“Where are we going to get women to put on the lists?” Uruguayan senator Gloria Rodríguez, promoter of a bill that seeks to guarantee equal political participation in Uruguay, has been asked over and over again.
The legislator, from the ruling National Party, responds to her interlocutors with another question: “Where do they get the men?”
Despite criticism and after being postponed for three years, Rodríguez's project has gained momentum in this 2024 election and has the support to be approved this month in the Senate's Human Rights and Gender Equality Commission.
It would then go to the plenary session of the Upper House, where the senator will have to defend it from friendly fire, members of the ruling conservative coalition who resist, in some cases furiously, this joint legislation.
“This is not a confrontation between men and women, in no way, it is a project of justice and equal rights,” Rodríguez said recently in Parliament.
As is already the case in nine Latin American countries, this initiative proposes the consecutive and alternating presence of men and women on the lists of candidates for Chambers, Departmental Boards, Municipalities and the leadership of political parties.
It seeks to replace the current Quota Law, which in fact has proven insufficient, as stated by the legislator in line with the analysis of the experts.
This rule guarantees that at least a third of the shortlist of candidates is occupied by women, but in practice the lists have followed the man-man-woman sequence, to the detriment of the latter.
Under the Quota Law, in the 2019 general elections, women elected senators and deputies represented only 19.2% of the Uruguayan Parliament, a percentage that reached 23.2% when some male representatives took up positions in the Executive Branch.
Uruguay appears in 96th place in the ranking of the Interparliamentary Union, which shows the presence of female legislators, far from Mexico, Costa Rica or Argentina, for example, where women occupy more than 40% of the seats.
In this context, the project “seeks to be consistent with the degree of democratic development achieved by Uruguay,” said Rodríguez.
The senator has emphasized that the country "cannot afford" to have these records so far from equal participation, having been the first to authorize women's suffrage in Latin America (1932) and is today recognized internationally for its full democracy.
“Society is prepared for parity, Parliament has the say,” she said.
Senator Gloria Rodríguez, in November 2020. UY Parliament
According to a report presented by UN Women, 64% of the Uruguayan population believes that there should be more women legislators.
Likewise, 47% are in favor of “going towards a parity law”, 10 percentage points more than in the 2019 electoral campaign, according to the study released last week based on a survey by Consulting Teams.
“Experience shows that the main obstacle to the advancement of parity is within the political parties, which is why the implementation of affirmative measures is so necessary,” says UN Women.
In this direction, the political parity law “is the most effective way to increase the presence of women in Parliament,” states the organization, as shown by its implementation in other countries.
The obstacle course that women face within political parties was recognized by the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou.
“It's not to look good, but the majority of female activists surpass the preparation, capacity, and often understanding of male activists,” Lacalle said on the eve of 8M regarding women's participation in politics.
In dialogue with the magazine Busqueda, he stated that there are decisions that are made “at the bar, eating a barbecue” and that generally “those meetings are men's meetings.”
That would explain, following the president's argument, the low presence of women on the lists.
“That culture should essentially change,” he said.
“In terms of women's political participation, the indicators are very bad and the legislative advances to try to improve them are very slow or non-existent,” political scientist Verónica Pérez, author of the report For more and better democracy, prepared for the Network of Political Women of Uruguay.
In Uruguayan democracy, Pérez reflects, there is a problem of access to positions of political representation, but not of militant participation in the bases of political parties, where it is quite equal.
“These gaps occur in all countries, which is why many have managed to close them using quota laws and more recently parity laws, especially for the election of Parliaments,” she adds.
In Uruguay, the political scientist estimates, the chances of approving the second option are low.
Why is it so difficult to vote on a parity law in Uruguay?
“Because those who are going to be 'harmed' by it have to vote for it.
If a parity law is voted, there will be men who will have to leave their places on the lists to women,” Pérez responds.
In that sense, he observes that in Uruguay the fact that “legislative races are very valued by politicians” weighs heavily, who seek to be re-elected and aim to maintain their seats.
Furthermore, he explains that to approve a norm of this type in Uruguay, special majorities are required in both legislative chambers and it implies multiparty agreements.
“That makes it even more difficult,” she adds.
To advance, Senator Rodríguez's project will have to deal with the opposition of her coreligionists in the National Party, not from the Frente Amplio (center-left) bench, which has applied motu proprio parity in its lists since 2019. “I do not believe in "no mechanism that limits the freedom of the citizen to vote and be represented," said nationalist senator Jorge Gandini, who voted against the quota law and maintains his position regarding parity.
“Calm down, many of us are NOT going to vote for the Parity Law!” said pro-government senator Graciela Bianchi on social media.
“The parity law, as a woman, makes me ashamed,” she told the Ladiaria newspaper.
Like Gandini, Bianchi believed that “citizens have the right to choose among those they want.”
“It is not being easy for us,” acknowledged Senator Rodríguez, who considers herself “a daughter of the quota law,” applied since 2014. “Currently, an electoral offer is being imposed that is not representative of 51% of citizens.” , she told the radio program In perspective, in the face of criticism from those who see the parity law as an “imposition” of female candidates.
“The female presence is extremely important in all areas and no one can argue with it,” she noted.
But when the time to access decision-making positions approaches, Rodríguez illustrated, questions still arise that are not asked when the candidate is a man: Will she be prepared?
Where are we going to get women to put on the lists?
“It's offensive,” she said.
Faced with this panorama, she assures that the norm will be the engine of change: “Unfortunately, we have to legislate.”
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