Male democracy? An analysis of institutional political violence against women in Ecuador during the government periods between 1979 and 2022.

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of political violence faced by woman in the exercise of their political rights in Ecuador from 1979 to 2022, incorporating global and Latin American reflections, which point out the main obstacles that women have in accessing politics, and inquiring the impact of quota laws, and parity, to advance access to political representation positions. The analysis focuses on the descriptive dimension of access to the political positions of the Legislative and Executive branches, being the ministerial offices part of the latter. This research is developed from the perspective of feminist institutionalism, an issue that requires adopting as a research strategy the incorporation of bibliography regarding sex and gender to rethink inequality between men and women in institutional spaces. One of the main empirical findings is that women are underrepresented in legislative spaces, as they have not reached the ideal of parity, an issue that also occurs in all regions of the world. Another finding, in addition to underrepresentation in the executive, and ministerial cabinets, is that women are relegated to low-level ministries, while high-level and medium-level ministries are occupied by men. Demonstrating that democracy is still a male structure that generates political violence against women.