It comes to me one of those amazing days at Chapel Hill. And it was in my Feminist Political Theory class, one at the beginning of the semester when everybody is introducing herself for the first time. I raised my hand and made a comment. "Yes, it's true that women are left behind in the numbers of political representation, but compared to my home country I think the US has made a great deal, a step forward in the quality of women’s representation.” The numbers may vary as the electoral and party systems differ among countries.” For instance, in Peru, we have 27,5% of women representatives in a Parliament of 120 seats, numbers not negligible at all when compared to a 16.8% in a US upper house of 98 seats. Of course, all of my American classmates turned around and stared at me. They gently admit my comment but refused in essence its logic. My conclusion is that the US has a legitimate political ambitious society. But to say about Peru, our figures mark a path certainly closer to Norway with a 39.6% in a congress of 169 seats. So, the discussion to open is not about the quantity dealing with electoral quotas and so on. QUALITY OF REPRESENTATION is the variable with which to analyze the political participation of women in the forth coming times. Under those lenses, Peru has a huge load of work where from to start over again.
Fuente: IPU Women in Parliaments 2010
