Susan Franceschet

Gender Quotas and Women's Substantive Representation: Lessons from Argentina

This article integrates the comparative literature on gender quotas with the existing body of research on womens substantive representation. Quota laws, which bring greater numbers of women into parliaments, are frequently assumed to improve womens substantive representation. We use the Argentine case, where a law mandating a 30% gender quota was adopted in 1991, to show that quotas can affect substantive representation in contradictory and unintended ways. To do so, we disaggregate womens substantive representation into two distinct concepts: substantive representation as process, where women change the legislative agenda, and substantive representation as outcome, where female legislators succeed in passing womens rights laws in the Argentine Congress. We argue that quota laws complicate both aspects of substantive representation. Quotas generate mandates for female legislators to represent womens interests, while also reinforcing negative stereotypes about womens capacities as politicians. Our case combines data from bill introduction and legislative success from 1989 to 2007 with data from 54 interviews conducted in 2005 and 2006. We use this evidence to demonstrate that representation depends on the institutional environment, which is itself shaped by quotas. Institutions and norms simultaneously facilitate and obstruct womens substantive representation.

Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin America

This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose that the strategic options available to women are shaped by at least three factors: (1) the existence of a unified women’s movement capable of making political demands; (2) existing patterns of gender relations, which influence women’s access to arenas of political influence and power; and (3) the content of existing gender ideologies, and whether women can creatively deploy them to further their own interests. State feminism emerged in Chile out of the demands of a broad–based women’s movement in a context of democratic transition that provided feminists with access to political institutions. In Nigeria, attempts at creating state feminism have consistently failed due to a political transition from military to civilian rule that has not provided feminists with access to political arenas of influence, and the absence of a powerful women’s movement.

Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power, Parties, and Elite Political Networks in Argentina:

This article investigates whether and how gender shapes access to elite political networks, using the case of Argentina, the first country in the world to adopt a national-level quota law in 1991. Quotas have significantly improved women’s access to elected office, without altering either the gendered hierarchies or gendered power networks that govern political advancement. We find that while men and women elected to the national congress have considerable political experience, men are more likely to have held executive office, particularly posts that provide access to resources that sustain clientelism. We further find that female legislators are less likely to be married and have children than male legislators, indicating that women’s domestic responsibilities circumscribe their political careers.

Explaining Social Movement Outcomes Collective Action Frames and Strategic Choices in First- and Second-Wave Feminism in Chile

This article compares the outcomes of first- and second-wave feminism in Chile. The author argues that the double-militancy strategy of second-wave feminists emerged out of shifts in the political opportunity structure that led the movement to adapt its collective action frame. First-wave feminists had constructed a gender frame that depicted women as apolitical. In a context in which political parties were class based and saw little need to address women’s issues, neither the gender frame nor the political opportunity structure invited a double-militancy strategy. The context for second-wave activists was different. The politicization of women’s maternal identities altered the meaning of the maternal gender frame. Because the prodemocracy parties needed the support of women’s movements (and female voters), they invited women’s participation. Thus, the political opportunity structure and a more politicized gender frame encouraged a double-militancy strategy, ultimately leading to the realization of some of the movement’s goals.

The Gendered Dimensions of Rituals, Rules and Norms in the Chilean Congress

This paper investigates the symbolic aspects of the legislative process, conceptualising much of the routine activities of legislators as ‘rituals’. While traditional accounts of legislator behaviour view day-to-day activities as primarily instrumental, conceptualising these activities as rituals and uncovering their symbolic dimensions reveals additional sources of motivation as well as the power dynamics that are embedded in routine activities. Formal rules, rituals and norms are not neutral, but instead have profoundly gendered effects to the extent that they encourage minority groups (such as women) to perform their roles according to the rules and behavioural styles of the dominant group. Often, this means adopting the legislative priorities of the dominant group as well. Drawing on evidence from a case study of Chiles post-dictatorship congress (1990–2010), the paper shows how rituals, rules and norms work to disadvantage women and, more specifically, undermine their ability to promote gender issues that are presumed to be conflictual.

Equality, Democracy, and the Broadening and Deepening of Gender Quotas

The diffusion of gender quotas reflects the legitimation of the normative principle of womens equality in public life. Legislative gender quotas, whether adopted through top-down elite decision making or through bottom-up feminist activism, are frequently justified via appeals to norms of inclusion and fairness. These democratic ideals of womens full representation and participation have indeed gained traction: Over the past two decades, quotas have extended beyond legislatures to public institutions, such as cabinets and executive agencies, and to state advisory councils, subnational governments, labor union directorates, and corporate boards. Such diffusion signals a profound gendering of public space and leadership, a transformation initiated by states assuming active roles as the guarantors —rather than mere promoters—of equality.

Resisting Parity: Gender and Cabinet Appointments in Chile and Spain

Presidents and prime ministers possess vast powers of appointment. These powers can be used to appoint cabinets with an equal number of male and female ministers. Parity cabinets make dramatic statements about gender, representation, and political power. They imply that gender balance—rather than just adding some women—is needed to overcome womens political marginalization. Cabinets with just a few token women are insufficient and undemocratic. Yet appointing women in the same proportions as men challenges a status quo in which men occupy most of the positions of power. Even when leaders possess the formal authority to appoint ministers, forming a parity cabinet means that some existing practices and norms, particularly the norm of male dominance, have been broken. Parity cabinets thus create the possibility of backlash from those who fear reduced opportunities for men to access powerful posts.

Separate but Not Equal: The Effects of Municipal Electoral Reform on Female Representation in Chile

Chile altered its electoral rules for municipal elections in 2002. The new rules separated mayoral and council member elections, and while the latter continue to use proportional representation, mayors are now chosen based on plurality. These changes serve as a natural test of the effects of electoral rules on women’s political representation. The Chilean case demonstrates (1) that electoral reform is gendered, (2) that women’s representation is shaped by both formal and informal rules, and (3) that electoral rules have different effects on mayoral and council member positions, demonstrating that the “glass ceiling” for executive positions is harder to crack.

Gender Policy and State Architecture in Latin America

Latin American countries display wide variation in gender equality and organized womens capacity to mobilize and influence policy outcomes. Yet there are also many similarities in the regions political systems and sociocultural contexts that affect womens politics and its impact. These include presidential systems that, in theory, divide power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but often concentrate power in the executive; deep social and regional inequalities; and the influence of organized religion. How these factors affect womens lives, however, is also shaped by vertical divisions of powers. Although only four Latin American states are federations (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela), most other countries undertook decentralization in the last two decades, transferring service delivery and program implementation (but not taxing authority) to regional or local levels. Because in some cases decentralization occurred under authoritarian regimes, or in newly democratizing states in the midst of fiscal crises, it has not ultimately deepened Latin American democracy.

Supermadres, Maternal Legacies and Women's Political Participation in Contemporary Latin America

Elsa Chaney once argued that Latin American women turned to motherhood to justify their political participation. Now that Latin American women have gained unprecedented access to national-level office, we ask whether these cultural narratives of maternalism still condition female politicians’ access to political power. Using public opinion data, media analysis, and elite interviews, we conceptualise four strategic frames deployed by elite women to justify their national-level political careers: the traditional supermadre, the technocratic caretaker, the macho minimiser, and the difference denier. We argue that while todays female politicians have developed diverse responses to maternalism, their access to public office remains profoundly shaped by structural constraints and cultural narratives that privilege traditional feminine ideals of caretaking.