Ecuador has only had one woman president. She was in power for 6 days.

In my interview with Rosalía Arteaga, former President of Ecuador, she claimed that it was because of her gender that she was not allowed, as was her right, to stay as president after the February 97’ political crisis. “What happened to me was machismo” Arteaga comments referring to the gender-based discrimination she experienced throughout her political journey[1]. The machismo felt by Arteaga in her brief presidency reflects an extensive system of discrimination against women embedded in Ecuadorian politics. While improvements have been made, such as the institution of parity and quota laws, the country’s machismo culture remains prevalent.  In this academic blog post, I build on my interview with Dr. Rosalía Arteaga to provide a window of analysis that reflects the larger issues shaping women’s participation in Ecuadorian politics.

HER presidency contested

In Ecuador, amidst a period of political crisis, the night of February 6th of 1997 is remembered as “the night of the three presidents”. In the days leading up to February 6th, there were mass mobilizations against then President Abdalá Bucaram, for whom Arteaga served as vice-president after a coalition formed by four political parties during the 1996 elections. Bucaram was condemned by the public for his neoliberal reforms and for his proven ties to corruption cases[2]. By nightfall on the 6th, the National Congress discussed Bucaram’s destitution and passed a ruling that declared him mentally unfit to lead the country with a simple majority. Refusing to acknowledge such a decision, Bucaram left the Carondelet Presidential Palace in Quito and returned to his hometown, Guayaquil, seeking the support of his political allies. In the early hours of February 7th, the Congress named its president, Fabian Alarcón, as the country’s interim president. This happened simultaneously as Vice-President Arteaga claimed the presidency in accordance with the Constitution. With all these events happening overnight in Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuadorians woke up on the morning of February 7th with three presidents.

The contestation of Arteaga’s presidency did not stop with Alarcón’s appointment, reflecting echoes of structural and cultural discrimination against women in politics. By February 8th, Bucaram accepted his destitution and flew away to Panama. On February 9th, Alarcón recognized the nullity of his appointment, leaving the presidency to Arteaga. While these changes could have signalled the beginning of the first presidential term led by a woman, Arteaga’s time in office ended prematurely. With no support from the Armed Forces or the Congress, Arteaga renounced the presidency and returned to her VP role on February 11th. From then on, Alarcón led the country until August 1998, when the next elections were called. In addition to Arteaga’s presidency being cut short, it was also subject to a long lack of formal acknowledgement.  It was only in 2004 that her presidency was recognized through a decree issued by then President Lucio Gutierrez and in 2018 that her portrait was added to the Room of Presidents in Carondelet.   

La primera in many positions 

Rosalía Arteaga was born in 1956 in Cuenca. From a young age, Arteaga demonstrated a passion for literature, culture, and education. At the University of Cuenca, she studied Political and Social Sciences. In 1982 she obtained her juris doctor, which was followed by a master’s degree in Basic Education and Rescue of Cultural Values ​​in Latin America. After leaving politics in the late 1990s, Arteaga has continued to work in social areas including environmentalism. In 2021, she became the first Ecuadorian to be nominated to run for UN Secretary-General through a proposal made by the youth political movement Forward. Currently, Arteaga serves as the Executive President of Fundación para la Integración y Desarrollo de América Latina, an organization whose mission is to promote quality education, strengthen democracy, and lead sustainable development initiatives in the region. 

The life of Dr. Arteaga has been marked by her role as a pioneer in many positions. Besides achieving first rankings throughout her studies, she was the first in her family to enter the world of politics. In 1986, she ran for councilwoman in Cuenca. Reflecting back to her campaign to this posting, she remembers the machismo she experienced. “I was told ‘what are you doing here, you should go back to the kitchen’”[3]. Upon entering politics in 1986, she had various public postings at the national level, including serving as vice-minister of Culture and being the first woman minister in the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports. In August 1996, she became the first woman vice-president after the Bucaram-Arteaga duo won the elections. 

When asked about the role of women in Ecuadorian politics in the 80s and 90s, Arteaga answered "It was very limited, there were hardly any women visible … there were no Ecuadorian or practically Latin American political role models. So, getting into politics meant breaking molds, and I had to break many”[4]. The lack of descriptive representation on top of no formal system to integrate women in politics such as quota or parity laws made it harder for her and other women to participate in politics:

The challenges of being a woman in politics 

To answer my question on the challenges she faced upon joining the public sector in Ecuador, Arteaga refers to experiences that marked both her private and public life. For instance, Arteaga had to navigate a “certain internal struggle within the household” as her husband did not like her participating in politics[6]. When she accepted offers to work at the Ministry of Culture, Arteaga did not consult as much amongst her inner circle as not everyone supported women’s civic engagement. While this internal conflict in her household did not stop Arteaga in pursuing politics, it reveals the cultural constraints that women experience for public participation. In her case, the cultural limitations translated into having to deal with the machismo from the traditional media, which according to Arteaga, portrayed her as “too ambitious”[7]. Other politicians also undermined her work through infantilizing and sexist language used against her.  

The challenges Arteaga experienced are a reflection of a broader system of discrimination against women in the country - one where women encounter conflicting demands on their private and public life with implications on their political participation. As scholars have put it, women in politics face the paradox of having to respond to traditional societal expectations and norms around gender while not neglecting work expectations and responsibilities required of politicians[8]. In many cases, such responsibilities are established and upheld by a patriarchal system that does not want to include women in the decision-making process and further perpetuates the sexual division of labour[9]. This discrimination becomes more severe as cultural limitations become embedded in institutional barriers when working structures do not account or accommodate for caretaking responsibilities, further alienating women from participating in politics. As reported by many women politicians in the region, their career advancement is often determined by them having a supportive system that could help them as they navigate their conflicting personal and professional responsibilities[10]. 

Institutional mechanisms designed to promote women’s political participation 

Ecuador has an important history of leadership in Latin America regarding legal changes made towards promoting women’s political rights[11]. For starters, the country was a pioneer in the region to give women the right to vote when in 1925 Matilde Hidalgo became the first woman who voted in a national election. Then, in 1929, Ecuador was the inaugural country to include women’s voting rights in the Constitution. While the right to vote and to be elected are secured before the law, this enshrinement alone does not guarantee that Ecuadorian women fully access and enjoy such rights in reality[12]. As mentioned in a 2023 UNDP report, accessing these rights is much more challenging for Indigenous and Afrodescendant Ecuadorian women[13], revealing the need for structural and cultural changes to ensure greater representation, especially of marginalized and vulnerable groups. 

The literature demonstrates that many countries have adopted affirmative policies, such as quota and parity laws, to promote women’s political participation and overall principles of gender equality[14]. In 1997, Ecuador passed a quota law of 20% aiming to guarantee the right to employment and tackle discrimination against women based on their gender in public postings[15]. In 2000, the National Congress passed a reform to the Organic Law of Elections to institute a 30% quota law following principles of alternation and sequencing, and a 5% increase in the quota for each subsequent election[16]. However, while the inclusion of such laws has been an important first step, these have not materialized. In both the 2000 and 2004 elections women’s movements challenged the constitutionality of numerous candidacies for not following the principles of the quota law[17]. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled favourably but only after elections passed, leading to no changes in the electoral results and revealing the patriarchal structure of the political power system in the country[18]. This further ostracized women from political participation. 

Additional sets of institutional mechanisms followed the 2000 reform. The 2008 Constitution adopted a parity approach for local and national elections making it mandatory to follow the principles violated in the previous elections and sanctioning non-compliance through a failure to register the candidacy[19]. Despites these legislative changes, women’s political participation did not increase significantly in both the 2013 and 2017 elections, being the local and provincial elections the ones that counted with the lowest participation of women candidates[20]. In February 2020, the National Assembly implemented further measures to boost women’s participation through the adoption of vertical and horizontal parity[21]. While the efficacy of these mechanisms needs time to be evaluated, scholars warn that factors such as the seat allocation method and the lack of substantive work done within political parties towards gender equality might continue to hinder women’s involvement in politics[22], making evident the need for close monitoring and actionable changes. 

Conclusion 

The experiences of machismo that former president of Ecuador Rosalía Arteaga faced are not unique. Despite some institutional measures, the discrimination of women in Ecuadorian politics persists, reflecting cultural and systemic problems that need to be addressed to fully create inclusive participatory environments at all levels of politics. As long as diverse women remain excluded from meaningfully participating at decision-making tables, it will only further impede the realization of inclusive democracies and sustainable development agendas.