Embedded exclusions: exploring gender equality in Peru's participatory democratic framework

In: Global discourse: an interdisciplinary journal of current affairs and applied contemporary thought, Band 8, Heft 3, S. 532-549

Abstract

Do participatory institutions facilitate gender empowerment? As these institutions spread around the world, we still know very little about the gendered nature of participatory democratic spaces. Through the case study of state-mandated participatory budgeting in Peru, this article employs original data on participation to explore gender and inclusion. The study suggests that participatory institutions are not promoting gender equality. Instead, state actors have created new political spaces that exclude women and women's organizations and reify traditional gender norms. Like representative democratic institutions, gender inequities are embedded in these very spaces that are meant to empower all citizens.