Additional information about gender quotas

On January 20, 2015, Chile’s Congress approved a bill significantly reforming the national electoral system. There is now a provision that requires all political parties competing in congressional elections to ensure that no more than 60 percent of candidates on the ballot in  every district are of the same sex, which means at least 40 percent of candidates on party ballots must be women. This will only apply to elections between 2017 and 2029.

The former Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, introduced a Bill in the Lower House called "Participacion Poli­tica Equilibrada de Hombres y Mujeres" (Equal Political Participation of Men and Women), commonly known as "Ley de Cuotas" (Quota Law), in October 2007.

The Bill (Mensaje 860-355/Boletin 5553-06) aims, on the one hand, to establish rules to ensure a balanced participation of men and women in the access and exercise of internal positions of political parties and of public responsibilities, and on the other hand, provides more fiscal support to female candidates who are elected, as well as, a larger amount of resources, than what applies according to law, to the political parties that shall include a greater number of women in their lists of candidates.

The Bill aims to facilitate access of women to positions of political representation by setting that either gender (male or female) may not exceed 70% of the internal positions of the political parties, of the lists of candidates and of the municipal and parliamentary elections.

This would entail the modification of "Ley de Partidos Poli­ticos" (Law on Political Parties), "Ley de Votaciones Populares y Escrutinios" (Law on Popular Voting and Elections), "Ley Organica de Municipalidades" (Organic Law of Municipalities) and "Ley de Gasto Electoral" (Law on Electoral Expenditure).

The issue has been discussed in Chile many times before this Bill, but the motions were filed. So far the Bill has not made progress in Parliament.

May 15 and May 16 2021, Chileans elected the 155 citizens’ assembly - an assembly of delegated who will be in charge of writing a new constitution for the country – for the first time anywhere in the world, the constitution will be written by an equal number of men and women (The Guardian). Chilean women made such a strong showing in elections to pick candidates to draft the country's new constitution - so strong that adjustments to ensure the assembly was equally split between genders had to be made in favor of more men and not women (Reuters).