News Releases

Mar 30, 2007

Women political leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean discuss their experience and challenges at IDB meeting

Women in the Americas: Paths to Political Power

Women political leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean participated in a roundtable with members of the press at the Inter-American Development Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., as part of the conference Women in the Americas: Paths to Political Power.

The meetings, which highlighted priority issues on the agenda of women leaders and strategies employed to achieve their goals, featured Billie Miller, senior minister and minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade of Barbados; Beatriz Paredes, president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of Mexico; Nemecia Achacollo Tola, first vice president of Congress of  Bolivia; Marta Lucía Ramírez, senator of Colombia; Epsy Campbell Barr, president of the Citizen Action Party (PAC) of Costa Rica;  congresswomen Maria Antonieta Saa of Chile; Dayana Martínez Burke of Honduras; and Olga Ferreira de Lopez of Paraguay.

During their visit to Washington, D.C., the leaders joined members of U.S. Congress to celebrate the dramatic political gains made by women in electoral politics during the past decade and assess the challenges women confront today. They analyzed the obstacles to full equity and how to overcome them. 

Paredes underscored the need to keep fighting for equality even when some goals have been achieved already, to be able to reach a qualitative transformation that will not be reversed for lack of firm roots. She also fostered, along with Martínez, the strengthening of solidarity networks with a shared humanistic vision.

Miller called for an understanding of where power resides, reinforcing that leaders must begin at the grassroots and from time to time should renew themselves with the energy from civil society organizations.

Achacollo Tola pointed out to the need to educate boys and girls at home with equal values and for both women and men to acknowledge responsibility to work together.

Saa compared the predominant “masculine” political style as one of domination and power vis-à-vis a “feminine” style of service and inclusion and stressed with Campbell that time has come for women leaders to rethink the rules and to change the image of politics as a masculine activity.

Ramirez suggested the need for management indicators to monitor legislative results and stressed that women leaders should attend to broad agendas that respond to the needs of all citizens integrating a focus on gender equality.

Ferreira Lopez recognized, along with most leaders, that a dramatic cultural change was achieved in the political arena in the last two decades, but viewed quotas only as ice-breakers. She reported a retreat in women participation below levels achieved earlier in Paraguay and other countries and drawbacks of the quota systems.

Campbell spoke positively about quota results in Latin America and the Caribbean, stressing, however, that obstacles of inclusion, particularly of Afrodescendant and indigenous women, demand for an inclusive agenda for the region and women’s leadership for change.

The IDB’s Gabriela Vega concluded that with women comprising 20 per cent of parliaments, the gender gap in the Americas was still wider than the gains, stressing that there is much need for programs such as the Bank’s Program for Women Leadership (PROLEAD), which supports women leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean in their access, efficacy and their support of women’s empowerment.

Women in the Americas: Paths to Political Power was co-sponsored by Inter-American Development Bank, Inter-American Dialogue, League of Women Voters of the United States, and Organization of American States.

Also available in: Español