Pathways
Building Constituencies for Political Reform - Quotas as an instrument of change
2007 - 2011
Lead Researcher: Ana Alice Costa
Researcher: Jamile Carvalho
Brazil has the greatest experience in the weakness of quotas. There are no obligations for the parties to use them, and no one is held to account for not doing it. An international workshop was held to intervene in ongoing demands for political reform in Brazil to redress the low representation of women in national government, by drawing together lessons from successful efforts to bring women into office through quota systems.
Resources For This Project
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The Participation Paradox: Quotas Policy In Latin America
Within the last 20 years, the problem of women’s participation in formal power positions has been mobilizing women, especially feminists, throughout Latin America. After over half a century since gaining the right to vote, Latin-American women have recognized that, in practice, this fought for right did not guarantee the right to be elected as well. Indeed, Latin American women have remained marginalized from power, kept from participating in greater numbers in deliberative power structures. In these circumstances, the implementation of quota systems for women in a context of affirmative action policies has figured as a major goal in the mobilisation of women in their struggle for access to power structures. …
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Trilhas Do Poder De Mulheres. Experiencias Internacionais Em Acoes Afirmativas, Graficos Do Congresso Nacional, Brasilia
This book provides a summary of a conference held at the Brazilian National Congress in June 2007 on international experiences of affirmative action. The purpose of the conference was to identify and analyse, on the one hand, the shortcomings of the current Brazilian quota system and potential sources of support in congress for a change; and, on the other, highlight successful experiences of increasing women’s political representation in legislative bodies in other countries. Representatives from Argentina, Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Rwanda and Palestine, and from the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Europe, were brought together to discuss “lessons learned” from mechanisms at work in their countries, in order to contribute to the development of an alternative proposal for political reform in Brazil and other countries in a similar situation regarding women’s low representation in legislating bodies. …
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Women And Politics: The Brazilian Paradox
In June 2007 - five years after it was first promised during the 2002 electoral campaign - political reform finally made it onto the Brazilian National Congress agenda. After years of waiting, women were anticipating deep changes in the patriarchal rules and elitist power structures that had characterized the Brazilian state for decades. But the majority of women's demands did not even come close to the negotiation tables. Costa describes this as “. …
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Women's Pathways into Power - National Congress - 19-20 June 2007
What lessons can be learnt from successful experiences of affirmative action to enhance the numbers of women in high political office? This was the topic of an international seminar ‘Women's Pathways into Power - International Experiences of Affirmative Action', held at the Brazilian National Congress on 20 June 2007. …
