Gender Parity in the Rio Negro’s Legislature (1983-2019)

Abstract

In 1993 the province of Río Negro established the inclusion of quotas and in 2002 the gender parity in the conformation of the lists of candidates for the provincial Legislature. In this way, it became the third province, along with Córdoba and Santiago del Estero (2000), to establish this type of law in the country. The objective of this article is to contribute to the knowledge on affirmative action and parity measures for elective positions from a case study that analyzes: on the one hand, the legislative process that ended up with passing both norms and, on the other hand,the conditions and political factors that made possible the early approval of gender equivalency in the lists of candidates for the provincial Legislature. Subsequently, the article analyzes the impact of the reforms in relation to the provincial electoral system and the participation of women in the Legislature based on a characterization of the places the women occupy in the party blocs and legislative commissions.