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Articles

Vol. 43 No. 1 (2023)

“Gender Parity in Ecuador”: The Impact of the 2020 Electoral Reform on the Descriptive Representation of Women Elected to National Assembly

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-090x2023005000105
Submitted
April 10, 2023
Published
2023-06-09 — Updated on 2024-04-23
Versions

Abstract

This work provides a first assessment of Ecuador’s Electoral Law from a gender perspec­tive in the context of Ecuador’s 2020 electoral reform and its application in the general elections held in 2021. We discuss the different components of the electoral system from a gender perspective in order to understand their potential to improve or hinder the descrip­tive representation of women. We also analyze the importance of the Index of Strength of the Gender Quota (IFCG for its initials in Spanish). Moreover, we further propose an adjustment to this index to better examine the progress of the quota/parity design in the Ecuadorian context. Finally, using the electoral results from 2017 y 2021, we evaluate the change in the percentages of women elected to the National Assembly after the 2020 electoral reform. Results corroborate findings from previous studies on the benefits of a less proportional seat allocation method as well as female header mandate on voting list to improve the presence of women in parlia-mentary bodies. Our results show that the change in the method used for seat allocation from D’Hondt to Webster had detrimental effects on women’s presence in parliament. This effect was, however, offset by the increase of the number of women being listed first on the ballot.