Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:40:48.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Keeping Men In, Shutting Women Out: Gender Biases in Candidate Selection Processes in Uruguay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2016

Abstract

Quota laws have been widely adopted in Latin America, with significant increases in the number of women elected to parliament in some countries. However, it is far from clear whether the laws have produced the modifications in the gender regimes which inform internal party power structures and dynamics that would allow women to participate – as aspirants or selectors – on an equal footing with their male counterparts in the processes of candidate selection. This article seeks to identify critical nodes where the interplay between the different institutions – systemic, normative and practical – of candidate selection intersects with gendered power relations to facilitate or hinder not only women’s access to elective posts, but the terms of their access. Employing a feminist institutionalist analytical framework, this article presents the findings from qualitative case study research on candidate selection in Uruguay in 2009 and 2014 and situates them within the existing – albeit small – body of studies of gender and candidate selection in the Latin American region.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Niki Johnson is a Lecturer in the Institute of Political Science at the Universidad de la República, Uruguay. Contact email: [email protected].

References

Archenti, N. and Tula, M.I. (2007), ‘Los Límites Institucionales de las Cuotas de Género en América Latina’, Revista Iberoamericana, 7(27): 184198.Google Scholar
Archenti, N. and Tula, M.I. (2008) (eds), Mujeres y Política en América Latina. Sistemas Electorales y Cuotas de Género (Buenos Aires: Heliasta).Google Scholar
Archenti, N. ——, Tula, M.I. and Albaine, L. (2009), ‘Gender Quotas and Candidate Nomination: The Case of the City of Buenos Aires’, paper presented at the 21st World Conference of the International Political Science Association, Santiago de Chile.Google Scholar
Baldez, L. (2007), ‘Primaries vs. Quotas: Gender and Candidate Nominations in Mexico, 2003’, Latin American Politics and Society, 49(3): 6996.Google Scholar
Barquet, P. (2015), ‘Bianchi, Senadora por la Ley de Cuota, deja su Banca a Delgado’, El País, 27 January 2015.Google Scholar
Bjarnegård, E. (2013), Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
Bjarnegård, E. and Kenny, M. (2016), ‘Comparing Candidate Selection: A Feminist Institutionalist Approach’, Government and Opposition, 51(3): 370392.Google Scholar
Borner, J., Marx, J., Caminotti, M. and Rodríguez Gustá, A. L. (2009), Ideas, Presencia y Jerarquías Políticas: Claroscuros de la Igualdad de Género en el Congreso Nacional de Argentina (Buenos Aires: PNUD-PrometeoLibros).Google Scholar
Dahlerup, D. (2006) (ed.), Women, Quotas and Politics (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
Dahlerup, D. and Leyenaar, M. (2013) (eds), Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Escobar-Lemmon, M. and Taylor-Robinson, M.M. (2008), ‘How Do Candidate Recruitment and Selection Processes Affect the Representation of Women?’, in P.M. Siavelis and S. Morgenstern (eds), Pathways to Power: Political Recruitment and Candidate Selection in Latin America (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press): 345368.Google Scholar
Franceschet, S. (2008), ‘¿Promueven las Cuotas de Género los Intereses de las Mujeres? El Impacto de las Cuotas en la Representación Sustantiva de las Mujeres’, in M. Ríos Tobar (ed.), Mujer y Política: El Impacto de las Cuotas de Género en América Latina (Santiago de Chile: Catalonia, IDEA Internacional, FLACSO-Chile): 6196.Google Scholar
Franceschet, S., Krook, M.L. and Piscopo, J.M. (2012) (eds), ‘Conceptualizing the Impacts of Gender Quotas’, in S. Franceschet, M.L. Krook and J.M. Piscopo (eds), The Impact of Gender Quotas (New York: Oxford University Press): 326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freidenvall, L. and Krook, M.L. (2011), ‘Discursive Strategies for Institutional Reform: Gender Quotas in Sweden and France’, in M.L. Krook and F. Mackay (eds), Gender, Politics and Institutions (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan): 4257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, M. and Marsh, M. (1988) (eds), Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics (London: Sage).Google Scholar
Garcé, A. (2008), ‘Opiniones y Actitudes de la Dirigencia Política Masculina hacia las Mujeres Políticas y la Cuota’, unpublished research report. Project ‘Hacia la Equidad Política: Representación Política de las Mujeres en Uruguay’, Bancada Bicameral Femenina and ICP-FCS-Udelar, funded by AECID, PNUD, UNFPA, UNIFEM.Google Scholar
Gil, V. and Isgleas, D. (2014), ‘Bancas al Senado Tienen Dueño Pero en FA Hay Frentes Abiertos’, El País, 16 February.Google Scholar
Hinojosa, M. (2012), Selecting Women, Electing Women: Political Representation and Candidate Selection in Latin America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).Google Scholar
Johnson, N. and Pérez, V. (2011), ‘From Vanguard to Straggler: Women’s Political Representation and Quotas in Uruguay’, in A. Piatti-Crocker (ed.), Diffusion of Gender Quotas in Latin America and Beyond: Advances and Setbacks in the Last Two Decades (New York: Peter Lang): 151172.Google Scholar
Jones, M.P. (2008), ‘The Recruitment and Selection of Legislative Candidates in Argentina’, in P.M. Siavelis and S. Morgenstern (eds), Pathways to Power: Political Recruitment and Candidate Selection in Latin America (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press): 4175.Google Scholar
Jones, M.P. (2010), ‘La Representación de las Mujeres en la Asamblea Nacional de Panamá: Diagnóstico, Buenas Prácticas y Propuestas de Reforma’, in H. Brown Araúz et al., Las Reformas Electorales en Panamá: Claves de Desarrollo Humano para la Toma de Decisiones (Panamá: PNUD): 275316.Google Scholar
Kenny, M. (2013), Gender and Political Recruitment: Theorizing Institutional Change, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
Kenny, M. (2014), ‘A Feminist Institutionalist Approach’, Politics and Gender, 10(4): 679684.Google Scholar
Krook, M.L. (2009), Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Krook, M.L. (2010), ‘Beyond Supply and Demand: A Feminist-Institutionalist Theory of Candidate Selection’, Political Research Quarterly, 63(4): 707720.Google Scholar
Krook, M.L. and Mackay, F. (2011a) (eds), Gender, Politics and Institutions (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
Krook, M.L. and Mackay, F. (2011b), ‘Introduction: Gender, Politics, and Institutions’, in M.L. Krook and F. Mackay (eds), Gender, Politics and Institutions (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan): 120.Google Scholar
Leach, S. and Lowndes, V. (2007), ‘Of Roles and Rules: Analysing the Changing Relationship between Political Leaders and Chief Executives in Local Government’, Public Policy and Administration, 22(2): 183200.Google Scholar
Llanos, B. and Sample, K. (2008), From Words to Action: Best Practices for Women’s Participation in Latin American Political Parties (Stockholm: International IDEA).Google Scholar
Lovenduski, J. and Norris, P. (1993), Gender and Party Politics (London: Sage).Google Scholar
Mackay, F., Kenny, M. and Chappell, L. (2010), ‘New Institutionalism Through a Gender Lens: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism?’, International Political Science Review, 31(5): 573588.Google Scholar
Marx, J., Caminotti, M. and Borner, J. (2008), ‘¿En Pie de Igualdad? Quince Años de Cupo Femenino en Argentina’, in M. Ríos Tobar (ed.), Mujer y Política: El Impacto de las Cuotas de Género en América Latina (Santiago de Chile: Catalonia, IDEA).Google Scholar
Norris, P. (1997), ‘Introduction: Theories of Recruitment’, in P. Norris (ed.), Passages to Power: Legislative Recruitment in Advanced Democracies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 114.Google Scholar
Norris, P. and Lovenduski, J. (1995), Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
North, D.C. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El Pais (2014), ‘Gandini Enciende Polémica por Apoyo del Pastor Márquez a Diputada Alonso’, El País, 5 June.Google Scholar
Piatti-Crocker, A. (2011) (ed.), Diffusion of Gender Quotas in Latin America and Beyond: Advances and Setbacks in the Last Two Decades (New York: Peter Lang).Google Scholar
Piscopo, J.M. (2006), Engineering Quotas in Latin America, Working Paper 23 (San Diego: Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, University of California).Google Scholar
Piscopo, J.M. (2011), ‘Gender Quotas and Equity Promotion in Mexico’, in A. Crocker (ed.), Diffusion of Gender Quotas in Latin America and Beyond (New York: Peter Lang): 3652.Google Scholar
Piscopo, J.M. (2016), ‘When Informality Advantages Women: Quota Networks, Electoral Rules and Candidate Selection in Mexico’, Government and Opposition, 51(3): 487512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La República (2009), ‘Alianza Nacional no Incluye Candidatas’, La República, 23 August.Google Scholar
Ríos Tobar, M. (2008) (ed.), Mujer y Política: El Impacto de las Cuotas de Género en América Latina (Santiago de Chile: Catalonia: IDEA Internacional, FLACSO-Chile).Google Scholar
Roza, V. (2010), ‘Gatekeepers to Power: Party-level Influences on Women’s Political Participation in Latin America’, PhD thesis, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.A. (2010), ‘Taking Ideas and Discourse Seriously: Explaining Change through Discursive Institutionalism as the Fourth “New Institutionalism”’, European Political Science Review, 2: 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siavelis, P.M. and Morgenstern, S. (2008) (eds), Pathways to Power: Political Recruitment and Candidate Selection in Latin America (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press).Google Scholar
Ultimas Noticias (2009), ‘Larrañaga Lanzó Lista Oficial para Octubre’, Ultimas Noticias, 6 August.Google Scholar