48th Conference of Mercosur Heads of State and associated states. President Dilma Rousseff receives the president of Argentina Cristina Kirchner. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Some rights reserved
This
article is being published as part of the partnership between Nueva Sociedad
and democraciaAbierta. You can read the original here.
Towards the end
of the last century, a change of course in Latin American politics was
interpreted and described by many as a "turn to the Left". It was a
process which scholars came to call the Pink Tide, characterized by the
democratic coming to power of progressive governments in most countries in the
region.
Broadly, it was a break with the 1990’s Washington Consensus – which
had implied a mix of market-opening and privatizating measures, inspired and promoted
by the United States. But the Pink Tide brought with it an absolute novelty:
women presidents – the presidentas.
Now that the tide has turned, the falling water level is revealing a shortage
of women in high political posts.
Does the current
turn to the Right actually imply less female presence in the political
frontline? Or are we going to witness now a rise of right-wing women leaders in
Latin American politics?
In 2014, Latin America ranked high in the world’s female leader index, with presidentas Dilma Rouseff (Brazil), Cristina Fernández (Argentina), Michelle Bachelet (Chile) and Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica).
In 2014, Latin America ranked
high in the world’s female leader index, with presidentas Dilma Rouseff (Brazil), Cristina Fernández (Argentina),
Michelle Bachelet (Chile) and Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica) and prime ministers
Portia Simpson (Jamaica) and Kamla Persad-Bissessar (Trinidad and Tobago). This
was – and still is – an unparalleled record.
Today, there are no women presidents
in sight and the number of women in cabinet posts has clearly diminished.
However, there are some
indications that a number of strong women leaders are emerging. For example María
Eugenia Vidal, governor of the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), from
Mauricio Macri’s Let’s Change alliance, and Marta Lucía Ramírez, from the
Colombian Conservative Party, Álvaro Uribe’s presidential ticket partner.
In Latin America, male
dominance of political power throughout history
accounts for the expectations societies have had regarding presidential
leadership.
For several decades after women won the recognition of their right to
participate in electoral politics at all levels, the presidency remained the
one political post filled exclusively by men. Even though women began to occupy
legislative positions at sub-national and national level shortly after
achieving full voting rights in the 1940s and 1950s, it was not until the 1990s
that a woman won a presidential election.
But are we to think that the progressive ideals of the Pink Tide are responsible
for the success of the women who won the presidency of their countries during
the first decade of this century?
In Latin
America's Presidentas: Overcoming Challenges – a recently published article
included in Gender and Representation in
Latin America, edited by Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer -, American political
scientists Catherine Reyes-Housholder and Gwynn Thomas recognize that the
growing experience of women in politics and the existence of political contexts
more favourable to their political representation operate as necessary
conditions for their electoral victories.
This is evidenced by the fact that
none of the presidential candidates – both the winning ones and those who did
not win – was a newcomer. On the contrary, they had been building their
political careers for years.
At this stage, though, it is quite
clear that the coming to power of women does not necessarily ensure a gender
perspective – that is, the will to change an unequal order. However, the
presence of women as presidents, legislators and ministers, allows, at least, a
new set of possibilities.
The Pink Tide presidentas, with due nuances in each
case, made a small but significant difference in the appointments to cabinet
posts. In Argentina, women headed 25% of the ministries during Cristina
Fernández’s mandate, a figure that has now gone down to less than 10% – only two
– with Mauricio Macri.
Nor is the current Buenos Aires provincial cabinet under
governor María Eugenia Vidal – a likely presidential candidate for 2019 – in a better
shape in terms of equality: out of twenty members, only one is a woman.
After the institutional coup against Dilma Rousseff, President Michel Temer formed a cabinet composed entirely of men.
The case of
Brazil is even more symptomatic. After the institutional coup against Dilma
Rousseff, President Michel Temer formed a cabinet composed entirely of men. And
the recent assassination of councilwoman Marielle Franco (from the Socialism
and Freedom Party), a feminist leader and a social leader of the favelas, is a clear example of the
danger that women who question the established order in the region face.
Is there a
relation between the end of the presidentas’ mandates and the turn to the Right which
is currently taking place in several Latin American countries?
Feminist
historian Dora Barrancos, senior researcher and member of the Board of the
National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) in Argentina,
says it bluntly: "There is, for sure, a close relation between the end of
these mandates and the advance of the Right, which had already been showing its
obfuscation, particularly regarding the income redistribution measures.
The
policy measures of the governments which were inclined to resolving inequality
and social exclusion were harassed by the concentrated economic groups."
During the Pink
Tide, Michele Bachelet’s government was the most advanced one regarding the
inclusion of a government agenda with a gender perspective. During her second
term, she pushed a series of electoral reforms which included Chile's first gender
quota by law.
In addition, Bachelet introduced legislation to liberalize the up
to then total prohibition of abortion. Reyes-Housholder and Thomas state that
no other president (woman or man) equals Bachelet's legislative success in
promoting gender equality, which was a central element of her presidential
agenda.
They highlight the fact that Bachelet successfully mobilized a supporting
core of women behind a "pro-woman" platform. She also managed to attract
"elite feminists" and skillfully managed to use her power to promote
meaningful change in favour of women.
In Argentina,
President Mauricio Macri recently decided to create a women's cabinet headed by
Vice President Gabriela Michetti. This cabinet includes his two women ministers
– Carolina Stanley (Social Development) and Patricia Bullrich (Security) – and the
head of the National Institute for Women, Fabiana Tuñez.
The first meeting of
this cabinet took place within the framework of a social and political agenda focused
on several gender issues, such as the decriminalization of abortion, the
extension of paternity leave, and wage equality between women and men – in
addition to gender violence and its most serious consequence, feminicide, which
has motivated massive protest movements in the country, such as Ni una una menos.
So, could the Right
capitalize on the historical struggles of the women's movement, such as legal
abortion, which now seems to have been co-opted into the government agenda in Argentina?
"Yes, of course it can", says feminist sociologist María Alicia
Gutiérrez, who is a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences
of the University of Buenos Aires and a member of the National Campaign for the
Right to Free and Secure Legal Abortion. "This situation is not new.
During Carlos Menem’s Peronist government, amidst the brutal implementation of
neoliberal structural adjustment measures, privatization and rights reform, a
quota law was passed and so was a bill on shared parental authority, among
other measures. But laws condition the possibilities of advancing other
demands, and so it is not clear that right-wing governments, with a program of
social cuts, would be willing to do it".
Historically,
women in Latin America have participated in politics to a lesser extent than
men, but in The impact of Presidentas on
political activity, Catherine Reyes-Housholder and Leslie Schwindt-Bayer show
that the presence of a female president is correlated with greater
participation of women in the campaign, more female voter intention and greater
attendance at meetings by women.
The authors say that some evidence suggests
that the presence of women presidents is associated with an increase in the
support of both men and women for female political leadership, which in turn
can lead to greater female political participation.
It is possible
to think that we are witnessing a return of male dominance of political power
in Latin America. However, some promising trends indicate that women are
competing more than before. Today, there are more women with experience in
politics who can contest power in the public arena.