BOLIVIAN WOMEN WIN LEGISLATIVE PARITY

BOLIVIAN WOMEN WIN LEGISLATIVE PARITY BY LINDA FARTHING Bolivia is a paradox when it comes to women’s rights. Last year, Bolivia made history when it became the country with the second-highest proportion of female legislators in its lower house—53.1 percent . The highest is Rwanda, at 63.8 percent. At the same time, according to the UN women’s development agency UNIFEM, seven of every 10 Bolivian women are survivors of sexual or physical violence. “This is our great internal contradiction,” according to Monica Novillo of the Women’s Coalition, a broad-based alliance of feminist non-governmental organizations. “We have extremely high levels of violence at the same time that we have achieved legislative equality.” Bolivian women won the right to vote and to stand for office in 1953, making the recent accomplishment of near parity especially impressive. The current advances were propelled by a 2014 campaign called “50 and 50: Parity is now!” that was launched by the Women’s Coalition in the landlocked and largely indigenous country of 10 million people. In a breakthrough during the October 2014 national elections, women won 53 percent of the seats in the lower house and 47 percent in the country’s Senate, skyrocketing from one percent and seven percent, respectively, 30 years ago. Bolivia isn’t alone. Other South American countries are also making strides in women’s political representation. Three of the region’s presidents are women (Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, and Cristina Kirschner in Argentina), and the number of women ministers and legislators is rising rapidly. The foundation for this change is the quota laws passed throughout the region since the beginning of the 1990s, which have mandated women’s participation. In Bolivia, a 1997 law required 30 percent of candidates to be women. Susana Rivero, a former government minister in Bolivia, applauds government billboards condemning violence against women. “We will and must beat this,” she says. Jessy Lopez, of the Association of Women Councillors, says many female legislators are terrified of the threats made against them. HERIZONS FALL 2015 9 Change accelerated further when a radical new Bolivian constitution was adopted in 2009, making legislative equity a constitutional right. “The political parties agreed to parity without realizing what it actually meant,” explained Novillo. In the scramble that followed, some male candidates presented themselves as women and were referred to as “transvestite candidates” in the media. And male-dominated parties pushed forward women candidates they knew they could control. In Bolivia, women have an impressive rate of representation at sub-national levels. By 2015, they held 44.5 percent of municipal council seats, up from 19 percent in 2004. However political violence against women has also spiked. “The violence and threats women councillors face are constant,” said Sofia Silvestre, who for over five years has served as city councillor in the highland town of Achacachi. Jessy Lopez of the Association of Women Councillors agrees. “In many cases, we have participation, but no real representation, because women follow men’s lead as they have been taught to do since childhood. Many are also terrified of violence and threats. Women face having their house burned down, their kids beaten up, their husbands losing their jobs, and being physically assaulted—such as having cement thrown in their eyes.” Such intimidation has resulted in the murder of two female councillors since 2012. Juana Quispe Apaza, from a highland Aymara Indian community, had asked for police protection after publicly denouncing corruption in her municipality. “My life is in danger, and I can’t afford bodyguards,” she told the Bolivian press before she was found strangled on a riverbank in March 2012. Three months later, at the other end of the country, Daguimar Rivera was killed by three men who shot her in the face. She, too, had denounced influence peddling and the misuse of municipal funds. Then, a third political figure, Toribia Cruz Garcia, a candidate for municipal government, was found dead in February 2015. In this case, the killer was presumed to be her ex-husband. In the past four years in Bolivia, 354 cases of what many refer to as “femicide,” the murder of a woman by a partner or ex-partner, have been reported. Many lack faith in both the Bolivian police and its judiciary. Women interviewed in a recent study expressed a willingness to report violence, but most said they fear being separated from their children or believe that somehow they brought on the abuse. In 2012, Bolivia adopted a law making many forms of violence against women punishable by up to eight years in prison; it is considered among the most progressive legislation in the region. The legislation encompasses sexual assault, domestic violence, femicide and forced sterilization. The law also denounces economic and patriarchal violence. “Our laws, even if they are in the vanguard, unfortunately are not obeyed and [are] often completely unknown to both authorities and citizens,” said Silvestre. Bolivia’s law also makes political harassment a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.“Bolivia ranks highest in Latin America in physical violence against women, and after A public awareness campaign to discourage wife battering in Bolivia says that violence against women represents an attack against the family. 10 FALL 2015 HERIZONS Haiti, second in sexual violence,” explained UNIFEM’s Natasha Loayza. Overall, Bolivia ranks fifth in the region in terms of women’s rights. Teen pregnancy is high, labour discrimination against pregnant women continues, laws that guarantee equal pay for equal work have yet to be enacted and sexual harassment in the workplace is still rampant. In the past year, government-funded billboards, radio ads and TV spots condemning violence against women have sprung up everywhere. “We will and must beat this,” stated Susana Rivero, a former government minister and a current deputy minister closely aligned with the government. The country’s contradictory women’s rights panorama leads Monica Novilla to wonder, “Was this emphasis on legislative parity the right one? Or would we have been more effective if we had prioritized other issues before pushing on this front?” Bolivia’s women’s rights trajectory over the next several years may well provide insight into this age-old dilemma, one that has plagued feminists since struggles to win the vote began over a century ago.