WUNRN
NEW YORK — Quietly and against the odds, women are stepping up the political
ladder in Latin America, moving ahead of the United States when it comes to
political empowerment and closely matching much of Western Europe.
The
Latin America-Caribbean region, once a caldron of machismo and gender
inequality, has jumped ahead on women’s advancement with more female heads of
state and heads of government — five — than any other area globally and a
higher percentage of female members of parliament (22.5 percent) than any
region except Nordic Europe, according to the 2012 Women in Politics
survey of the agency U.N. Women and
the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Female leaders are no novelty in the region. But now, at the same time,
there are Dilma
Rousseff of Brazil and Laura Chinchilla
of Costa Rica, both first-time presidents; Cristina
Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, in her second term; and Kamla
Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago and Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica,
the first female prime ministers of their island nations. And in Mexico this
election season, Josefina Vázquez Mota, an economist, is the first woman to run
for president under a major-party banner.
Perhaps Cuba is a bigger surprise.
The U.N. Women study ranks the island No. 3 in the world in the percentage of
women in the legislature (the United States ranks No. 78). Cuba is also among
the 30 countries, including Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Argentina, Ecuador and
Guyana, where women make up 30 percent or more of their legislatures (unicameral
parliaments or lower houses). Cuban women make up 41 percent of the Communist
Party and 45.2 percent of the National Assembly.
“What fostered change was a political commitment that
incorporated women’s rights into the broader Cuban revolution, and investments
in literacy and public health that produced significant improvements for women
after 1959,” said Sarah Stephens, the director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas
, a research and advocacy group that opposes the U.S. embargo of Cuba and
proposes new policies intended to foster normal relations.
“The status of Cuban women over the last 50 years has
seen some pretty big changes,” Ms. Stephens, whose center is working on a
report on women in Cuba, said by e-mail.
In other countries, electoral quotas to increase or
guarantee women’s participation in politics are credited for much of the
forward movement. “We have seen that temporary special measures — quotas — are
helping women,” Begoña Lasagabaster, a U.N. Women political adviser, said in
her office in New York.
Ms. Lasagabaster, a Basque lawyer who served in the
Spanish Parliament from 1996 to 2008, said: “When you have a good electoral
system that includes well-designed and well-implemented temporary special
measures, we have seen the number of women in parliament increasing.”
Fourteen countries in Latin America have quotas — Cuba
does not. Argentina was something of a trailblazer, the first country in the
region to adopt quotas, in 1991. Citing surveys and studies, Ms. Lasagabaster
attributed women’s gains to several trends: democratization, post-conflict
systems, the role of money and the influence of religion.
“I am not sure how to explain Cuba,” she added. It may
be the post-conflict trend — “women and men who have fought together,” as
Cubans did in the revolution 50 years ago, “tend to maintain their positions,”
their political stature.
“Ten of the top 30 countries in the U.N. Women study
are post-conflict countries,” she noted, mentioning Rwanda, Angola, Uganda and
Burundi. “They included specific seats for women in parliaments.” Nicaragua,
too, a high-ranking nation, might fall in that category. She pointed to the
influence of money (women are not comfortable raising money for themselves, she
says) and religion as obstacles to equality.
In a region where abortion is restricted almost
everywhere, the issue of sexual reproduction rights, Ms. Lasagabaster said, is
a lightning rod. “Look at Dilma,” she said, referring to Ms. Rousseff, who lost
support in her presidential campaign when she was accused of favoring abortion.
And there is another barrier for women: the media.
“The problem with the media is its portrait of women,”
she said. A published survey of recent elections in five Latin American
countries identified a pattern of bias in media coverage of female candidates.
According to the survey, “Unseeing Eyes:
Media Coverage and Gender in Latin American Elections ,” published in 2011
by U.N. Women and the International Institute
for Democracy and Electoral Assistance , women face three obstacles: lack
of access to financing; few opportunities to become widely known; and a culture
that treats women as second-class citizens.
What is more, the media tend to define women by
domestic roles — mother, wife, homemaker — and focus on physical appearance and
clothing. In May 2010, the Dominican newspaper Hoy noted, for example: “The
only lasting things are the images of beautiful women candidates.”
Still, “Latin America is doing well,” Ms. Lasagabaster
said. “It’s giving women a good level of education, and it’s starting to have
some social policies taking into account the situation of women at work.”
While it is often said that women have no interest in politics, studies of 18 Latin American countries show that though women make up only 19 percent of the leadership of political parties, they make up 52 percent of the membership. “Tell me that women are not interested in politics,” Ms. Lasagabaster said, laughing. “No way.”