In 2010, Dilma Rouseff ran for the presidency and won the election with 55% of the vote. With this win, Brazil joined Chile and Argentina in the female presidents club. In 2012, Margarita Cedeño de Fernandez became the second woman voted in as Vice President of the Dominican Republic. However, in Brazil, the average number of women in the Câmera de Deputados is 8.6 percent. And this percentage has not shifted much since quotas were introduced fifteen years ago. In the Dominican Republic, women are present but most women are elected to local positions whose purpose is still more unknown than known in this recently decentralizing presidential government. This project argues that while quotas have helped increase the number of women in Latin American politics; the traditional power networks of political parties are a key factor to why more women are not in electoral positions in Latin American politics, specifically Brazilian and Dominican politics. Through in-depth interviews, surveys and participant observation, this project augments the current literature discussions about female electoral political representation focused on quota laws and their design and how that affects the number of women in politics as well as how traditional stereotypes and gender roles hinder the number of women in politics. Recognizing that institutions are gendered, this feminist institutionalist based project shows that patriarchy and misogyny are nor longer the leading factors keeping women from gaining political positions.
