Gender Parity in Latin America, a concrete reality or a distant horizon

In recent years, Latin America has seen a transition from quota laws to gender parity laws. Together, ten Latin American countries have gender parity provisions in political representation. However, this transition towards gender parity or a so-called parity wave does not indicate that the presence of women in spheres of political representation or numerical parity is an issue that has been overcome in Latin America. In only five of the ten countries with gender parity laws do women make up more than 40% of national parliaments: Nicaragua, Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Argentina. And even in these countries, parity can still be a challenge in sub-national executive positions. The challenge is even more significant in countries such as Panama, Honduras and Venezuela, which despite having parity provisions, still struggle to overcome the 30% barrier, and in those that do not have parity provisions, which are all - with the exception of Cuba - far from achieving equal presence in parliament. In order to understand the contrasting scenarios in Latin America, where some countries are already discussing the deepening of gender parity and parity democracy while others seem very far from this reality, I seek to answer the following question in this research: what explains why in some Latin American countries gender parity laws have been successfully adopted and implemented, while in others there is little room for progress? Understanding change as the adoption and implementation of successful gender parity laws, and resistance as opposition to these advances, the following sub-questions are inserted here: how do actors committed to change and resistance interact? What role does the institutional context play? How do they mobilize ideas and formal and informal institutions to advance what they advocate? To answer these questions, in this study I analyze and compare the development of the gender parity agenda in three countries, Mexico, Panama and Brazil. This selection allows for the comparison of a successful case, Mexico, a case of unsuccessful adoption and implementation of gender parity laws, Panama, and a case where parity has found little space on parliament's political agenda.