No journalist would dare ask France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak if the reason they are meeting is their shared fondness for soccer, or their similar age.
However, at a recent press conference, without a hint of embarrassment, a journalist asked Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her then New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern if they met because “they are similar in age and have other things in common”.
The answer was immediate. Simple and direct, she made clear the obvious: “we met because we are two prime ministers, and if we were men we would not be asking this question.
The female presence in politics and in spaces of power it continues to be underrepresented and subject to unequal treatment.
We advance in the third decade of the 21st century and less than 7% of the world’s countries have a woman as head of state or presiding over a government, more than 75% of the planet’s parliamentary seats are held by men, and only 21% of the globe’s ministries are led by women; in portfolios that are also highly aligned with traditional gender stereotypes, given that the five most frequently featured for women are Family/Childhood/Youth/Older Adults/Disability, followed by Social Affairs.
Women will have to wait 130 years
Despite the fact that we have known for some time that sustainable development requires the participation and leadership of women in public and political life under equal conditions, the data shows that women are underrepresented in all spaces of power and decision-making. of decision, and it is estimated that it will achieve gender equality in the upper echelons of dangerous politics for another 130 years.
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In other words, today’s women and their daughters will not be able to live in a world in which they will have the same opportunities as men to participate and lead in politics.
Until now, the presence of women at the head of States and governments has had a symbolic value, but not a statistical one. Frequently, it is prejudicially presumed that this is a problem specific to the Latin American region.
However, the United States and many European countries have never been led by a woman. France has a prime minister, but has never had a female president. In Spain, so far, none of the main political parties went to the elections, not even once did they present a female candidate.
Democracy implies the obligation of States to guarantee respect and defense of the political rights of all groups to be represented without discrimination.
This requires ensuring the full and effective political participation of women in conditions of equality and in all public institutions.
Women and leadership positions in politics
Women make up half the population, so they are entitled by right to half of the representationnorth. Hence the importance of parity laws to guarantee numerical equality.
Furthermore, equal representation should not be limited to the legislative power. It must happen in all branches of the State, at all levels of national and local politics; in trade union, political and social organizations of all kinds.
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Along with numerical parity, it is of the utmost importance to advance in substantive equality, that is, equality in all spaces of political influence.
This must start with changes within politicians themselves, as their formal and informal organizational structures, cultures and practices are highly subject to change and hinder women’s access to positions of power and decision-making.
In Latin America, women constitute half of the militancy of the parties, but held less than 20% of their presidencies and general secretaries. Women face barriers to their leadership that come from within political parties and organizations, which often hold them back from internal positions, candidacies, funding, and visibility.
As with men in politics, there will be women who will do better and others who will do worse, their performances will vary, some will be elected, others re-elected, and others will not be voted for again.
What is not correct is to normalize the cultural and economic barriers that persist, condition and hinder their opportunities for access, permanence and full development in public and political life.
women and politicians
Last November, the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by ECLAC and UN Women, took place in Argentina.
It emphasized the need to change systems of caregiven that their responsibilities, with their consequent mental and material load, falls disproportionately on women, directly increasing their availability of time and their possibilities of economic autonomy, development and growth in public and political life, as highlighted by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres.
There are no simple, one-size-fits-all answers to multidimensional problems. Comprehensive changes in culture are requiredin organizations, in laws, in formal rules and processes, in prejudices and informal practices, in the distribution of resources, power, the use of time, and the social organization of work tasks. careful
We may disagree on many issues, but what I am sure of is that most of us agree to live in a society in which women -that is, our daughters, mothers, nieces, sisters, friends, couples or colleagues- enjoy the same opportunities to participate in politics on equal terms, without being judged by reason of their gender but by the character and content of their actions and decisions; and without having to wait a hundred and thirty years for it to happen.
*CONICET Researcher and Co-Director of the Public Opinion Center of the University of Belgrano.
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