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Legislative power: percentage of women in the national legislative body

Latin America, The Caribbean and The Iberian Peninsula (36 countries): Number of women legislators, 2018 (Percentages)

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It is the proportion of women holding seats in national parliaments. For international comparisons, generally only the single or lower house is considered.

Analysis

 

The presence of women in legislative bodies has increased gradually in recent years in Latin America and the Caribbean. These positions continue to be occupied mostly by men, but the region continues to hold the lead globally, reaching an average of 29.8% in 2018 (IPU, 2018), even though in the Caribbean the average only reaches 19.5%. 

The number of countries that go beyond the 40% of women parliamentarians   has increased in the last two years. In 2017, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Cuba led the regional averages, and by 2018 the latter surpassed 50%, positioning itself as the country in the region with the largest presence of women in parliaments. In Costa Rica, after the elections of April 2018, the presence of women in parliaments reached 45.6%, significantly increasing 10 percentage points from the previous figure. 

Currently, 14 countries do not reach 20% representation of women in parliament, of which the lowest are Belize and Haiti, with 9.4 and 2.5%, respectively.