Women Political Leaders Probe Achievements

By Inter-American Dialogue
March 28, 2007

The Inter-American Dialogue, Inter-American Development Bank, League of Women Voters of the United States, Inter-American Foundation, and Organization of American States convened in Washington a small group of women political leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean on March 28, to discuss the dramatic advances achieved by women seeking public office in the past ten years-and the special challenges currently facing women in electoral politics.

Held at the Library of Congress and the Inter-American Development Bank, the discussion offered women leaders a unique opportunity to strategize about how to increase women's representation and effectiveness in politics. U.S. Representatives Hilda Solis (D-CA) and Jerry Weller (R-IL) also joined the discussions.

Panelists from the region included Billie Miller, senior minister and minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade of Barbados; Beatriz Paredes, president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico; Epsy Campbell Barr, head of the Citizens' Action Party of Costa Rica; Nemecia Achacollo Tola, first vice president of the Congress of Bolivia; Senator Marta Lucía Ramírez of Colombia; and congresswomen Dayana Martínez Burke of Honduras, Olga Ferreira de López of Paraguay, and María Antonieta Saa of Chile. Campbell Barr, Paredes, and Ramírez are members of the Inter-American Dialogue, and Miller is a member on leave.

The conference built on a series of international forums and initiatives to improve women's political, social, and economic status following the presidential Summits of the Americas and the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Participants discussed prioritizing quotas as a policy option, the need for more and better data collection on women in office, and the role of men as political allies. Panelists also provided a number of recommendations to increase compliance with summit commitments, including greater citizen and voter mobilization, media outreach, mentoring, private sector collaboration, and training for female elected officials by their political parties.