Since the return of democracy to Latin America, policies intended to promote the inclusion of women and other underrepresented groups have been increasingly adopted throughout the region. Gender quotas have been one of the most popular and effective mechanisms employed in elections and other contexts in Latin America. This volume begins with an introduction to gender quotas, including discussion of the types and merits of gender quotas, alternative approaches to the study of quotas, and their interactions with different kinds of electoral systems. Successive chapters examine the adoption of gender quotas and their impacts in the three largest South American countries by area—Argentina, Brazil, and Peru—at both national and subnational levels. These chapters also focus on specific topics that stand out in the unique experiences of these countries: substantive representation in the case of Argentina, gender and campaign finance in the case of Brazil, and regional differences in the impact of electoral rules in the case of Peru. Through careful analysis, this volume presents a nuanced picture of how different types of electoral systems may affect the election of women and the effectiveness of quotas.

An engaging introduction to Latin America with a fresh, thematic approach to key political and social issues. This accessible undergraduate textbook examines the entirety of the region, addressing complex issues in a clear and direct manner. Grounded in cutting-edge research and data, concepts are illustrated through tables, maps, and timelines.

Defending the Status Quo explores political elites' resistance against electoral gender quota reforms, a widespread reform aimed at improving women's political representation. The book introduces The Resistance Stage Framework, a theoretical model rooted in feminist institutionalism, which outlines how politicians try to block or slow down gender-equitable change throughout the policy process. Through a detailed analysis of Uruguay's 30-year struggle to adopt and implement electoral gender quotas, the book reveals the adaptive nature of resistance among powerful status quo defenders. Drawing on interviews and legislative debates, the book shows how resistance strategies vary over the policy process and across political parties in response to changing institutional and ideational constraints.

Since its emergence, the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the greatest global crises in perhaps a century and led to unimaginable human suffering. Although much coverage has been dedicated to exploring the different impacts of the crisis, such as its social, political, and economic consequences, comparatively little attention has been directed to examining the particular impact of the pandemic on women and girls. Past crises and outbreaks have powerfully demonstrated that men and women are differently affected, and preexisting inequalities and challenges for women and girls are often exacerbated. Comprising a rich collection of rigorous analyses that touch upon an extensive number of topics and an array of countries, this edited collection critically interrogates how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted women and girls around the world. With high-quality contributions from international scholars and experts from numerous fields and disciplines, and containing research based on a variety of methodologies and approaches, the present volume provides a wide-ranging, evidence-based exploration and nuanced perspective on this issue.

Brazil's quality of democracy remains limited by enduring obstacles including the weakness of parties and underrepresentation of marginalized groups. Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil theorizes the connections across those problems, explaining how weakly institutionalized and male-dominant parties interact to undermine descriptive representation in Brazil. This book draws on an original multilevel database of 27,653 legislative candidacies spanning six election cycles, over 100 interviews, and field observations from throughout Brazil. Wylie demonstrates that more inclusive participation in candidate-centered elections amidst raced-gendered structural inequities relies on institutionalized parties with the capacity to support women, and the will, heralded by party leadership, to do so. The book illustrates how women leaders in Brazil's more institutionalized parties enable white and Afro-descendant female aspirants to navigate the masculinized terrain of formal politics. It enhances our understanding of how parties mediate electoral rules, as well as institutional and party change in the context of weak but robustly gendered institutions.

This book discusses the current tendencies in women’s representation and their role in politics in Latin American countries from three different perspectives. Firstly, the authors examine cultural, political-partisan and organizational obstacles that women face in and outside institutions. Secondly, the book explores barriers in political reality, such as gender legislation implementation, public administration and international cooperation, and proposes solutions, supported by successful experiences, emphasising the nonlinearity of the implementation process. Thirdly, the authors highlight the role of women in politics at the subnational level. The book combines academic expertise in various disciplines with contributions from practitioners within national and international institutions to broaden the reader’s understanding of women in Latin American politics.

No subject is more central to the study of politics than elections. All across the globe, elections are a focal point for citizens, the media, and politicians long before--and sometimes long after--they occur. Electoral systems, the rules about how voters' preferences are translated into election results, profoundly shape the results not only of individual elections but also of many other important political outcomes, including party systems, candidate selection, and policy choices. Electoral systems have been a hot topic in established democracies from the UK and Italy to New Zealand and Japan. Even in the United States, events like the 2016 presidential election and court decisions such as Citizens United have sparked advocates to promote change in the Electoral College, redistricting, and campaign-finance rules. Elections and electoral systems have also intensified as a field of academic study, with groundbreaking work over the past decade sharpening our understanding of how electoral systems fundamentally shape the connections among citizens, government, and policy. This volume provides an in-depth exploration of the origins and effects of electoral systems.

Across Latin America, indigenous women are organizing to challenge racial, gender, and class discrimination through the courts. Collectively, by engaging with various forms of law, they are forging new definitions of what justice and security mean within their own contexts and struggles. They have challenged racism and the exclusion of indigenous people in national reforms, but also have challenged ‘bad customs’ and gender ideologies that exclude women within their own communities. Featuring chapters on Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico, the contributors to Demanding Justice and Security include both leading researchers and community activists. From Kichwa women in Ecuador lobbying for the inclusion of specific clauses in the national constitution that guarantee their rights to equality and protection within indigenous community law, to Me’phaa women from Guerrero, Mexico, battling to secure justice within the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for violations committed in the context of militarizing their home state, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to understand the struggle of indigenous women in Latin America.

The Impact of Gender Quotas is a theory-building and comparative exercise in elaborating concepts commonly used to analyze the broad impacts of gender quotas. Using a conceptual framework based upon descriptive, substantive and symbolic dimensions of representation, the book presents case studies from twelve countries in Western Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

This handbook presents the great contemporary challenges facing cities and urban spaces in Latin America and the Caribbean. The content of this multidisciplinary book is organized into four large sections focusing on the histories and trajectories of urban spatial development, inequality and displacement of urban populations, contemporary debates on urban policies, and the future of the city in this region. Scholars of diverse origins and specializations analyze Latin American and Caribbean cities showing that, despite their diversity, they share many characteristics and challenges and that there is value in systematizing this knowledge to both understand and explain them better and to promote increasing equity and sustainability. The contributions in this handbook enhance the theoretical, empirical and methodological study of urbanization processes and urban policies of Latin America and the Caribbean in a global context, making it an important reference for scholars across the world. The book is designed to meet the interdisciplinary study and consultation needs of undergraduate and graduate students of architecture, urban design, urban planning, sociology, anthropology, political science, public administration, and more.