The Human rights commission of the Senate The political parity bill was approved by a majority, so it is expected to be discussed in the plenary session of the Upper House where it will need two-thirds of the total votes to then be approved.
In dialogue with Ambit, The senator assured that the new bill covers the Executive Branch, except for the ministries since these are designated by the president in charge. “Another issue that is added and that we consider important is that of the vacancies: Permanent vacancies or vacancies due to death will be covered by the underrepresented sex,” he explained.
Approved in committee
With the support of 4 legislators who voted in favor and two against, the bill will be raised to the Senate plenary session where it will be discussed.
The four votes in favor belonged to two legislators from the Frente Amplio: Sandra Lazo and Silvia Nane Vincon. In addition, the Colorado senator voted in favor Carmen Sanguinetti and the author of the project, the nationalist Gloria Rodriguez. For their part, they voted against white Jorge Gandini and the lobbyist Marcos Methol .
In the plenary session, 2/3 votes must be obtained to approve the project because it is an electoral law, according to the legal report requested by the vice president, Beatriz Argimon. This is equivalent to a total of 21 senators. However, as confirmed by the press, there would be 16 legislators who would support the project.
Studies that support the project
Consulting Teams carried out together with UN Women a study to reveal the public opinion regarding this bill. One of the main conclusions confirms that resistance to gender equality is typical of the political system, since 47% of those surveyed considered that Uruguay should go towards a parity law.
This figure represented an increase compared to 2021, when only 38% gave a positive opinion; and it is an even bigger improvement compared to 2016, when support was just 35%.
In the same sense, the study found that 64% of the people surveyed believe that there should be more women legislators, realizing that society is prepared to move towards gender equality in politics, hindered by traditional party structures—along with other factors linked to general gender gaps such as division of roles at home and motherhood.
Along these lines, the respondents were also consulted about the reasons behind the underrepresentation of women in politics: 44% thought that it has to do with the fact that women “are more discriminated against in the political system”; 27% pointed out the difficulty of “combining political life and family responsibilities”; and 17% considered that “women are less interested in politics than men.”
Source: Ambito
