Women and political participation A minor field study of the political culture in Colombia

Abstract: Since the elections of 2010 there are 14 per cent women in the Colombian congress - a remarkably low number in comparison with several other countries in Latin America where quotas of allocation are common. Decades of armed conflict might give a hint of why gender progress has been slow in Colombia, but at the same time as stereotyped gender roles are highly dominating, women are in no sense passive actors in the public sphere. More women than men graduate from higher education and women take an active role in social movements. It is said that the political arena is the most macho culture of all in Colombia and that the political parties actively work against women’s participation in conventional politics. Interviews with congressmen/women and gender experts show that stigmatisation is great, women face tougher requirements, are expected to take a higher moral ground and that the work is difficult to combine with the responsibility of taking care of a home. Theories of democracy and political culture are used to analyse the interviews, as well as a presumed dichotomy between public and private sphere. This study in many ways present a miserable outlook for women in formal politics, but it also shows that the alternative path that many women choose – social movements – might also be a way of avoiding getting corrupted or needing links to the drug-trade or paramilitaries.