Today's highlight was a visit to the National History Museum of Chile. While, Chile is often perceived as an "Hispanic" or "Latino" country, its history is one of colonial conquest of the Mapuche, Aymará and other indigenous groups. The Mapuche make up 4% of the population with "European and Mestizos" 96%. On Tuesday, I will be meeting with members of a number of women's organizations, including those representing women from Mapuche and Aymará communities.
My thoughts turned to the US presidential election, which was, of course, informed by the intersection of race and gender. Some women's organizations are highlighting the support Obama received from women, but less commonly noted is the fact that compared to the 96% support from Black women and 68% support from Latina women, just 46% of white women (compared to 42% of white men) supported Obama. Blacks and Latinos (especially women) provided the decisive edge to Obama's victory.
In preparation for my meetings with women leaders this coming week, I compared how Chilean women do in representation at the national level compared to women in the US and other countries. As can be seen in the attached graph, the US ranks 71st in the world in terms of the % of Congress that is female -- Chile ranks 79th. (Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm, lower house; it should be noted that the US does better in the Senate, with 16% women, compared to just 5% in Chile.) Other South American countries do much better than Chile: Argentina ranks 5th in the world with women making up 40% of the lower house and 39% of the upper house of parliament. Perú, not know for its progressive politics, also has significantly high percentages of women -- well above those in the US: 29% of its single house of representatives are women. I'd like to remind visitors to this site that Argentina's president, Christina Fernández, was elected, succeeding her husband, in 2007.
So, here I am, invited to offer lessons on how Chile can increase women's political representation. Perhaps I should tell them to invite the Swedes (who rank #2 in the world), or their neighbors Argentina and Perú. Any thoughts?
My thoughts turned to the US presidential election, which was, of course, informed by the intersection of race and gender. Some women's organizations are highlighting the support Obama received from women, but less commonly noted is the fact that compared to the 96% support from Black women and 68% support from Latina women, just 46% of white women (compared to 42% of white men) supported Obama. Blacks and Latinos (especially women) provided the decisive edge to Obama's victory.
In preparation for my meetings with women leaders this coming week, I compared how Chilean women do in representation at the national level compared to women in the US and other countries. As can be seen in the attached graph, the US ranks 71st in the world in terms of the % of Congress that is female -- Chile ranks 79th. (Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm, lower house; it should be noted that the US does better in the Senate, with 16% women, compared to just 5% in Chile.) Other South American countries do much better than Chile: Argentina ranks 5th in the world with women making up 40% of the lower house and 39% of the upper house of parliament. Perú, not know for its progressive politics, also has significantly high percentages of women -- well above those in the US: 29% of its single house of representatives are women. I'd like to remind visitors to this site that Argentina's president, Christina Fernández, was elected, succeeding her husband, in 2007.
So, here I am, invited to offer lessons on how Chile can increase women's political representation. Perhaps I should tell them to invite the Swedes (who rank #2 in the world), or their neighbors Argentina and Perú. Any thoughts?
1 comment:
My experience with training women to run for parliament in various countries is that to increase women's participation-- it often depends on the political will of party leaders, including male party leaders.
second, some women need practical skills in order to win an election once they are tapped to run- how to create and stay on message. how to create a campaign calendar, how to create a fund raising committee, practice in giving a three minute voter-greeting speech and a 12 minuted coffee gathering speech, etc etc.etc.
i am assuming that you have checked with the national democratic institute NDI which trains women all over the world amd sponsors and ongoing web conversation on women and politics.
Good luck with your work and in developing a curriculum.
best,
Eve Sandberg
Strategic Research Inc.
Oberlin College
Post a Comment