Abstract

ARCHENTI, Nélida  and  JOHNSON, Niki. Engendering the legislative agenda with and without the quota: A comparative study of Argentina and Uruguay. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas [online]. 2006, n.52, pp.133-153. ISSN 0873-6529.

This article sets out to explore the effects of the quota law by comparing the composition by sex of the legislatures and the legislative activity of women MPs in Argentina and Uruguay since 1993 to 2003 (first ten years with quotas in Argentina). In 1991 Argentina became the first country in the world to establish by law a quota system that guarantees women’s access to parliament. This institutional reform produced an important impact on many countries of Latin America which sanctioned similar laws. In contrast, in 2003 Uruguay failed to pass the third bill presented since 1988 proposing the introduction of a similar quota system, and remains one of the few countries in the Region that has not introduced a quota law. At the present, Argentine women deputies comprise over a third of members of the Chamber of Representatives, while just 11 per cent of members of the Uruguayan Chamber of Deputies are women. The main objective of this paper is to undertake a comparative study of the Argentinean and Uruguayan cases based on an analysis of women MPs’ parliamentary activity, focusing on the bills they present, in order to identify effects of quotas on the design of parliamentary gender agenda. The central hypothesis is that quotas have an outstanding influence engendering legislative agenda however other relevant factors must be taken into account in order to understand the whole process. These would contribute to the comprehension of the presence of a clear gender agenda in the Uruguayan case. These other variables include levels of gender awareness among female deputies and inter-party networking around a gender legislative agenda.

Keywords : political representation; gender; quotas; Latin America.

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