gentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ec Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tob ted States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa ba Dominican RepublicW OMEN Ecuador El Salvador AND Guatemala HondurasP OWER Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua P raguay Peru TrinidadIN Tobago THE United States UruguayA MERICAS Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Braz le Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Ja xico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Arge rbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El S atemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United uguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba D ublic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay nidad Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile sta Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico N nama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bo azil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala nduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Urug nezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican R uador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Tri bago United States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombi a Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragu nama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bo azil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala nduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Urug nezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican R uador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Tri bago United States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombi a Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicarag nama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bo azil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala maica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobago United States Uruguay Vene A REPORT C ARD gentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ec vador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica AMexicoPRIL Nicaragua2001 Panama Paraguay Peru Trinidad Tobag ates Uruguay Venezuela Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica minican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama I P REFACE he Women’s Leadership Conference of the Americas (WLCA)—a joint initiative of the Inter-American Dialogue and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)—is pleased to present this report on women in polit- Tical power in the hemisphere. The WLCA believes that the number of women in political leadership is a concrete indicator of a country’s progress (or lack thereof) toward fulfilling its commitment to women’s equity. The WLCA is releasing this report prior to the third Summit of the Americas––taking place in Quebec City, Canada, on April 20 to 22, 2001––as part of its continuing efforts to monitor progress on promises made to women. The WLCA seeks to influence the summit process on behalf of women. The WLCA was key in getting women’s concerns on the agenda of the first Summit of the Americas in Miami. Published as Communiqué to the Presidents of the Americas, the recommendations of the WLCA were conveyed to summit participants. This initiative led to the inclusion of a women’s ini- tiative in the summit’s final Plan of Action, and shaped the content of that initiative. A second Communiqué was issued prior to the Santiago Summit. It addressed the lack of progress since the Miami Summit, suggested more specific steps, and called for monitoring and reporting by governments. The first two summits have not produced strong government action on women’s issues. The WLCA is working toward making this summit different. We want the heads of state to set out goals that are concrete and measurable, and we plan to hold governments accountable. This report card highlights one type of measure that heads of state can effectively implement. Presidents II 1 W OMEN AND P OWER IN THE A MERICAS:A REPORT C ARD1 and prime ministers can appoint more women into their cabinets, and take Country Ministers Deputies Senators Mayors Average action to encourage equitable representation of women on election ballots. For Canada 27% 21% 32% 12% 23% that reason, we urge the heads of state who will gather in Quebec City later this United States 32%2 14% 13% 21% 20% month to pay attention to their performance and work to improve it. Barbados 13% 11% 33% n/a* 19% Jamaica 12% 13% 24% 23% 18% The WLCA is a network of some 100 women leaders drawn from through- Costa Rica 18% 19% n/a 9% 15% 3 out the hemisphere, dedicated to expanding the numbers and enhancing the Cuba 10% 28% n/a 7% 15% Honduras 26% 9% n/a 10% 15% contribution of women in top leadership positions in Latin America and the Panama 25% 10% n/a 10% 15% Caribbean—and, in so doing—to help improve opportunities for all women El Salvador 25% 10% n/a 8% 14% in the region. The group’s commitment to this mission is based on the con- Trinidad and Tobago 11% 11% 32% 0% 14% viction that leadership does matter, and that women in positions of power Colombia 19% 12% 13% 6% 13% and influence will contribute in critical ways to the broader expansion of Mexico 16% 16% 16% 4% 13% women’s rights and opportunities in all sectors. Chile 25% 11% 4% 6% 12% Venezuela 21% 10% n/a 4% 12% This report card would not have been possible without the sustained support Argentina 8% 27% 3% 7% 11% of The Ford Foundation and the Swedish International Development Agency Peru 7% 20% n/a 2% 10% Dominican Republic 8% 16% 7% 6% 9% (SIDA). Special thanks are in order to Mala Htun of the New School Nicaragua 8% 10% n/a 10% 9% University for conducting the research and analysis with the assistance of Ecuador 7% 15% n/a 3% 8% Kelly Alderson of the Dialogue. Paraguay 8% 3% 18% 3% 8% Bolivia 0% 12% 4% 6% 6% Peter Hakim Geeta Rao Gupta Joan M. Caivano Guatemala 8% 9% n/a 1% 6% President President Director Uruguay 0% 12% 10% 0% 6% Inter-American International Center Women’s Leadership Brazil 0% 6% 7% 6% 5% Dialogue for Research on Conference of the Women (ICRW) Americas (WLCA) 1 This index is based on women in power in the year 2000, with the exception of mayors in the Dominican Republic, where data was only available for 1998. Please see country data in the Appendix. 2 The figure refers to cabinet level appointments made by former president Bill Clinton who left office in January of 2001. Women make up 24 percent of cabinet members in the administra- tion of George W. Bush. 3 This figure refers to provincial governors. *n/a=not applicable 2 3 More women have more power today than ever before. Averaging across WOMEN MINISTERS the Americas, women represent:4 Argentina 1990 2000 1990 Bolivia 2000 Ministers 14% 9% Lower House of Congress Brazil Or Single Chamber 14% 8% Chile Senate 15% 5% Mayors 7% 5% Colombia Costa Rica Women leaders are doing better in some countries than others. Levels of women’s participation in political office are highest in Canada, the United Dominican Republic States, and Barbados, followed by Jamaica, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, and Panama. Panama is the only country in the hemisphere to have a woman head Ecuador of state. Women’s presence in political office is lowest overall in Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Uruguay. Guatemala On average, women’s participation in national cabinets grew 56 percent from Mexico 1990 to 2000 (from 9 percent of total ministers to 14 percent). This increase Nicaragua derives from surges in some countries, because in about half of countries, there were fewer women in national cabinets in 2000 than in 1990. Panama Paraguay Peru United States Uruguay Venezuela 4 These averages are based on data from all 24 countries, with the exception of: Ministers (17 countries, 1990), Senators (14 countries, 2000; 10 countries, 1990), Mayors (21 countries, 2000; 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 9 countries, 1990); Deputies (17 countries, 1990). Percent Women 4 5 Women’s presence in the single or lower house of congress has advanced Women’s representation in the senate improved in most countries between steadily, though gradually, in virtually every country, with the exception of 1990 and 2000. Women’s participation rose most in Colombia, Paraguay, and Nicaragua and Paraguay. the United States, but declined in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. WOMEN DEPUTIES WOMEN SENATORS 20 Argentina 18 1990 Bolivia 1980 2000 Brazil 1990 16 2000 Chile 14 Colombia 12 Costa Rica Dominican 10 Republic Ecuador Percent Women Percent 8 Guatemala 6 Mexico Nicaragua 4 Panama 2 Paraguay 0 Peru Brazil Chile Bolivia Mexico Uruguay United States Argentina Colombia Paraguay United States Uruguay Dominican Republic Venezuela 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Percent Women 6 7 The number of women mayors has remained static in the nine countries for Relative to the number of positions available, more women have been elected which time series data were available. The percentage of mayors who are to legislative than executive posts and at the local than the national level.