Still Left Behind: Gender, Political Parties, and Latin America’s Pink Tide

Page 1

  • Title: Still Left Behind: Gender, Political Parties, and Latin America’s Pink Tide

  • Authors: Kendall D. Funk, Magda Hinojosa, Jennifer M. Piscopo

  • Research question: Does the left’s dominance during Latin America’s pink tide (1999 onward) translate into stronger women’s representation at the party level? Specifically: do left governments strengthen quota laws more than right governments? do left parties nominate or elect more women?

  • Core finding (summary): Left governments do not systematically strengthen quota laws more than right governments, and left parties do not nominate or elect significantly more women after controlling for quotas and other factors. The decision environment surrounding parties often has stronger, gendered effects than ideology.

  • Key mechanism: The “decision environment” (trust in parties, economic performance, and the number of challenger parties) shapes party candidate decisions more than ideology. When citizens distrust parties, parties nominate more women; when the economy is evaluated poorly and there are many challengers, parties nominate more men.

  • Data and approach: An original panel dataset combining two waves of GEPPAL (Gender and Political Parties in Latin America) with country- and party-level institutional and decision-environment measures. Analysis covers nominations and elections to both lower (unicameral/ lower chamber) and upper houses.

  • Significance: The study contributes to understanding how institutional factors (quota laws) and environment factors (trust in parties, economic evaluations, competition) interact with ideology to shape women’s political representation.

  • Core concepts introduced: quotas, left-right ideology, decision environment, quota strength score, CLPR (Closed-List Proportional Representation), NGO data sources (GEPPAL, IPU, LAPOP).

  • Data notes: Quotas around 1991–2017; left-right split coded using Baker and Greene ideology scores (1 = extreme left, 20 = extreme right).

ext{QuotaStrength} = ext{Presence of quota law} + ext{Threshold}( ext{≥} 40 ext{%}) + ext{List placement mandate} + ext{Enforcement mechanisms}

  • Key research questions reframed: Do quotas and left ideology explain women’s access to legislatures, or do decision-environment factors overshadow ideology?