Women, Politics and Democratic Prospects in Latin America

Date
Dec 2004
Over the last decade, Latin America has witnessed unprecedented gains of more than 50 percent in the number of women in power. This paper explains these gains and discusses factors that fuel and help forecast the continuing growth in women's political participation. The authors also explore the possible implications of this growth for the future conduct of democracy and the barriers women must overcome so that their share in the political ranks gets closer to their share in the population.