WOMEN-LATIN AMERICA: Politics, a Territory Still to Be Conquered

By Diana Cariboni Reprint | | Print |

Diana Cariboni*

MONTEVIDEO, Mar 10 2005 (IPS) - The number of women exercising political power in Latin America is limited. Some adopt stereotypically male practices, while others fight back against “machista” conventions, like the use of sexist language.

Nevertheless, there are some promising signs that the situation is changing, and that more and more women are gaining entry into politics, a territory largely shaped by and for men.

In Brazil, many male lawmakers still address their female colleagues as “honey” or “darling”, a practice that these women obviously find demeaning and offensive, parliamentary advisor Milena Calazans told IPS.

Calazans is with the non-governmental Feminist Studies and Advisory Centre (CFEMEA), which monitors the progress of congressional bills that have an impact on women.

In January, Silvia Augsbeurger, a Socialist town councillor in the eastern Argentine city of Rosario, suggested that the city council draw up a manual on non-sexist administrative language, the first initiative of its kind in the country – to which a radio show host quipped that what Augsbeurger needed was “a man”.

Female legislators in Argentina complained until recently of continuing to receive correspondence addressed to “Mr. Senator María López” or invitations to “the Deputy and his wife.”

The average proportion of female parliamentarians in Latin America is 15 percent, and there are extremely few women in high-level non-elected political posts, according to the Index of Fulfilled Commitments released last week, an overview of the progress made in 18 countries of the region in meeting the goals set out at the 4th United Nations Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995.

Some countries have adopted “quota laws” that establish a minimum percentage of women among the candidates fielded by political parties.

Although this practice often marks the difference between strong and poor results in this regard, the countries that have quotas tend to “use them as a maximum as opposed to a minimum,” according to the study conducted by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).

Argentina constitutes a successful example of the implementation of a quota law, in force since 1991. Of the country’s 71 senators, 31 are women (43.6 percent), while in the lower house, there are 131 male and 124 female deputies (48.6 percent). In addition, 22 of the 24 provinces in Argentina have adopted similar legislation.

María José Libertino, director of the Women’s Social and Political Institute, told IPS that the most significant change resulting from the growing number of women in political power has been seen in the way the institutions themselves operate and in legislative practices themselves, “which are much more respectful of women.”

The phenomenon has also been reflected in the progress made on laws against violence against women and sexual and reproductive health, she added.

When it comes to executive power, however, there is only one female minister, while for the first time in Argentine history, two women were appointed as Supreme Court justices in 2004.

In Brazil, the quota law passed in 1996 has not had the same effect. At least 30 percent of the candidates put forward by the political parties are supposed to be women, but because there is no penalty for failure to comply, very few parties actually respect the quota.

Only 45 of Brazil’s 513 federal deputies are women, while there are just nine women among the 81 senators.

Not long ago, female lawmakers had to fight for women’s washrooms to be installed near the plenary halls, because they weren’t taken into account during the construction of some state legislatures, María do Carmo Lara, a governing Workers Party lawmaker in the state legislature of Minas Gerais, remarked to IPS.

In 2003, Brazil’s female senators and deputies joined in protest over a particularly inflammatory incident.

During the debate of a bill to lower the age at which youths can be tried as adults from 18 to 16, Deputy Jair Bolsonaro called his female colleague María do Rosario Nunes a “tramp” and said that she would undoubtedly drop her opposition to the proposal if her own daughter were raped.

Some progress has been made, however, such as the elimination of the crime of “adultery” from the Penal Code. At the same time, though, the legal concept of “legitimate defence of honour” remains intact, allowing some men to be acquitted if they kill their wives as punishment for infidelity.

Other advances include the creation of the Women’s Policies Secretariat, the expansion of services for women in the public health care sector, and the establishment of special police stations or sections to deal with female victims of crime, although these exist in less than 10 percent of the country’s 5,560 municipalities.

In leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s cabinet, there are only four female ministers.

By contrast, in the left-wing government that took office Mar. 1 in neighbouring Uruguay, the number of women in high-level positions represents “a very important change, which went even further than what the public expected in this regard,” Cristina Grela told IPS.

Grela is a women’s activist, physician, founder of Catholics for the Right to Decide, and director of the Women and Gender Programme in the Ministry of Public Health.

However, in the new national Congress, there are barely a dozen women among a total of 129 lawmakers, although the president of the lower house is a woman. “All of the efforts of civil society to promote the cause of women did not bear fruit in the electoral contest, because other issues come into play there,” said Grela.

But the work of the women’s movement and the female caucus in parliament (which coordinates actions without regard to party membership) “had a lot to do with this change, which is historic for our country,” she added, referring to the country’s first leftist government.

There are three female ministers in the cabinet of Socialist President Tabaré Vázquez (including the minister of defence), along with two female deputy ministers, numerous general directors and dozens of directors of government agencies, including 17 in the Ministry of Public Health alone.

In addition, the entire executive of the recently created Ministry of Development and Social Participation is made up by women. A woman will head up the official state television network, and another will preside over the powerful state telephone company. And for the first time ever, the police forces in three of the country’s 19 departments (states) will have female chiefs.

In socialist Cuba, women occupy 36 percent of elected posts and 35 percent of administrative positions in the state economy sector. There are six female government ministers and 31 female deputy ministers, although the majority of leadership positions remain in the hands of men.

In Venezuela, women’s participation in high-level public posts has changed little over the last decade. There are four female ministers in President Hugo Chávez’s 22-member cabinet, while only two of the country’s 24 governors and 29 of its 335 mayors are women.

In the meantime, women account for 19 of the 165 deputies in parliament and eight of the 32 justices in the Venezuelan Supreme Court.

But the new Venezuelan constitution, in force since 1999, along with a number of supplementary laws, have led to the adoption of non-sexist language, so that both the feminine and masculine forms of Spanish words like “citizens”, “electors” and “president” are used.

“Women who hold positions of power might promote a (gender-less) political or ideological agenda, but among women active at the grassroots level of politics, a gender perspective is fully incorporated into the defence of the interests of impoverished sectors and families,” Marta Chacón, one of the directors of the state-run National Women’s Institute, told IPS.

In Chile, the two leading contenders for the next presidential elections are women: former defence minister Michelle Bachelet and former foreign minister Soledad Alvear. Both are members of the ruling centre-left coalition that will be competing with the right-wing opposition for leadership of the country in 2006.

The prospect of a woman president “who can quash the conservatism of the Chilean right is a major achievement for the women’s movement and for feminism,” María Pía Matta, president of the non-governmental organisation La Morada, commented to IPS.

But at present, women account for only three ministers and eight under-secretaries, one mayor, 13 governors, two out of 60 senators, and 15 out of 120 lower house deputies.

Divorce was not legalised in Chile until 2004.

In Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, 22.6 percent of the seats are held by women, while the proportion of women in the Senate is 18.8 percent, according to the state-run but independent National Women’s Institute.

Women’s participation in elected office remains well below 30 percent, despite the existence of a quota law, the Institute noted. In addition, only 3.7 percent of the country’s local governments are headed by women.

“We women have conquered spaces that were impossible to imagine 20 years ago. But the most serious problem is the situation faced by the least educated and poorest women, who still have almost no rights, because of ignorance and tradition,” researcher Carmen Morales told IPS.

The language of officialdom is an eloquent sign of the changes seen in Latin America. In his speeches, Uruguay’s new leader is careful to use both the masculine and feminine forms of the word for “Uruguayans”, while conservative Mexican President Vicente Fox is equally scrupulous in using non-sexist terminology.

“Sure there have been changes,” said Morales. “Female lawmakers have even entered the washrooms of their male colleagues, figuratively speaking.”

* Additional reporting by Marcela Valente (Argentina), Mario Osava (Brazil), Daniela Estrada and María Cecilia Espinosa (Chile), Dalia Acosta (Cuba), Diego Cevallos (Mexico) and Humberto Márquez (Venezuela).