Between gender quotas and parity

The impact of affirmative action measures on the descriptive representativeness of women in Chile (2017-2021)

Authors

  • Anais Pulgar-Araya Universidad de Santiago de Chile
  • Ariel Valdebenito

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.201.04

Abstract

The following paper evaluates the effect of the gender quota and parity on the descriptive representation of women in Chile. For this purpose, a case study is made of the 2013 legislative elections, which did not include any gender affirmative action mechanism; the 2017 and 2021 legislative elections with quota; and the 2021 election of convention members, which for the first time in the country included parity in the lists and in the composition of the Convention. The evaluation is carried out through six variables: seats; voting; candidacies; placement of women in lists and districts; gender gap and institutional strength of the quota/parity. The results indicate that, in the short term and in all variables, parity with a strong institutional design produces better results than the quota in descriptive representation of women in Chile.

Published

2023-09-21

Issue

Section

ARTICLES