WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP AS AN INDICATOR OF CHANGES IN THE POLITICAL-GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT IN THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

In this article we address the phenomenon of the spreading female leadership in Latin American politics. Stressing the overall importance of gender studies in geography, we pay special attention to theories and methodological approaches in regional and country studies with the focus on gender issues. Based on the data from international organizations, including the World Bank we discuss the general trends in gender balance in Latin America against the average background of the world and other macro-regions, and then we analyze differences among individual Latin American countries. We compare women’s representation in national parliaments, specifically focusing on the women’s proportion growth rate. Then we discuss individual biography and political course cases of the female presidents of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Costa-Rica as those countries can shed more light onto the overall social and political context, in which women take the highest political positions in Latin American region. Those cases demonstrate that women in all four countries have opportunities to develop a full-fledged political career and their ascendance to power is not accidental. The cases of Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Laura Chinchilla in Costa-Rica contradict patrimonial stereotypes common for Latin America’s countries in regard to women in politics being protégés of powerful male politicians.   We come to the conclusion that growing women’s representation in national level legislative bodies and presidential posts reveal more profound changes in social structure and values in Latin American societies. In particular, we believe that the culture of “machismo” or masculinity gives way to the changes caused by modernization and shifts in social and economic development of Latin American countries, shifting towards semi-periphery of the world-system.