POLITICS-ARGENTINA: Women Left Out of Capital’s New Gov’t

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 13 2000 (IPS) - The mayor-elect of the Argentine capital, Aníbal Ibarra, announced the names of his 11 municipal ministers this week – and there was not one woman among them despite pressure from the feminist movement.

Ibarra is to take office as mayor of Buenos Aires on August 6, accompanied by vice-mayor Cecilia Felgueras, leading the second most populous electoral district of the country, after Buenos Aires province.

The city of Buenos Aires was declared autonomous five years ago, which means the municipal leader is no longer designated by the Argentine president as it had been until then. This important post is now elected by popular vote.

Ibarra believes that the inclusion of women in the second tier of the city government, in addition to the positions they hold at other areas at the national level, allows him to speak of “gender- balanced” participation, though the leaders of his nationally governing Alianza coalition disagree.

Cecilia Lipszyc, a national government official and feminist, told IPS that the exclusion of women in the top level of the capital’s government “is a political mistake, an inexplicable blunder.”

Lipszyc also protested that Ibarra had refused to meet in recent days with women who went to him to demand changes in the city Cabinet posts.

She pointed out it is a generally accepted idea that it takes deep trust to be part of the first tier of government, but it is a “mafia-like” conception she had not expected from Ibarra.

Politicians often use this idea of trust to justify naming relatives and friends to political posts, Lipszyc explained.

María José Lubertino, head of the non-governmental Women’s Political and Social Institute, agrees with Lipszyc, and told IPS the municipal posts that were given to women – the result of pressure from the feminist movement – are “second level,” and thus unsatisfactory to nearly all women representatives in the sector.

The Alianza coalition, created four years ago by the social- democrat Radical Civic Union and the centre-left Country of Solidarity Front, arose with sights set on changing the traditional way of doing politics, keeping political activities transparent and recovering credibility for politicians among the populace.

Under this new framework, it is considered “politically correct” to give women greater participation in government.

“We expected something better from an Alianza municipal government,” said Lipszyc, who works for the government’s National Anti-Discrimination Institute.

But she assured women would continue to demand recognition of their rights. “We women have to fight to build a democratic society.”

In Argentina, women hold 27 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies thanks to a quota law that requires political parties’ electoral lists to be 30 percent female candidates. Meanwhile, in the Senate, which does not have this requirement, there are only two women out of 72 senators.

There is only one woman minister in the national government’s Cabinet of nine, and there are no female judges in the Supreme Court, also made up of n of the Bank of the City of Buenos Aires led feminist leaders to believe that the new city cabinet of ministers would include women.

One of the female candidates most often mentioned as a likely city minister was in fact named to a municipal goriats that answer dihe Ombudsman’s Office are both women.

This greater female presence in the upper echelons of the capital’s government – compared with that of the national level – and the naming of two women last year to the eight-member board of the Bank of the City of Buenos Aires led feminist leaders to believe that the new city cabinet of ministers would include women.

One of the female candidates most often mentioned as a likely city minister was in fact named to a municipal goriats that answer directly to him, and not in the city ministries.

Following the announcement of the new municipal government team, the vice-mayor herself said Wednesday that she was “very pleased” because the make-up of the capital’s cabinet “represents a diverse city, just like those who elected us,” referring to ideological diversity, not gender.

Ibarra and Felgueras emphasised that among the 11 city ministers there are four from the Radical Civic Union, four from the Front, one socialist who is also part of Alianza and two from the opposition Justicialist Party (Peronist). But their critics emphasise there are no women.