Still left behind: Gender, political parties, and Latin America’s pink tide

Abstract

We test whether women’s representation benefited from the left’s dominance in Latin America during the “pink tide”. We find that left governments did not strengthen quota laws more than right governments. Further, after controlling for confounding factors, we find that left parties did not nominate or elect more women. Rather, we find the decision environment shapes parties’ choices about women candidates: when citizens distrust political parties, parties nominate more women, but when citizens evaluate the economy poorly, and when parties face many challengers, they nominate more men. Thus, the decision environments in which parties operate overshadow the effects of ideology.