Hispanic Women Quota System

Introduction

Hispanic has taken steps to increase women's participation in politics (Philips 22-54). The main aim of the paper is to answer the question Does a quota system enhance women's participation in weak democracies? The argument of this paper is given that the numeric increase of women has occurred in a weak and or neglected parliament, the potential achievements of the initiatives has been neutralised. Additionally, argues that women have begun to make their voices heard in a political space that was traditionally controlled by men and this, in itself, constitutes a remarkable achievement. 

Discussion

Does a quota system enhance women's participation in weak democracies? One of the key questions addressed in the literature about gender and politics is why there should be more women in politics and to what extent women's interests are best represented by women. Gender quotas emerged in response to the evident under-representation of women in the formal political arena and they involved the introduction of specified minimum levels of representation for each sex (Goretti and Ferreira 8-12). This scheme was seen as a means to increase women's participation in politics.

It was assumed that increased levels of participation would allow women to influence policy making and to challenge the inequalities that women currently confront in many areas, including among others politics, employment and education (Sun-uk, 1995). However, it is possible to argue that the increased participation of women in a parliament where their political role is restricted by the strong figure of a President neutralise their possibilities of influencing policy-making. As in many other countries, Hispanic has taken steps to increase women's participation in politics. In 1991, the Quota Law Nº 24.012 established that 30% of the candidate list for the Chamber of Deputies had to be women. As a consequence of the law, the percentage of women deputies has increased (Munck 5-21).

This increase in the number of women elected has been considered a tremendous success by those who have studied the electoral impact of the Law (Randall 54-97). Almost all the studies on the Quota Law that have been conducted in Hispanic focus on its quantitative impact and some of them have suggested possible changes in the political attitudes of women and in the nature of public policies. However, the actual policy impact of the boost of women's presence in parliament is still unclear.

This important gap in the research can be explained by the difficulties involved in evaluating women's actual engagement in parliamentary activities. In order to fulfil this gap, INSTECO carried out a research that not only analysed the quantitative impact of quotas, but also some of the main activities that female deputies have been carrying out in parliament (O'Donnell 55-69). Nevertheless, the impact of the law still remains unclear. 

Given that the Hispanic president had overwhelming power and influence over the political system, the institutional framework of parliament was essentially weak.

Although there was a slow and progressive struggle to increase the amount of political space in which women could act, there was ...