Political Power and Women's Representation in Latin America

In this introductory chapter of Gender and Representation in Latin America, Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer argues that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing Latin American countries. She situates the book in two important literatures—one on Latin American politics and democratic institutions, the other on gender and politics—and then explains how the book will explore the ways that institutions and democratic challenges and political crises moderate women’s representation and gender inequality. She introduces the book’s framework of analyzing the causes and consequences of women’s representation, overviews the organization of the volume, and summarizes the main arguments of the chapters.

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Gender and Family Ties in Latin American Legislatures

Politics & Gender ◽

10.1017/s1743923x20000288 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-25

Author(s):

Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer ◽

Agustín Vallejo ◽

Francisco Cantú

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Empirical Analysis ◽

Latin American ◽

Conventional Wisdom ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Family Ties ◽

The Past ◽

Women’S Representation ◽

Gender Similarities

Abstract Are women disproportionately more likely than men to have family ties in politics? We study this question in Latin America, where legacies have been historically common, and we focus specifically on legislatures, where women's representation has increased dramatically in many countries. We hypothesize that, counter to conventional wisdom, women should be no more likely than men to have ties to political families. However, this may vary across legislatures with and without gender quotas. Our empirical analysis uses data from the Parliamentary Elites of Latin America survey. We find more gender similarities than differences in legislators’ patterns of family ties both today and over the past 20 years. We also find that women are more likely to have family ties than men in legislatures without gender quotas, whereas this difference disappears in legislatures with quotas.

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Presidentas Rise: Consequences for Women in Cabinets?

Latin American Politics and Society ◽

10.1111/j.1548-2456.2016.00316.x ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 (3) ◽

pp. 3-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Catherine Reyes-Housholder

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Latin American ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Original Dataset ◽

Women’S Representation ◽

The Relationship ◽

Empirical Implications

AbstractSince 1999, women have democratically won the presidency eight times in Latin America and have named hundreds of ministers. This study argues that under certain conditions,presidentasare more likely than male presidents to improve women's cabinet representation. Two mechanisms,presidentamandates and gendered networks, appear to drive the relationship. Furthermore, because the pool of ministerial candidates is shallower for women than for men,presidentasare most likely to advance women's representation in cabinets at the beginning of their term and for “feminine” ministries. A case study of Michelle Bachelet's 2006 ministerial appointments reveals initial evidence for the argument. Empirical implications are then tested with an original dataset of 1,908 ministers of all democratically elected Latin American presidents since 1999. Model results are consistent with the theory thatpresidentasare most likely to “make a difference” when they are least constrained by the supply of female ministerial candidates.

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Conclusion

10.1093/oso/9780190851224.003.0014 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Social Policy ◽

Gender Equality ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Research Agenda ◽

Political Context ◽

Future Research ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Future Research Agenda ◽

Women’S Representation

In the concluding chapter, Lesile A. Schwindt-Bayer brings together the findings from the arena and country chapters to draw general conclusions about gender and representation in Latin America. She highlights that the chapters show the weakness of cultural and socioeconomic explanations for increases in women’s representation, and instead, they demonstrate the importance of political institutions and the current political context as causes of women’s representation. The chapters show that the consequences of women’s representation are mixed. Women in office promote women’s issues and have worked to improve social policy, but little evidence exists that women are transforming the gendered nature of political arenas. Additionally, the presence of women in different arenas of representation has improved attitudes toward gender equality and democracy but to relatively small degrees. The chapter concludes by describing areas where more research is needed to help set a future research agenda on gender and representation in Latin America.

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