Women’s Contribution to Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean

This document, published by the Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), highlights two key themes related to male-female inequality in the region: on the one side, political participation and gender parity in decision making processes, at all levels; and on the other, the contribution of women to the economy and social protection sectors, specially in relation to non paid (unpaid) work. Both themes were at the center of the Tenth Regional Conference on Latin American and Caribbean Women, held in Ecuador in August 2007, where gender parity as a possible democratic goal was first analysed in such detail.

The document points out that while all countries in the region show a wide participation of women in their political history, and specially so during the last twenty years, the low numerical representation of women in parliaments and executive power levels reveal the big challenge that political elites face to achieve gender equity. The appearance of female leaders in the region, the increasingly autonomous electoral behaviour of women, and the preference of women voters for peer female candidates, are factors that influence this new democratic scenario. Parity is a central characteristic of new democracies, and an ethical resource that provides legitimacy to democratic institutions.

In the first section of this document conclusive data shows that women –that constitute half of the population of the region - still have a minimal representation in most parliaments and democratic political spaces. Similar inequalities are found in other power and decision- making spheres and environments. Whilst the right to vote was a result of more than three decades of struggle, between 1920 and 1960, the right of women to be elected took almost 50 years to materialise. It is only during the last years of the 20th century that a noticeable increase in the number of elected women takes place, in part due to positive action measures, like the assignment of quotas, which are becoming much more generalised.

Section II provides a detailed analysis of the role of women in the non-paid care sector, which is a responsibility almost exclusively assigned to women. This aspect blocks their adequate insertion in the work market, and has also a negative effect on their participation in decision making processes.


The document introduces two complementary concepts that accentuate some critical aspects of inequality: care and parity. Both concepts illustrate the challenges and tensions that can become obstacles the advancement of women's rights and contribute to formulate the policies proposed at the end of the document. Even though in the relevant chapters an in-depth treatment of both concepts is presented, and their analytical value is well evidenced, it is worth pointing out in advance that the usefulness for the analysis is that the concept of parity does not only mean that women are allocated larger quotas in decision making positions. Parity implies a much larger expression of universality, and is part of a more ample process which includes the quota resource, as well as other tools. But most importantly, what it requires is the recognition of women as citizens with full access to their rights.


Parity, rather than just a quantitative concept, should be seen as the expression of the redistribution of power in three specific spheres: the job market place, decision making, and family life. The debate around parity reveals that a) a citizen is not neutral, b) that citizenship has been constructed using masculine models and c) that access to political representation happens in an environment which has a sexual connotation ( sexuado), characterised by the exclusion – structural, not by accident – of women.

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