Women’s Participation in Politics and Empowerment in Argentina

Argentina has a history of female leaders, as well as internationally recognized images that
symbolize the heavy participation of women in the political, social, and domestic fields.
Traditionally, the legal position of women was based on Spanish Law, which in turn was based
on Roman Law where women were considered as property of the men in the family. They were
not allowed to hold any political or administrative positions in the colony. However, due to the
influence of foreign cultures, especially that of the French culture, these ideas and attitudes
began to change in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Juan Perón , the three times elected president of Argentina together with his second wife, Eva
Perón, (who served as the first lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952), were
sincerely determined to improve the lives of women .Eva's role in politics helped women gain
the right to vote in 1946. However, by 1962, even after the death of Eva Perón, gender equality
had not improved beyond mere suffrage.

However, later on Argentina became the first country in the world to adopt a national gender
quota law to boost women's political participation. This law stipulates that at least 30 per cent of
candidates on electoral lists must be women. When it was passed by the Congress in 1991, only
5 per cent of seats in the chamber of deputies and 4 per cent in the Senate were held by women.
Today, those proportions have risen to 38 and 36 percent, respectively.

Isabel Martinez de Perón, the third wife of Juan Perón also took part in policy making. She
served as the Vice President of Argentina from October 1973 to July 1974 and served as the
President from July 1974 to march 1976. Currently, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the
President of Argentina. She was a senator for Buenos Aires Province before taking office. She
acted as the first lady during 2003- 2007. She is Argentina's first elected woman President and
the second woman President to serve after Isabel Peron. She claims that women of her generation
owe a debt to Eva Peron for her example of passion and combativeness.

Thus what has been witnessed over the years, is that more women are becoming politically aware
and are taking active part in politics in Argentina after gradual improvements and struggles for
equality. Despite this, Argentinean women are still shadowed by the historically traditional,
Catholic influence, and "machismo" culture. Thus the hypothesis for the proposed research is
that despite increased political awareness and participation, there is a long way to go to achieve
gender equality in Argentina.

This research would be based on the discussion between two ideas : Firstly, the perception that
women have climbed up the ladder in Latin America when it comes to political participation and
Secondly, the idea that inspite of their inclusion and active participation in politics and social
movements, oppression of women still exists and is manifested in gender discrimination in many
forms.

The main objective of this research is to study the improvements and developments of women

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that this political participation has brought about and the current situation of women taking the
case study of Argentina.

The research questions for the proposed research are as following:

Has an increasing participation of women in politics helped in the empowerment of women and
their overall development?

Has political participation facilitated women’s equality on every front in Argentina?

The objectives for this proposed research includes the presentation of a comprehensive picture
of inequality among men and women in Argentina. The objectives of this proposed research also
include analyzing if the gradual growth of women’s participation in policy making helped in
solving the problems of inequalities based on sex. Reference to literature which includes books,
journals and internet sources, government publications, particularly from Latin American
sources, thereby becomes mandatory for this purpose. Feminist theories and different theories of
women’s empowerment will thus be an important part of this paper.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
• Sarah A. Radcliffe, 'ViVa' women and popular protest in Latin America ,S London; New
York : Routledge, 1993.
• Afshar, Haleh, Women and Politics in the Third World, London; New York : Routledge,
1996.
• Women's empowerment issues in Argentina, Date of access : 2/07/2010 website:
http://www.fsdinternational.org/../women
• Argentina: A new look at the challenges of women's participation in the legislature, date
of access : 4/07/2010, website: http://www.idea.int/../Argentina.pdf
• Women makes strides in Latin American politics, Date of access : 4/07/2010, website:
http://www.as-coa.org/article.php