Chile poll ends era of female presidents in Latin America

Caroline Stauffer & Mitra Taj -

When Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet leaves office in March, it will mark the end of a generation of women leaders in Latin America. At the start of this decade, women held the top jobs in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Chile.

But Sebastian Pinera’s victory in the second round of Chile’s presidential election on Sunday drew that period to a close.

Bachelet was the first of her female counterparts to rise to power in a leftist tide that swept South America. She served as president from 2006 to 2010 before winning re-election in 2013.

Together with Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez, Bachelet embodied the major strides made by women across a region that has passed laws deterring violence against women and set quotas for political participation that have given women a bigger share of parliamentary seats than in Europe.

Now some worry that progress on women’s rights could stall.

“We’re seeing a shift to conservative politics that is questioning the advances of the last 15 to 20 years,” said Eugenia Piza-Lopez, who works on gender in Latin America for the United Nations Development Program.

Conservative groups are targeting gender equality across the region, said Piza-Lopez.

During campaigning in Chile, Pinera voiced concerns about the country’s declining birth rate as he took aim at changes to abortion laws under Bachelet.

While there is no study showing female leaders do more to advance women’s wellbeing than men, Farida Jalalzai, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University, said her research on Latin America suggested that was the case.

“Dilma (Rousseff) would take a policy that was already in existence and reframe it in ways that made it clear it was a women’s issue,” Jalalzai said.

Piza-Lopez said Fernandez helped narrow the gender poverty gap with her generous spending on social programmes aimed at women.

In a region where corruption scandals often hurt presidencies, South America’s women leaders were no exception.

Rousseff was removed from office in 2016 on accusations she manipulated budget laws. A judge in Argentina has charged Fernandez with treason. Both women deny wrongdoing.

Brazil’s conservative President Michel Temer appointed an all-male cabinet after Rousseff’s exit.

In contrast, Pinera said he would announce a “women and men” for his team, a sign he would create a balanced cabinet.— AFP