The Gender Gap in Brazilian Politics and the Role of the Electoral Court

Abstract

Like many other countries, Brazil has adopted gender quotas in elections for legislatures at all levels of the federation. However, Brazilian gender quotas have been ineffective at increasing women's participation in politics. Authors usually point to reasons related to the electoral system and party structure. This article analyzes a variable that is rarely considered: the role of the Electoral Court. We argue that the quality and intensity of the control exercised by an electoral court, when called upon to decide on the enforcement of the gender quota law, can influence the efficacy of this policy. We show that, in general, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court tends to foster the participation of women in politics. However, based on two divides—between easy and difficult cases and between cases with low and high impact—we argue that in the realm of gender quotas, this court takes a rather restrained stance in those cases considered both difficult and with high impact.

Length of candidate lists and political careers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Brazil

“…So far, we have addressed candidates’ voting potential and argued that the more marginal pre-candidates on candidate lists, namely newcomers and losers, benefit relatively more as a result of the additional slots. But besides electoral experience, will demographic groups who are dramatically underrepresented in Brazilian politics, such as women (Miguel, 2008; Oliveira and Da Silva, 2020; Wylie and Dos Santos, 2016) and blacks (Bailey, 2009; Bueno and Dunning, 2017; Campos and Machado, 2015; Johnson, 1998), also benefit from the possibility of a party nominating more marginal candidates? Following the same arguments which led us to expect an increase in the participation of weak candidates, it is expected that the additional slots in candidate lists will increase the participation of minority candidates.…”

Judicialização da competição política e gênero: ação afirmativa nos Fundos Partidário e Eleitoral no Brasil

“…Se nas quatro eleições entre 2002 e 2014 a média esteve estável entre 8% e 10%, na de 2018 houve um aumento para 15,1% e em 2022 para 17,7%, conforme mostra a Tabela 1 abaixo. Ainda é cedo para buscar resultados conclusivos em uma mudança tão recente e que depende de observações mais sistemáticas, embora alguns bons estudos já tenham sido publicados (WYLIE, 2020;CAMPOS et al, 2020;RAMOS et al, 2020;SACCHET, 2020;LOBO, 2022). Mas as eleições municipais de 2020 parecem corroborar a tendência de 2018.…”

“…De outra parte, partidos com candidaturas majoritárias argumentaram que a resolução do TSE não definia claramente esse ponto, indicando apenas a destinação do percentual às candidatas. Com efeito, essa falta de clareza do TSE deixou os partidos livres para estabelecerem seus critérios de distribuição (RAMOS et al, 2020).…”

Negotiating Access and Privilege: Politics of Female Participation and Representation in Nigeria

“…The problem of underrepresentation of women in politics is not unique to Nigeria or developing countries generally. Many mature democracies such as the United States continue to grapple with this issue (Ramos and Da Silva, 2020). However, the socio-cultural contexts and entrenched patriarchal institutions in developing countries complicate the problem to a greater degree than in Western countries.…”