Soledad Núñez, a 40-year-old Paraguayan engineer and former minister, is seeking a space in the country’s male-dominated political arena as the first female vice president elected in Sunday’s elections.
The country, a traditionally macho and patriarchal society, has been difficult for women in political matters. Only 15% of legislators are women, a figure that is below the Latin American regional average of around a third.
In the last general elections five years ago, there was only one female candidate for president or vice president, but there are signs that the situation is no longer the same because this time the number rose to seven out of a total of 26 candidates.
“Something is changing, albeit slowly,” Núñez said in an interview with Reuters in which she recalled how, when she was a student, a university professor told her in her engineering class of eight women and more than 90 men that women should cook and clean the floors.
“From a very young age I saw very few women in leadership roles, in politics and in the industry,” said Núñez, who at 31 became the youngest minister in history in 2014.
“Having a woman at the top will have consequences,” he said. “Just being there is important because it inspires confidence in others to participate.”
Núñez is a vice-presidential candidate for the main opposition coalition that will challenge the ruling Colorado Party at the polls.
If elected, Núñez and her presidential running mate, Efraín Alegre, committed to gender parity in the cabinet, which currently has just a quarter of women. The Colorado Party also approved gender parity plans for the cabinet.
Lea Giménez, former Paraguayan finance minister and senator candidate for the Colorado Party, told Reuters there was a “tough and hard-fought” process for women to enter local politics.
“Many times the women who begin to venture into politics are newer in relation to men and that implies a learning process,” she said. “But I want to arrive for having done a good job and not for a quota.”
Paraguayan women were among the last in Latin America allowed to vote or register as candidates in elections, in 1961. In 1992, when democracy was restored after a 35-year dictatorship, gender equality was enshrined in the Constitution.
Progress has been patchy.
In the general elections five years ago, not a single female governor was elected among the 17 regional heads. In the 2021 municipal ballots, around a quarter of the positions went to women.
A change to the voting system was implemented that year, meaning voters must rank their favorite legislators, as opposed to a closed-list election, with the goal of creating a broader and more competitive field of contenders.
Some women are concerned that it could work against female candidates, who often have a weaker political apparatus and less campaign financing.
“Each candidate will have to campaign alone, creating enormous costs for the people, which is detrimental for the female candidates,” said Senator Esperanza Martínez, 63.
Martínez, from the left-wing Frente Guasu alliance, is among 45 senators running for re-election. Only eight seats in the Senate, around a fifth, are currently held by women, a number that is expected to drop after the election.
“There may be a long list of candidates to choose from, but they won’t get voted on if they don’t have visibility and travel all over the country,” he said. “What little we represent in the Senate will only get worse with this system.”
Rights and political activist Lilian Soto agreed: “From now on, you’re going to need more resources to make yourself known,” she said.
Martinez said, however, that the cabinet’s gender parity policy was an important step, coming amid broader debates in universities and businesses about women’s rights, often driven by younger generations.
“By insisting on gender parity, the debate opens up even more,” said Martínez. “However, the barriers to entry into politics are still too onerous to ignore.”
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