Why gender quotas don´t work in Brazil? The role of the electoral system and political finance

Abstract

This article seeks to explain why Brazil, despite implementing a gender quotas policy for almost 20 years, has the least number of women in national legislatures of all countries in the Americas. It compares key institutional variables, deemed central to explain the success or failure of quotas across Latin American countries. Findings suggest that other, less often explored, variables might help complement the analysis in this field. In Brazil, a central factor explaining the low percentages of elected women is how electoral funds are managed. In an electoral system that promotes a high individualization of votes, significant differences in candidates’ campaign revenues produce imbalances in the fighting for votes that are difficult for women to overcome. Differences in campaign finance might also partly explain the variability in women’s electoral performance in other countries in the region.

Keywords

• Thesaurus: Brazil; Electoral System; Latin America; Women. Author: Gender quotas; Political Representation; Political Finance