Abstract
Despite the ascent to power of several high-profile women throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, many indicators show that women still suffer from high levels of gender inequality. In Peru, women occupy 21.5 percent of parliamentary seats (United Nations Development Program 2013) and have been very visible, some in high-profile positions, within municipal, regional, and national government since the 1990s. A quota system obliges political parties to reserve 30 percent of their electoral lists for women, and since 1996, a women’s machinery within government addresses (some) issues related to women’s vulnerability (although gender equality receives less attention). Indeed, improvement in representation has not solved some of the major ills of gender inequality: violence against women, including rape, continues to be appallingly high, reproductive and sexual rights are still contested, and the labor market continues to favor men.1 How can we understand women’s increasing representation and visibility in politics at a time when women in Peru continue to suffer high levels of gender-based violence and face opposition to abortion?
I thank Paulo Drinot for inviting me on this project, and commenting on earlier versions. Reading group mates Polly Wilding, Bina Fernandez, and Gabrielle Lynch provided valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper, for which I am grateful. Thanks also for the comments of an anonymous reviewer. The usual caveats apply.
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Boesten, J. (2014). Inequality, Normative Violence, and Livable Life: Judith Butler and Peruvian Reality. In: Drinot, P. (eds) Peru in Theory. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137455260_10
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