12 October 2007
Can quota mechanisms increase the number of women in decision making?
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During the Forum on Gender Equality and Political Participation in the Americas, held in Atlanta (U.S.A.), Ms. Carmen Moreno, Director of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) emphasized: “We need to increase the number of women in decision-making posts in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, consolidate democracy and advance in the fight against poverty.”
Within this framework, the results of UN-INSTRAW’s research “Experiences from Latin American: Quota mechanisms for women’s political participation,” which contains an analysis of the impact of different quota laws and mechanisms in the region, were presented.
“The quota mechanism constitutes an introductory mechanism that can serve as a catalyst for the implementation of consistent public policies oriented to redressing the power imbalance that exists between women and men”, explained the Director of UN-INSTRAW during the Forum organized jointly by the Centro Internacional para la Formación de Autoridades de Gobierno and Líderes de la Sociedad Civil (CIFAL) and UN-INSTRAW on 5, 6 and 7 September 2007.
Carmen Moreno highlighted that quota mechanisms have been significant in increasing the participation of women in the political arena. However, in all Latin American countries (excluding Brazil) women’s participation in political posts increased by an average of only 5% from the year that the quota law was adopted and 2006.
“Although laws, rules and norms exist to encourage women’s access to legislative and executive posts, these instruments must be accompanied by other measures and actions in order to attain equal, and equitable, political representation.”
“The main obstacles to women’s participation in the political arena are socio-cultural, including the traditional attribution of public space to men and private space to women, and the lack of confidence in women’s leadership capacity”, concluded the Director of UN-INSTRAW.
Although quota mechanisms constitute only an initial tool to promote greater political participation of women, quotas have served to generate public debate on the disparity in the distribution of power between women and men and have promoted the identification of women’s needs in terms of access, participation and permanence in the political arena.
Press contact:
Ms. Valeria Vilardo
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