Women share the planet with men.
In population terms, we are half, but in everything else we are centuries behind.
After the pandemic, all equality indicators have regressed, which is harming the present and future of women and girls and is deepening the gender gap.
In March 2023, on the eve of International Women's Day, the UN recalculated figures and warned that "at the current rate, it will take 300 years to achieve equality between men and women."
Who has cast the curse of Sisyphus on women?
In the search for solutions we look at politics, the places of power where decisions are made so that things change and we see a large collection of men who set the rules of the game and establish priorities.
This is where the debate about the feminization of politics arises.
Feminizing politics does not mean reinforcing the patriarchal image of women as mothers or caregivers, which pigeonholes us into the areas of health, education or family.
These stereotypes make it difficult for women to be ministers of the economy, rectors of universities or run companies.
Much more so being presidents of a country.
What politics, and life in general, needs is more feminism to strengthen the democratic system.
Precisely, a measure of the quality of democracy is equality between women and men.
For this reason, we insist, it is necessary to feminize politics.
And what is the “feminization” of politics?
Parity.
Parity has to do with women's access to all spaces and fundamentally to those where decisions are made, in the public and private sectors.
Parity also has to do with holding positions under the same conditions, not with different and more demanding rules for women.
We have to work twice as hard to get half as much.
That's why men are in politics and women only go through it.
The former president of Chile Michelle Bachelet explained that, when she was in office, if there was a complex issue and she considered that it required time to make a decision, she was accused of being indecisive;
But if she made a quick decision on an issue that she thought was clear, she was improvising or had not thought well enough.
It's bad if you do it, bad if you don't.
A little over a year ago, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, surprised the world with her resignation, arguing that she no longer had enough “gasoline” in the tank.
It is no coincidence that this act, unusual in history, was carried out by a woman.
Many times, women exercise leadership that breaks the mold.
It is what the Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American States (OAS) calls disruptive leadership.
There is no other way, because the mold was made to measure by others.
Social gender norms are so intricate in the system that it is very difficult to navigate them alone, and for that same reason, our achievements are almost always collective.
On the other hand, coming from a situation of historical exclusion and inequality, as in the case of women, gives us a different starting point and, for many of us, a different and broader view of the world.
Hence, parity also means opportunities to promote policies for gender equality, which are those that allow us to advance, those that change our lives and improve society as a whole.
We will continue working, together, to accelerate the feminization of politics and equal democracy.
We must achieve it in well under 300 years.
Carmen Montón
is the permanent observer representative of Spain before the Organization of American States (OAS).
María Roquebert León
is permanent representative of Panama to the Organization of American States.
Mayerlyn Cordero
is permanent representative of the Dominican Republic to the Organization of American States.
Alejandra Mora
is executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission of Women before the Organization of American States.
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