The Mara Women: Gender Roles In Centam Street Gangs

Throughout the course of history, gangs and organized crime have managed to find their way into society. Death has terrorized neighborhoods and violence has shaken the entire nation. The uprising of such a violent gang known as the Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, has left many unanswered questions and many crimes unsolved. The origins of the notorious gang are not certain but there are a few theories as to how MS-13 came to be. According to Geoffrey Ramsey in his article Tracing the Roots of El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha, there is some speculation that the gang originated from a street in Los Angeles, street 13, but it is clarified that street 13 does not exist. Another speculation is that MS-13 “emerged from a split in the 18th street …show more content…
According to Marguerite Cawley in her article, The Mara Women: Gender Roles in CentAm Street Gangs, “women are expected to take on male-associated characteristics and tasks.” In the gang, women are believed to be less suspicious so often times they are the ones that smuggle illicit goods into jails, gather intelligence on rival gangs, and carry arms in public places for the gang. Being a part of a gang requires an initiation process, MS-13’s being one of the roughest known. Women who wish to be initiated into the gang can choose to either be beaten for thirteen seconds by six members or they can “…[sustain] sexual relations with multiple gang members for an equivalent amount of time...” In addition to engaging in sexual relations as part of their initiation, when a woman initiates, she often chooses a partner who at any given moment can offer her as a payment in return for a favor. This decision is one she has no say in. Men, on the other hand, are initiated by being beaten for thirteen seconds by six of the toughest members. According to Cawley, “As of 2012, El Salvador had the highest femicide rate in the world.” A “2012 study found that woman made up of 20% gang