Integrity is commonly viewed as a moral code—something that we as people should follow closely in order to be “good”. But Martha Beck’s 2021 self-help book titled The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self looks at integrity in a different light. Beck argues that the majority of our mental suffering comes from living out of alignment with ourselves and what we really need and want in life. Many of what we think these needs and wants should look like stem from cultural, societal, and familial pressure. From here, Beck uses an alternate definition of integrity, instead describing it as a state of “wholeness”. We gain integrity when we abandon what is expected of us and pursue who we truly are as a person. 

This post is aimed to highlight how the women of Guatemala exhibit integrity in the way Beck defines it. Women around the world all struggle in the face of what society expects of them, with women in Guatemala being one of the most prominent examples of this. In Guatemala, less than 50% of women participate in the country’s labor force, a stark contrast to the 82% of men who participate (data.worldbank.org). Further, “the average Maya teenage girl has obtained only 3.5 years of education” (guatemala-girls-edu.org). 

Guatemalan women have far less opportunities to find a job or pursue education compared to Guatemalan men, and yet many of these women have used integrity to forge a path for themselves despite it. The women of Grace & Fire and Casa Tabito are representations of this. For those who don’t already know, Casa Tabito provides aid for mothers of severely malnourished children in Guatemala by administering medical aid and enrolling mothers in weekly courses with topics ranging from breastfeeding to how to use a water filter. In some cases, Casa Tabito (through fundraising) builds homes for families who are in desperate need of a safe place to call home. Grace & Fire partners with this clinic, working as a collective of women weavers who are paid living wages for their beautiful pieces. 

Cultural expectations in Guatemala paint the picture that women should be dependent on their husbands and shouldn’t attempt to receive an education alongside their male counterparts. And yet, the women in Grace & Fire work hard to support their children independently. Many mothers in the collective have said that they hope to use the money they earn to fund their children’s education, especially their daughters. This is what integrity looks like: challenging expectations and pursuing what it is you truly want for your life.

There is something to learn here—not just from Martha Beck’s book, but from all the women and mothers in Guatemala who strive for the best despite their circumstances. These women are proof that we can all find “wholeness”, we just need to have the bravery and the drive to do it.