¿Mujeres en los márgenes?: Sistema de comisiones y poder de asignación en el Parlamento uruguayo

Abstract

On the basis of evidence from Uruguay, this article disputes the findings of recent research on other Latin American countries that suggest that gender discrimination works against women in the designation of positions on parliamentary committees. The article shows that in Uruguay the designation of women legislators to committees cannot be explained by reference to their sex, but rather by factors that affect the general pattern of political careers in the country: seniority and district magnitude. The article concludes that gender discrimination operates at the pre-entry stage to parliament, for example, in candidate selection processes, rather than in internal parliamentary procedures.