Abstract
Women’s political representation has varied from state to state and overtime in recent decades. This chapter explores the factors that explain the different levels of women’s descriptive representation in subnational Congresses, seeking to answer why some states have had more women legislators than others. From the construction of an original database on the presence of women in Congresses from 1987 to 2019 (#MujeresElectas), the weight of institutional variables (such as the level of strength of the gender electoral regime concerning different election principles (proportional representation and plurality)) as well as economic variables (level of economic development, modernization, and educational level), controlled by the evolution of the gender electoral regime and political alternation, is evaluated. The chapter corroborates the hypothesis that the political variables, the rules that establish how candidates are registered, have the most significant impact on women’s levels of descriptive representation at the subnational level. It also identifies a series of institutional, partisan, and attitudinal obstacles women face when campaigning for a representative office.
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Notes
- 1.
The graph begins in 1991 because it is the first year for which data is available for at least a third of the states (12 of 32). When analyzing this graph, it is important to keep in mind that it is from 2001 onwards that data from all states are included in order to calculate the averages of local male and female legislators. Prior to this year, the number of states considered ranged from 12 to 29. In spite of the efforts made by the research team to have the largest number of data per legislature, it was not possible to obtain such information for all states since 1987.
- 2.
The lines for each entity cover the years for which information was collected. Therefore, the fact that there is no line in the first years of a graph does not necessarily mean that the percentage of women elected is zero, since there is no information available for the corresponding period.
- 3.
Caminotti and Freidenberg (2016) argue that the wording of the rules until 2014 was ambiguous, their application was subject to the interpretation of party leaders and there were cases where it was not contemplated that those who did not respect the law could not register candidacies. This has been changing since the approval of the gender parity rules in the Constitution, partly due to the actions of the women’s movement, as well as the role of federal and state administrative and jurisdictional authorities, which have been resolving conflicts and demands increasingly in favor of the protection of women’s political-electoral rights.
- 4.
They had until June 30, 2014, to harmonize the rules and 17 managed to do so, except Oaxaca. See Chap. 3.
- 5.
These include the State of Mexico (49.3%), San Luis Potosí (48.1%), Yucatán (48%), Puebla (46.5%), Chihuahua (45.5%), Sinaloa (45%), Durango (44%), Sonora (42.4%), Jalisco (42.1%), Guerrero (41.3%) and Michoacán (40.0%).
- 6.
Personal interview with Martha Tagle. Federal Congresswoman for Movimiento Ciudadano. Consultation conducted via WhatsApp. Mexico City, Mexico, July 20, 2020 [via digital].
- 7.
Gender stereotypes refers to the generalizing and socially shared beliefs, images and ideas that are considered properly feminine (or masculine) and that guide the formation of certain expectations, evaluations and ways of being around the expected behavior of gender stereotyped individuals” (García Beaudoux 2017, 37). People of each gender are perceived in a certain way, according to a series of roles, what they are expected to do and how it is considered that they should behave in family life, in politics, in professional life or in the relationship with others (Eagly 1987).
- 8.
In Evaristo Torres. “Detect que hubo violencia política hacia las mujeres en el pasado proceso electoral,” in La Unión, published December 7, 2018. Available at: https://www.launion.com.mx/morelos/zona-sur/noticias/134446-detectan-que-hubo-violencia-politica-hacia-las-mujeres-en-el-pasado-proceso-electoral.htm [Accessed September 12, 2019, 4:15 p.m.].
- 9.
In Bernardo Barranco. “Género y política en las elecciones 2021”, published in La Jornada Newspaper, May 26, 2021. Available at: https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/05/26/politica/genero-y-politica-en-las-elecciones-2021/ [Accessed June 15, 2021, 10:45 a.m.].
- 10.
For example, the presentation of false candidacies claiming to be of one gender (being of another) to occupy a space that requires parity, as in the case of Tlaxcala where 18 male candidates of the Fuerza Por México party registered as trans women to pretend to comply with gender parity (Animal Político, May 25, 2021). Or also by submitting affidavits that fail to comply with the guidelines approved by the INE regarding the 3 × 3 Declaration against violence in the 2021 subnational elections. For example, the Observatoria Ciudadana Todas Mx, which integrates more than 150 social organizations, reported at least 105 complaints of candidates who do not comply with any of the three assumptions required by this measure: alimony debtors, sexual aggressors, including stalking and harassment, as well as aggressors of women in the public and/or private sphere. It also makes women candidates renounce their candidacy days before the election by pretending to form “united fronts” and encouraging a useful vote against a certain candidate.
- 11.
“Via commercials, the Internet, and placating speeches, he displays an anti-rights attitude; an aggressive stance against homoparental adoption, against egalitarian marriages and against abortion. Above all, it has criminalized women who choose abortion”. In Bernardo Barranco. “Género y política en las elecciones 2021”, published in La Jornada Newspaper, May 26, 2021. Available at: https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/05/26/politica/genero-y-politica-en-las-elecciones-2021/[Accessed June 15, 2021, 10:45 a.m.].
- 12.
In the digital survey of 225 female candidates from various Latin American countries in 2018, 49.1% of the respondents stated that there are gender gaps in the allocation of funds within their party and almost 30% indicated that most of the money they used for their campaigns came from their own resources, even when the parties received resources via public funding to boost candidacies (Freidenberg and Muñoz-Pogossian 2022).
- 13.
Personal interview with Virginia García Beaudoux. Political consultant and expert in electoral campaigns in Latin America. Consultation conducted via WhatsApp. Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 20, 2020 (in Muñoz-Pogossian and Freidenberg 2020).
- 14.
“It has been detected that the 3% dedicated to women’s empowerment programs in the parties is not used for that purpose. When it is not used for this purpose, this resource is withdrawn from the parties or when it is not the same support for campaigns of men and women, the parties are subject to sanctions,” revealed in an interview Moises Yanez Lozano, Executive Vocal of the 03 District Board of the National Electoral Institute. In SPC News. “De “la panocha en las coyotas” a los mandiles: la violencia política contra las mujeres,” published June 23, 2019. Available at: https://spcnoticias.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/de-la-panocha-en-las-coyotas-a-los-mandiles-la-violencia-politica-contra-las-mujeres/ [Accessed August 3, 2021, at 4:59 p.m.] [Accessed August 3, 2021, at 4:59 p.m.].
- 15.
Personal interview with Antoni Gutiérrez Rubí. Political consultant and expert in advising electoral campaigns in Latin America. Consultation via WhatsApp. Barcelona, Spain. July 20, 2020 (in Muñoz-Pogossian and Freidenberg 2020).
- 16.
In its investigation, Acción Feminista documented practices of harassment and sexual harassment towards women candidates in the electoral campaign and even symbolic violence, because the media practically ignored women candidates and manipulated the information. “There were municipalities with up to five women candidates and they always talked about the men; women were not seen by the media, or they said that the parties were obliged to include women as candidates and they did not handle the information as a right of parity, but as an imposition.” In Evaristo Torres. “Detectan que hubo violencia política hacia las mujeres en el pasado proceso electoral,” in La Unión, published December 7, 2018. Available at: https://www.launion.com.mx/morelos/zona-sur/noticias/134446-detectan-que-hubo-violencia-politica-hacia-las-mujeres-en-el-pasado-proceso-electoral.htm [Accessed: September 12, 2019, 4:15 p.m.].
- 17.
During the 2017–2018 electoral process, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Attention of Electoral Crimes (FEPADE) opened 6 investigation files for gender-based political violence and 41 attention numbers registered based on emergency calls received on 911. Meanwhile, the National Electoral Institute, heard in the period from September 8, 2017, to August 30, 2018, 31 matters of which 24 were related to gender-based political violence against women. In SPC News. “From “panocha en las coyotas” to mandiles: political violence against women,” published June 23, 2019. Available at: https://spcnoticias.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/de-la-panocha-en-las-coyotas-a-los-mandiles-la-violencia-politica-contra-las-mujeres/ [Accessed August 3, 2021, 5:30 p.m.].
- 18.
In the 2020–2021 elections, more time was devoted to men’s campaigns than to women candidates’ campaigns: 63% versus 37%. The “Monitoring of Newscasts and the dissemination of their results during the campaign period”, conducted by UNAM-INE, found that women receive less coverage: 120 h, 5 min and 50 seconds, compared to 206 h, 38 min, 15 seconds for men, so that citizens have less chance of knowing them and their proposals and therefore vote for them. The Report reports that, in the period from April 4 to May 2, 2021, the time dedicated to the coverage of the campaigns of the federal legislative in radio and television news programs was 605 h, 31 min and 49 seconds. Central Electoral. Medios de comunicación han destinado 605 horas en radio y TV a la cobertura de las campañas federales, published May 12, 2021. Available at: https://centralelectoral.ine.mx/2021/05/12/medios-de-comunicacion-han-destinado-605-horas-en-radio-y-tv-a-la-cobertura-de-las-campanas-federales/ [Accessed June 19, 2021, 12:00 noon].
- 19.
Personal interview with Mario Riorda. Political Consultant and President of the Latin American Association of Researchers in Electoral Campaigns (ALICE). Consultation conducted via WhatsApp. Buenos Aires, Argentina. July 20, 2020 (in Muñoz-Pogossian and Freidenberg 2020).
- 20.
Personal interview with Jessica Ortega. National Coordinator of Women in Movement, Movimiento Ciudadano. Consultation conducted via WhatsApp, Mexico City, Mexico, July 19, 2020 (in Muñoz-Pogossian and Freidenberg 2020).
- 21.
An additional potential problem is that the factors that explain the likelihood of a female candidate being elected may also explain changes in IFREG over time. Addressing this issue is beyond the scope of this research but is part of our future agenda.
- 22.
According to Chen et al., “logistic regression, a common generalized linear model, is suitable for a binomial outcome, where the ratio is calculated as the ratio of the number of target events [e.g., successes] to the total number of trials, ‘ny of n’“(Chen et al. 2017: 2).
- 23.
For example, in the 2006–2009 legislature of the Nuevo León congress, four female and 22 male legislators were elected by plurality. When specifying the models, we use the code cbind(n_female_legislators, n_male_legislators) which allows R to calculate the corresponding proportion of “successes” (four female legislators) out of the total number of trials (26 legislators), which is equivalent to 0.15.
- 24.
The correlation between IFREG and Age of the gender rule ranges between 0.712 and 0.844, depending on the version of IFREG considered (SMP or PR) and the coefficient used (Pearson, Spearman or Kendall). Based on the recommendations of Arceneaux and Huber (2007) and Gujarati and Porter (2010: 245–273), it was decided not to exclude the Age of the gender rule variable from the various models in which it is considered. As the authors just mentioned explain, if a model is correctly specified (as we believe is the case of ours) multicollinearity does not cause the estimators of the coefficients of the correlated variables to be biased, but rather that the estimates of these variables are less precise (i.e., the standard error of the estimates of the correlated variables is larger). While the inclusion of the Age of the gender rule variable does indeed increase the standard error of IFREG in models 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 in our paper, in these six models the IFREG coefficients remain statistically significant at at least 1% (p < 0.01). If we were to exclude Age of the gender norm from models 2 to 4 and 6 to 8, this would not only cause these models to be misspecified, but might even introduce a bias in the estimation of the IFREG coefficients. The same logic was followed in the case of Urbanization and Schooling, whose correlation ranges from 0.5 to 0.69, depending on the coefficient used.
- 25.
This version of State GDP per capita has values between 0 and 1. The transformation is suggested by the {lme4} package because the original units of the variable (weights) are much larger than the rest of the explanatory variables.
- 26.
These models were chosen to calculate the predictions because they have the lowest AIC and BIC values.
- 27.
For these predictions the value of the rest of the variables is set to their respective means: 0.19 for the lagged response variable and 6.87 for the Age of the gender rule variable.
- 28.
In this prediction the value of the rest of the variables is set to their respective means: 0.25 for the lagged response variable and 6.89 for Age of the gender rule .
- 29.
In this prediction the value of the rest of the variables is set to their respective means: 1.49 for IFREG and 0.19 for the lagged response variable.
- 30.
These predictions were calculated from the random effects coefficients estimated in model 4. For this, the value of the rest of the variables is set to their respective means: 0.19 for the lagged response variable and 6.87 for Age of the gender rule .
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Personal Interview
Tagle, Martha. Personal interview. Federal Congresswoman for Movimiento Ciudadano. Consultation conducted via WhatsApp. Mexico City, Mexico, July 20, 2020 [via digital means].
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Freidenberg, F., Gilas, K., Garrido de Sierra, S., Saavedra Herrera, C. (2022). Why Do Some State Congresses Have More Female Legislators than Others?. In: Women in Mexican Subnational Legislatures. Latin American Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94078-2_4
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