the woman’s physical attributes and suggestive propositions.
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