Political parties and the fundamental duty to guarantee gender parity in governing bodies

Abstract

The subject of this article is the under-representation of women in politics, especially in the Chamber of Deputies in the 2022 general elections. The aim is to ascertain whether there is a fundamental duty on the part of political parties to observe gender parity in their governing bodies and, if so, whether compliance with this duty could contribute to increasing the viability of women's candidacies and, consequently, to increasing women's representation in politics. The hypothesis is that fulfilling this duty would give women's candidacies a greater chance of success as a result of women's access to the decision-making bodies of political parties. Using the deductive method and based on the theory of fundamental duties, chapter one presents the scenario of female under-representation in the Chamber of Deputies in the 2022 elections, comparing it with previous elections and with the world and Latin American scenarios. Chapter two explains the basic premises of the legal category of fundamental duties. The last section analyzes the role of political parties in promoting gender parity in the light of the theory of fundamental duties, comparing the issue of party autonomy with the democratic principle. The final conclusion is that political parties have a fundamental duty to guarantee gender parity in their governing bodies as a condition for improving the scenario of female representation in parliament and consolidating substantial democracy.