Exchange sessions on the political autonomy of women and parity democracy in Latin America within the framework of 8 March, which is international women’s rights day.
Foto: Frederik Trovatten
On the occasion of 8 March, International Women’s Rights Day, the European Union Programme for Social Cohesion in Latin America, EUROsociAL+, together with partner organisations, will be carrying out various dialogue sessions on the progress and challenges for the political autonomy of women in the region from a parity democracy perspective.
The political autonomy of women is one of the four lines of work carried out by the EUROsociAL+ Gender Equality Policies Area and is the theme that has been selected by the programme to be placed on the public agenda in the events this 8 March. These activities add to an internal exercise to capitalise on experiences in order to bring actors together from Latin America and Europe around spaces for dialogue and common challenges, opportunities for collaboration and networking, from a bi-regional perspective.
Political autonomy, which is also known as autonomy in decision-making refers to women’s capacity and conditions regarding participation in decisions related to their countries’ development and in occupying positions of power. According to ECLAC (2016), this concept refers to the presence of women at different levels within the powers of state and to measures aimed at promoting their full participation therein and on the same terms as men. Moving towards greater political autonomy for women has been a permanent issue on the gender agenda worldwide and in Europe and Latin America in particular.
At the United Nation’s 4th World Conference on Women (1995), “women in the exercise of power and decision-making” was raised as one of the areas of concern and as such included in the Beijing Platform for Action issued by the Conference. Among other aspects, it was stated that, “despite the fact that in most countries there is a generalised movement for democratisation, women are usually under-represented at almost all levels of government, especially at the level of ministries and other executive bodies, and little progress has been made in achieving political power in legislative bodies…”. And among the actions to correct this democratic deficit, they expressed the need to “Adopt measures to guarantee women equal access and full participation in power structures and decision-making”. Since then, the first initiatives to reverse the democratic deficit on the way towards laws addressing parity and parity democracy have mainly related to laws on quotas.
In Europe, gender parity in political participation emerged for the first time in the Athens Declaration issued by the 1st European Summit “Women in Power” (1992) in response to the finding that “women’s access to the same formal rights as men, including the right to vote, the right to stand for election and to run for high positions in the public administration, had not led to equality in practice”. After this summit, the European Commission (1998) affirmed that in a society comprising equal numbers of men and women, the balanced representation of both in political decision-making functions is a prior condition to the full and equal enjoyment of citizenship.
Thus, gender parity, unlike gender quotas, does not set a minimum floor for female representation but rather establishes 50% since women constitute half of the world’s citizens. Gender parity is conceived not only to achieve equal representation by women and men in decision-making spheres, but its scope goes further, reaching all spheres of daily life, both public and private.
In Latin America, as an agreement, the balanced participation of women and men was reached with the Quito Consensus (2007) signed within the framework of ECLAC’s 10th Regional Conference on Women. This Consensus also raises a concept of gender parity that includes not only the sphere of political participation but all the different spheres of daily life: “Parity is one of the determining drivers of democracy, the purpose of which is to achieve equality in the exercise of power, in decision-making, in the mechanisms of participation and social and political representation, and in family relationships within the various types of families…” (Article 17).
Since the Quito Consensus established parity as the target for Latin American democracies, 7 countries have passed parity laws: Ecuador (2009), Costa Rica (2009), Bolivia (2010), Panama (2012), Nicaragua (2012), Mexico (2014) and Argentina (2017). However, as the data from ECLAC’s Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean show, countries are currently far from achieving equal participation in the different decision-making spheres.
In the Latin American region, participation by women in presidential cabinets, although having increased compared to the previous period, is at an average level of 28.5% and, as in the rest of the world, the participation by women per type of ministerial portfolio is concentrated in the social area and they participate less in the political and economic areas. In this scenario, Costa Rica stands out for having a cabinet comprising a majority of women with 55.17%, as does Colombia with an equally balanced cabinet, 50% men, 50% women (ECLAC 2021).
As far as the presence of women in legislative bodies is concerned, although it has increased gradually in recent years, in Latin America in May 2018 it was at an average of 29.8% (UIP, 2018). Regarding the presence of women in the Supreme Courts of Justice, although some Latin American countries registered progress (Cuba, Chile and the Dominican Republic), the average for the region for 2018 was 32.1%.
On the other hand, in the framework of the debate on the political autonomy of women and parity democracy, various studies have shown that the approval of laws is not enough, but rather that it is necessary to install mechanisms to monitor compliance with them as well as carrying out an analysis on parity laws in light of the political-electoral factors and systems in each country. And that it is also necessary to address the issue of violence and political harassment against women given that as this agenda moves forward, episodes of discrimination and violence have been identified which must be made visible, denounced and eradicated.
EUROsociAL+ support in the area of women’s political autonomy
At regional level
The first developmental phase of the Regional Observatory on Parity Democracy and Political Violence from the AMEA (Association of Electoral Magistrates of the Americas), in a virtuous partnership with the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, with its specialised programme CAPEL (Advisory and Electoral Promotion Centre) and UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean.
At country level
Bolivia. The programme accompanied the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in structuring its Democratic Parity Observatory, which made it possible to document various issues, collecting updated regulations and indicators, including the participation by Indigenous Peasant Native Women (IOC).
Peru. The programme is accompanying the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) in promoting parity and preventing electoral violence.
Brazil. The programme provided the National Secretariat of Policies for Women with technical support comprising inputs in order to exceed the current level of 10% women in the chamber. A diagnosis of the national situation was prepared to investigate the obstacles that have hindered women’s more effective participation in Brazilian politics at the federal, state, and local levels, from the majority electoral system to campaign financing.
Argentina. The programme is accompanying actions to move forward towards parity democracy within public institutions (Honourable Chamber of Deputies, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of the Interior) and regarding the application of the National Law on Gender Parity.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
To identify, discuss and exchange information, best practices and visions on experiences, challenges and opportunities, within the framework of the LA-EU bi-regional dialogue regarding the political autonomy of women and parity democracy.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
- To strengthen the capacities of the LATAM countries to develop policies to increase the participation by women in decision-making spheres and move forward towards parity democracies from a regional and horizontal cooperation perspective, and from accumulated learning at the national and regional level.
- To generate synergies and connect agendas related to parity and parity democracy by identifying opportunities for the integration of existing networks, programmes and cooperation mechanisms.
AGENDA FOR MARCH
Mode: online
