Women Leading Latin America * 2nd Skimm* Skylar Alexander
For my SECOND skimm exercise, I came across an article that discusses women’s recent significant role in their national government. The question it posses is “Why does Latin America have so many women leaders?” We must first know that historically, women of Latin America were discriminated from taking part in any governmental occupation in an effort to restore traditional feminine interests such as being mother and sticking to traditional gender rolls. All that has come to a stop with Latin America electing more female presidents in the last decade than any other region in the world. Although women do still have many other barriers that many Americans argue are present within our nation such as income inequality, the feminist movement become very popular as far back as 1974, when Latin America elected its first female president. Although we would like to believe that this is solely the consequence of people taking a stance against past discrimination, the real reason why women are more able to obtain political office is due to GENDER QUOTAS that were put into place to enable women to have the opportunity to have their voices heard. 16 of the 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries have adopted the idea behind a gender quota although many may argue that if the citizens truly desired to have a woman in office, they would personally elect that individual as prescribed in any “true democracy.”
Below, please find stats showing the Bolivian government of having 53 % of its parliament made up of women:
http://country-facts.findthedata.com/l/164/Bolivia
Below, please find stats showing the Peruvian government of having only 22 % of its parliament made up of women. This may indicate that although many countries are positioning themselves in favor of gender equality, others are not necessarily completely on board yet:
http://country-facts.findthedata.com/l/127/Peru
Below, please find stats showing the Chilean government of having only 15 % of its parliament made up of women. This may also indicate the same as the Bolivian parliament makeup:
http://country-facts.findthedata.com/l/40/Chile
Below, please find stats showing the Chilean government of having only 13 % of its parliament made up of women. This may also indicate the same as the both the Bolivian and Peruvian parliament:
http://country-facts.findthedata.com/l/129/Brazil
Ending on a high note, below please find the makeup of the Argentina government with an impressive 36% of their parliament consisting of seats under the control of women:
http://country-facts.findthedata.com/l/7/Argentina