[Marxism] NYT: Political Tango, Women in the Lead

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Though ultimately it's what you stand for and do that's decisive
women's changing roles in society and the workplace are bringing
about a change at the very highest rungs of the political scene.
Of course, examples like that of Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher
make it clear that politics, not gender, is decisive, there is a
shift going on in the world, which is finding its expression now
through these elections. I think it's a good thing and eventually
stance, not sex, will be the ultimate deciding factor, if the world
takes a turn to the more rational.)
==================================================================
THE NEW YORK TIMES

November 4, 2007
The World
Political Tango, Women in the Lead
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

BUENOS AIRES

THE Spanish term equidad género, or gender equity, gained new meaning
last week when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner glided through the
glass ceiling in Argentina and became the first woman to be
democratically elected president in the nation?s history.

Even with the boost she got from the successful presidency of her
husband, Néstor Kirchner, Mrs. Kirchner?s ascent from senator and
first lady to leader of this country of 40 million people should
hardly have come as a surprise. Over the last decade Argentina has
been at the forefront of a wave of Latin American women gaining
powerful positions in their governments.

Last year Chileans elected Michelle Bachelet South America?s first
female president, while Portia Simpson-Miller was elected the first
female prime minister of Jamaica. Lourdes Flores came within a
percentage point last year of breaking the gender barrier in Peru
when she lost to the eventual president, Alan Garcia, in the first
round of voting there.

Women in Latin America are rising to top positions at a time when
voters across the region are searching for fresh faces to chart new
economic and political models. For a region still trying to establish
stable democracies after decades of dictatorship and financial
crisis, more women are emerging as options for voters eager to
replace the traditional politicians who have failed them time and
again.

?Women are being elected as a result of the desperate search for
renewal of the political elite,? said Marta Lagos, executive director
of Latin Barometer, a polling firm based in Santiago, Chile. ?They
are not well-known as great leaders, and unfortunately, they are not
rising to power due to their own merit but because they break with
the traditional scheme of political leaders.?

That was less true with Mrs. Kirchner, who was chosen in large part
to ensure a continuation of her husband?s policies. But it was
certainly the case with Ms. Bachelet, a former Chilean exile and
political prisoner who promised changes that included more citizen
participation.

Still, their rise to power has underscored the fact that being a
woman in Latin America is becoming less of a detriment to achieving
higher office. Some analysts see the recent success of women as part
of a wider flowering of the political landscape to nontraditional
groups that until recently would have been unelectable. Evo Morales
in Bolivia, Alejandro Toledo in Peru and even Hugo Chávez in
Venezuela have all prevailed over the last decade despite being
darker-skinned figures who lacked the educational pedigree of their
traditional white rivals. Brazil?s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, a former auto worker with a sixth-grade education, has also
shown how wide-open politics have become in this region.

?The emergence of what were previously outsiders signals the
breakdown of traditional political structures? in the region, said
Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American
Dialogue, a political consultancy in Washington.

As the political walls have fallen, women are filling more positions,
benefiting from aggressive gender quotas and from the perception that
they are less susceptible to corruption. The candidacy of Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton has also given hope to women in the region,
analysts said, reinforcing the trend.

In Argentina, Mrs. Kirchner, who describes Mrs. Clinton as her idol,
has been compared to her. But even as Mrs. Kirchner has looked north
for inspiration, there are parts of Latin America that have been more
successful than the United States in achieving gender equity. Women
made up 39 percent of the legislatures in both Argentina and Costa
Rica last year, while they accounted for only 16 percent of
Congressional seats in the United States, according to the
Inter-American Dialogue. And Mrs. Clinton?s current run
notwithstanding, America has yet to elect a female president.

Gender quotas have clearly made a difference. In 1991, just eight
years after emerging from a military dictatorship, Argentina was the
first country in Latin America to institute a gender quota law in its
lower house. Every third name offered on all party ballots must be a
woman. In 2001 a similar law was imposed on the senate.

A dozen countries in the region followed Argentina?s lead and passed
similar laws. In Ecuador, the percentage of women in the legislature
rose to 25 percent from 15 percent with the 2006 election; in
Honduras, the figure increased to 23 percent from 5.5 percent after
the 2005 election.

Experience in other parts of government has also paved the way for
women. Nine of Chile?s 22 cabinet members are women, thanks to Ms.
Bachelet, who previously served as defense minister and health
minister.

The gender issue, however, was hardly present in the run-up to
Argentina?s election, in which the top two vote-getters were women.
Mrs. Kirchner barely mentioned the subject until election night, when
she said she felt ?an enormous responsibility to her gender.?

Many female voters reacted with quizzical stares when asked whether
gender was a factor in their decision. ?It is less important to me
that she is a woman than it is that she steps out of the shadow of
her husband,? said Nora Robles, 58, a housewife in Lugano, a
working-class town outside of Buenos Aires.

Some polls have suggested that voters see women as less corrupt
because they are often political neophytes ? a reaction, almost
certainly, to the rampant corruption that marked the male-dominated
authoritarian regimes of the past. But recently some of the more
sensational political scandals have involved women. In June, for
example, Argentine fire inspectors found $64,000 in cash stashed in a
bathroom of the government offices of Felisa Miceli, the economy
minister at the time.

For all their gains, though, female leaders are susceptible to the
same political hazards of any leader ? recrimination, backlash and
harsh reactions to failed policies. Ms. Bachelet has struggled in her
first year, with a popularity rating among the lowest for any Latin
American leader. A few weeks ago she lashed out at critics, accusing
them of trying to commit ?political femicide.?

After Mrs. Kirchner?s election last week, however, Ms. Bachelet
seemed undaunted by the recent challenges. ?The integration of women
in leadership roles,? she said, ?is here to stay.?

Pascale Bonnefoy contributed reporting from Santiago, Chile.


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