Since the implementation of a potentially significant institutional change - a 30 percent candidate gender quota law for Brazilian legislative elections in 1996 - the number of women elected to these positions has risen at a derisorily low rate. Even after a 2009 political reform that substantially changed the language of the quota law to close some “loopholes,” the number of women elected remained stagnant. Why did this rule change fail to significantly increase the number of women elected to legislative positions in Brazil? Scholars are quick to point out to three key factors for understanding women’s underrepresentation in Brazil: the country’s open-list proportional representation (PR) system; the large number of parties; and a toothless gender quota law. In this paper I argue that while these three factors are indeed essential to understanding women’s underrepresentation in Brazil, scholars must pay closer attention to the gendered aspects of the country’s political institutions to fully grasp the issue. Using Feminist Historical Institutionalism, this paper argues that the gendered nature of Brazil’s open-list PR system, combined with a male dominated party structure, led to the establishment of a quota law to appease internal and external pressures; a law that was intentionally unable to truly promote the election of women. Focusing on the evolution of the electoral system and party structure since the Vargas era (1930-1945), this paper seeks to show that gendered historical legacies are important to help explain why the establishment of the quota law—a significant institutional change—failed to yield significant improvement in the number of women elected to legislative positions in Brazil.
