'Political variables' and feminine representation: what kind of influence? Comments from the uruguayan case

Abstract

The factors affecting women’s presence in office are several and of different kind. Without ignoring the multicausality implied in every social phenomenon, the article focuses on the influence that typical variables of a political system have on this particular phenomenon. With that purpose, it resorts to some examples related to the Uruguayan case. The approach used here considers that the rules of a political system are not neutral. On the contrary, they have direct consequences on political parties’ strategies of candidate selection, determining a greater or smaller social bias in the composition of candidacies and, therefore, of government branches. Thus, if the problems for the access of more women are political, short-term solutions should also be of the same nature.