From descriptive to substantive representation? Women and politics in Latin America

Abstract

Studying women's representation in legislatures is relevant because women's access to these bodies and their participation in decision-making are fundamental to realising the right to equal participation in democratic governance. It has been found that an increased female presence in legislatures does not always lead to women's access to the most important working and decision-making bodies on an equal footing with men. Thus, the aim of this article is to analyse women's participation in the lower or single chambers of 17 Latin American countries from two dimensions of representation: descriptive and substantive. In order to study the latter type of representation, legislative committees are taken into account. It is found that a higher percentage of women occupying a seat does not always translate into women holding an equal proportion of committee chairmanships. It is also observed that women are predominantly the chairpersons of reproductive committees. It is concluded (1) that access to positions of political representation does not necessarily translate into equal access to positions of power within the legislative chambers and (2) that women occupy a smaller proportion of the most important committees, demonstrating that the strong and most powerful committees continue to be held by men due to the construction of politics and its exercise as androcentric.