Press Release from the 3rd Plenary Assembly, Chile 2004
Women Parliamentarians Seek Greater Female Participation

April 2nd, 2004 - As part of FIPA's Third Plenary Meeting, the Group of Women Parliamentarians of the Americas met today under the chairmanship of Argentinian Deputy Margarita Stolbizer and FIPA's President, Canadian Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette. The meeting was attended by the head of CEPAL Women and Development Unit, Sonia Montaña, and the head of SERNAM's Status of Women Directorate, Patricia Silva, who referred to the Latin American and Chilean situations, respectively.

According to Stolbizer, this initiative seeks to promote gender-based policies to include women in hemispheric development. This will strengthen democracy by promoting female leadership, ending the gaps between men and women and solving problems affecting women in general.

The CEPAL representative maintained that studies by her organization show that major areas of growth in Latin America have not incorporated gender equality or equity, which she finds incomprehensible. "The figures show that if women did not do the work they do today, poverty would increase by 10 percent or more," she said.

Women account for 40 percent of the work force in our countries, except Mexico, where women are not yet present in a major way in the work sphere. However, Montaña noted that "women's wages are significantly lower than those earned by men, and female unemployment is vastly higher than men's".

The head of SERNAM's Status of Women Directorate, Patricia Silva, noted that the Chilean government is working mainly in three areas: helping women balance work and family life; shared responsibility for raising children; and greater involvement by women in national public life.

During the discussion, the women parliamentarians of the Americas had an opportunity to share their experiences and propose methods for working for the future. Paraguayan Senator Ana María Figueredo said that in her country studies show that citizens tend to choose women when the time comes to cast their vote. "We need to have a greater voice and to assume positions of leadership so that political parties will dare to offer more female candidates for public office," the Paraguayan parliamentarian maintained.

Chilean Deputy Ximena Vidal said that there must be a commitment on the part of women to open up areas in which their participation is currently low. "We need to achieve equity in all spheres, including this Third Meeting, at which we women are in a minority."

For this reason, the women parliamentarians urged their peers to get more involved in this type of initiative, so that women will play a larger role in the current situation.