This Friday is Democracy Day and five women who have taken on important roles in politics and justice in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico respond to Latin American leaders about how they can protect this democracy and the challenges they face as women must. The questions were the same for everyone: it was about the crisis of democracy and about what kind of democracy can be built.
How would you define the state of democracy in your country and what is the biggest challenge for women?
Norma Piña, President of the Supreme Court of Mexico. Democracy and equality are lived every day. In this sense, special challenges arise for women. When we think about patriarchy, we can see a similarity to the attacks on democracy that our region is suffering from: both have been able to adapt to social changes in order to keep power in the hands of a few. Unfortunately, the perpetuation of inequality has been able to permeate our daily lives unchallenged.
A state where women continue to live in fear and face violence every day that endangers or ends their lives; where roles and stereotypes continue to be imposed on them that make invisible the fundamental role of their participation in daily life, as is the case with care, without which society would not exist and which is carried out mainly by women. A state in which women’s gender is not equal, as every step and every achievement on the path to equality costs us disproportionately or unnecessarily. Such a state cannot present itself as democratic or believe that it is democratic.
In this sense, the Supreme Court of Mexico has decided that in order to ensure effective access to justice for women, girls and young people, it must always be assessed from a gender perspective, that is, starting from the recognition of the different impacts that a woman has on the basis of the can experience the fact that she is one. Justice without a gender perspective cannot be called justice. If inequality and gender-based violence persist, democracy cannot be called democracy. Violence against women and gender inequality are synonyms for a democratic state and the rule of law. Just as.
The Prime Minister of the Supreme Court Norma Piña in November 2022. Nayeli Cruz
Carolina Giraldo, congresswoman from Colombia and president of the Women’s Equality Commission. We need to build a more egalitarian democracy. More women means more democracy because we value an agenda of opportunity, public health, environmental protection and non-discrimination. Although the number of women in politics and diverse people has increased, we still see a significant gap in decision-making positions traditionally held by men. A democracy with greater justice would enable social change and public policy change.
It is very important that once we reach these spaces, participation is substantive and not a simulation in which they continue to try to erase our voices. This means confronting one of the strongest and false roots of the patriarchal system: that men – and only certain types of men – are the only ones who can make decisions and occupy public spaces.
For women, the challenge of gender-based violence remains. The number of femicides and sexual violence is alarming. Another challenge for women and LGBTIQ+ people, especially those involved in politics, is to move beyond gender quotas and to demand the development of policies that increase political participation and entry of women and LGBTIQ+ people. Promoting people into public life. In Colombia there is a “gender quota” in public companies of 30%. The country has moved towards parity in areas such as boards of directors, but parity has not yet been achieved in the compilation of lists of public bodies.
Carolina Giraldo.Courtesy
Patricia Mercado, Mexican senator from the civil movement and former candidate for the presidency of her country in 2006. The biggest problem facing Latin American democracies is deep inequality. This disillusionment of millions of people is being exploited by certain leaders to attack and dismantle democratic institutions. We must therefore prioritize the development of welfare states that guarantee the promised equal opportunities.
The consolidation of democracy in Mexico is not yet complete. Divided governments have been a positive experience for reaching agreement over differences. For example, political electoral reforms have been adopted by general consensus for at least the last 27 years. There is currently a pause in this process of democratic consolidation, as there are numerous actions against the separation of powers, against autonomous bodies and against the separation between public function and party life.
Patricia Mercado, on June 13, 2022 in Toluca (State of Mexico). Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar (Cuartoscuro)
Erika Hilton, Brazilian transgender lawmaker. It is one of the first two in his country’s history. Brazil has been going through a significant and challenging democratic crisis over the last four years, with numerous attempts to break with the democratic rule of law, most notably the attempted coup of January 8, 2023.
Now, with the election of President Lula, we have managed to halt the process of democratic decay that was underway under Jair Bolsonaro, but changing this course after so many attacks and anti-democratic ideological propaganda is a long way off.
For social minorities such as women, LGBTQI+, blacks and indigenous people, the struggle is even more difficult, as democracy has never fully arrived for these population groups, who are victims of violence, prejudice and the lack of state policy. I believe that our challenges lie precisely in breaking this historical cycle of compulsory marginalization and lack of fundamental rights and achieving the realization of our citizenship. Strengthening our political representation is essential, but grassroots organizations will be key to the fight in public opinion to defend our rights.
Silvia Lospennato, national representative of Argentina for the Interblock “Together for Change”. In Argentina we will be celebrating 40 years of democracy, a long period of political stability and full respect for human rights in the coming months. A political stability that has not been accompanied by the same level of economic stability, because in these 40 years we have gone through serious economic crises with their social consequences that have worsened the quality of life of millions of Argentines. Yet even in the most critical moments, democratic institutions played a central role in managing crises within the framework of the national constitution.
These years also saw enormous progress in the recognition of women’s rights and diversity, which are the result of this democratic pact. Many of these rights were guaranteed by laws that not only had broad consensus at the time of their adoption, but were also accompanied by public measures to ensure access to these rights. Currently, the economic and social crisis that Argentina is going through has increased dissatisfaction with democracy. The surveys reflect that, particularly among young people, and that of course worries us. However, I am optimistic about the resilience of our democratic pact, which will allow us to continue to defend all the rights won over these years.
What is needed to improve the representation and participation of women and LGBTIQ+ people in spaces of power?
Norma Pina. One of the most representative achievements of the movement of women and LGBTIQ+ people is the occupation of positions of power. The road was long, but the overall results were good. In Mexico, parity has been built since 1997 and it was only in 2019 that we achieved the so-called “parity in everything” at the constitutional level. Until the 2021 elections, political parties, for their part, had to guarantee the candidacy of LGBTIQ+ people, as well as other historically discriminated against groups such as indigenous peoples, people of African descent and people with disabilities.
However, social reality still cannot keep up with the laws. Although there are more and more women and LGBTIQ+ people in positions of power, progress is slow and requires a lot of political will, citizenship and awareness to make it a reality. We can see parity in Congress and even in key spaces occupied by women, such as the Interior Department and the State Department—the Interior Department and the State Department, respectively—but transversality across the board remains perceived as distant.
Let’s look at the case of the Supreme Court of Mexico itself. In its almost 200 years of existence, only 14 women have served as ministers, and it was not until 2023 that this Supreme Court had its first female president. Of course, this didn’t happen suddenly. I was a judge and then a judge. And in 2015, nearly 20 years after beginning my legal career, I was selected as Secretary of the Nation’s Supreme Court from an all-women shortlist. Today we have the highest presence of women on the Court in its entire history: 4 of its 11 members. But we still have a long way to go to achieve parity.
Carolina Giraldo. In terms of diversity, the March 2022 general elections marked a crucial milestone in the history of political participation of LGBTI+ people in Colombia. There are currently seven openly diverse congressmen in the Republic’s Congress. This is a historical fact in a country where discrimination is still evident and claiming lives, and in an institution where debates about the rights of the LGBTI+ population have traditionally been avoided.
We need an education system that responds to the demands of gender parity. Although gender quotas are a strategy aimed at increasing women’s representation in politics, they alone are not enough. States must create spaces for discussion and recognition of diversity to eliminate practices that lead to discrimination and prevent women and diverse people from occupying positions of influence.
Political parties and the state must promote many more schools for women’s political participation and training and ensure that political campaigns are financed from a gender equity perspective.
Patricia Mercado. Although we have succeeded in introducing parity, which indicates equal participation of women and men, discrimination still exists. The rules of carriage and promotion within the parties are clear. Women entering politics often do not have the networks of contacts and alliances that men do and are also confronted with situations of gender-based violence that hinder their political development.
It must be established that the state is responsible for caring for people in need of care. In the meantime, we will not achieve egalitarian and fair levels of work inclusion and political participation. For LGBTIQ+ people, there has been progress in the Electoral Institute’s affirmative action policies for candidacy. This must stay that way and become the law.
Erika Hilton. Several factors, but a good start is for political parties to really invest in these candidates with financial, legal, political support and visibility and not just use women, black, indigenous and LGBTQI+ people as tokens in a representative and diverse facade if Political power remains concentrated in the hands of rich white men, heirs to decades of political dominance around the world.
Erika Hilton in November 2020.Lela Beltróo
Silvia Lospennato. We are guaranteed formal rights and, for women, a parity law that ensures equal participation in public elected offices and in political parties. We also have quotas for the financing of political parties, which must also apply to women. However, the increase in women’s participation in parliamentary positions does not have the same connection with leadership positions, where governors and mayors remain almost the exception.
The same applies to other areas of power, such as access to the boards of public companies or to senior positions in the judiciary. In fact, in Argentina we have a Supreme Court without women. This shows that quota systems continue to be a necessary tool to ensure women’s participation in decision-making processes, at least in the short term. But power is not only exercised in public spaces; We must continue to fight to break the glass ceilings in the labor market, accompanied by government measures and also a cultural change in the private sector to follow women’s careers. In Argentina we need a comprehensive care system that allows us to reconcile family life with professional life and to modify the leave system to promote shared responsibility in care, among many other measures that apply not only to formal but also to actual material equality of rights is essential.
Silvia Lospennato, national representative of Argentina. With kind approval