July 17, 2023.- On June 27, 2023, the Institute of International Studies of the University of Chile presented in a virtual event the “Diagnosis and strategy for the participation of women in leadership and decision-making positions in the international and trade negotiations of the Pacific Alliance”.
The study was carried out by experts Alicia Frohmann and Ximena Olmos within the framework of the 2022 call of the Pacific Alliance Cooperation Fund, in which the PA Gender Technical Group (GTG) obtained funding for the realization of the project.
The event was attended by Dorotea López, Director of the Institute, and Norka Olivares, representative of the GTG, the former Director of ECLAC’s Gender Affairs Division, Sonia Montaño Virreira, and the Head of the UN WOMEN Chile Office, Gabriela Rosero Moncayo.
The experts presented the main results of the study, and emphasized that the representation and participation of women in politics and decision-making are conditions for achieving gender equality and adequate democratic governance.
The realization of this study is in accordance with the priority actions and goals set out in the Roadmap for the autonomy and economic empowerment of women in the Alliance and its implementation plan. For the GTG, it was necessary to conduct an analysis that would make it possible to observe the situation of women’s participation in leadership positions in the Pacific Alliance.
The experts and authors explained that this study was carried out through an online survey of people registered in the Alliance’s directory of technical groups 2022; in-depth interviews with negotiators; review of national instruments that promote gender equality and women’s leadership as good practices in each of the member countries of the Alliance, as well as interviews with various people involved in the PA.
The study analyzes various factors that affect women’s participation such as: care work, gender-based violence against women, access to training and skills development, among others.
