(6 October 2006) Eleven Latin American nations have adopted legal quotas to increase women's political participation, but in no country does the number of women elected to national legislatures surpass 36%. This year, with nearly half the countries in the region holding legislative elections, discussion of how to increase women's political participation has gained impetus, and was the focus of the first day of the International Seminar of Gender Parity and Political Participation in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Chile government, and its National Women's Service (SERNAM).
The international seminar was inaugurated by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, whose keynote address to the more than 400 participants attending stated: "Count on our country -- and count on this President and her government --- to build a Latin American alliance for parity to empower us to obtain our egalitarian goals within our overall goal of building a region that is more responsive to all of its women and all of its men."
Chile's first female President, and her decision to appoint women to half of her Cabinet ministries and extend gender parity to the designation of posts at the top echelons of the her Executive, is widely viewed through the region as a model to emulate. President Bachelet nonetheless decried the lack of female office-holders in Chile at the legislative level (where women hold just 12.5% of Congressional seats and 5% of the Senate) and called upon regional countries to enact legal quotas and mechanisms to redress this imbalance.
Also addressing the seminar were the presidents of six Chilean political parties, who presented alternative proposals for mechanisms to increase women's participation. In the discussions that followed, leading political figures from around the region described the experiences of political participation by women in their own countries.
Paraguay's Women's Secretariat Minister, María José Argaña, called for quota laws to be accompanied by supplementary measures. From Colombia, Senator (and former Cabinet Minister) Martha Lucía Ramírez proposed the creation of monitoring mechanisms and pacts with political parties.
The sole elected female Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Jaqui Quinn Leandro, criticized political parties for their failure to create openings for women and emphasized the lack of affirmative action policies in the Caribbean.
From Ecuador, the technical director of the National Women's Council, Nidya Pesantez Calle, recalled the opposition encountered before the Constitutional Tribunal during the enactment of the 1998 quota law that has since paved the way for women candidates to stand for 45% of the offices in upcoming elections.
To improve the results of quota laws, participants stressed the need to reform electoral systems, improve mechanisms for financing and introduce sanctions against discrimination.
Quota systems, like the need to represent diverse geographic regions, operate and are accepted within all electoral systems, noted Sonia Montaño, Chief of ECLAC's Women and Development Unit. She reminded participants of the legal framework for gender parity that already exists within the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and that legal measures on their own do not produce change. To achieve equality as a result of these measures, she recommended cultural transformations and the elimination of obstacles in both the public and private spheres.
The two-day seminar, held in ECLAC's Santiago headquarters, ends on October 6th, with expert presentations on affirmative action mechanisms, more inclusive electoral systems and strategies to obtain consensus among citizens.
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