This paper sets out to examine the one-off application of Uruguay’s gender quota law in the October 2014 parliamentary elections from an analytical perspective that focuses especially on the interaction between formal and informal institutions. Thus the research explores, on the one hand, how certain characteristics of the Uruguayan electoral and party systems –particularly small district magnitudes, the double simultaneous vote, and high degrees of intraparty fractionalization– limited the effectiveness of the law in getting women elected to parliament. On the other hand, within this already restrictive systemic institutional framework, this study also seeks to identify how informal practical institutions, particularly those developed by the male power monopolies that control candidate selection processes in most Uruguayan party factions, made a further mockery of the law, albeit without straying into the realm of illegality. The result is only a small increase in the number of female parliamentarians elected to office, while male control over access remains intact. This case study provides interesting insights into the workings of male power monopolies and homosocial political networks which talk to recent literature in this area.
