Periscope: The (Latin) Americas Take the Lead in Women's Representation
Women have made progress -- with a looooong way to go
It has been over a hundred years since the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1920, and women gained the right to vote. That came over half a century after the women’s rights movement was launched at the Seneca Falls Convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott in 1848.
Nearly 182 years later, America’s gender balance ranking has dropped to 72nd in the world, with only 26 percent representation in Congress despite women making up a majority of the electorate (27% percent in the US House, 24% in the Senate). At this rate, women’s representation will not reach parity with men for another 150 years.
Progress in other countries
But there has been some progress. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, there are ongoing global trends towards gender balance. Since 1995, the global average of women in elected positions has increased from 11 percent to 26 percent. While still a far cry from gender balance, it’s great news that we’re headed in the right direction. Some countries truly excel, with Mexico having 50% female legislators, followed by Iceland (47.6%), Norway (45%), Argentina (44.8%), Peru (40%), Netherlands (39.3%), Chile (35.5%) and Germany (34.9%).
On a hemispheric basis, the Americas is leading the way towards gender balance, with 34 percent average regional representation – the highest share in the world, despite the US dragging that average down.
Source: Women in Parliaments in 2021 Report
Indeed, when I dug deeper into these numbers, I realized pretty quickly that these gains in representation in the Americas are all thanks to our neighbors to the south: besides the high numbers cited for Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile, Costa Rica has 46 percent and Ecuador 38 percent. Peru’s representation rates jumped by 14 percent and Chile’s by 13 percent in a single year. While the US has been dropping, the rest of the Americas has been rising dramatically, to the point where the Americas as a whole has increased by 21% since 1995.
The path to representational success
So how are these countries achieving gender balance in record time? Oh I know, I know. It’s because the women there running for office are more qualified than US women, and aren’t subject to so much gender bias. Oh, and women in those countries work harder than US women, undoubtedly. Right?
Wrong. In fact, the democratic countries in the Americas that have achieved such high levels of female representation have one thing in common: All of them have embraced policy tools and political reforms that get at the root of gender imbalance. Most of them have adopted innovative gender quotas and modernized electoral systems that use proportional representation rather than winner-take-all voting. These system upgrades dismantle antiquated structures that protect the status quo and keep women out of office. These system modernizations clear out the cobwebs and create space for a truly representative 21st century democracy.
Source: Women in Parliaments in 2021 Report
The good news is that there are efforts in the United States to advance similar system upgrades. “Fair representation” voting is a US form of proportional representation that combines ranked-choice voting (RCV) with multi-seat districts and candidate-based (rather than party-based) elections. Fair representation voting would not only help the US take giant leaps towards catching up with our neighbors to the south, but it would also mean that the views of voters would be represented as accurately as possible. When each vote counts we can win true representation, instead of with our current “winner take all” method in which the highest vote-getter wins 100% of the representation, even if that candidate has less than a majority of the vote.
Here's one example. Australia uses a form of fair representation voting for its Senate elections, and the gender balance rate speaks for itself: In the 73 years that they’ve used multi-seat RCV, Australians have gone from 3 percent to 51 percent representation of women in the Senate. But the House, which uses single-winner RCV, has not experienced such rapid progress. Its 31 percent female representation is higher than the global average, but the interesting thing here is you have the same voters, with the same gender and cultural biases, expressing their candidate preferences through two different electoral methods. Multi-seat RCV – fair representation voting – is electing 65% more women than single-seat RCV. These kinds of results have been seen in other countries using different electoral methods, including Germany, Japan and Scotland. The lesson here is: electoral methods matter.
The urgency cannot be understated
Our current system was designed to protect the power of those already in office, and our history and culture have dictated that those incumbents are vastly white and male. To fan the flames of the incumbency advantage, redistricting has yet again shrunk the number of competitive districts, which we will soon see the effects of in this year’s upcoming midterm elections. Add the fact that the United States is no longer considered a “full democracy” by the Economist Intelligence’s Democracy Index 2021, and the necessity of reform cannot be understated. And its urgency cannot be delayed.
It is evident that we need the best and the brightest to tackle the many challenges facing the United States today, from climate change to fragile geopolitics to inequality, racial tensions, populism and more. Cutting women – over 50 percent of the population -- out of the representational equation severely limits the candidate pool for officeholders and policy makers. Women have unique life experiences to offer in the governance process, at all levels of involvement.
To overcome powerful systemic barriers, as well as a toxic gender history, the US badly needs powerful systems change. As seen in Australia, fair representation voting has the potential to generate continued progress and lasting positive effects. Add other critical reforms, like expanding the size of the US House of Representatives – which has been frozen at 435 seats since 1911 – and we will create more open seats so that women have a greater chance of winning.
It’s time we clear out the cobwebs and bring our democracy into the 21st century.
Katie Usalis @KatieUsalis
"“Fair representation” voting is a US form of proportional representation that combines ranked-choice voting (RCV) with multi-seat districts and candidate-based (rather than party-based) elections."
Fair representation can be achieved in both partisan and non-partisan elections. The Constitution first amendment right of the people to peaceably assemble authorizes party-based elections. However, I prefer non-partisan elections - especially for county and municipal elections.