Women's reservation is a no-brainer

Beatriz Merino is one of Latin America's most distinguished feminist leaders and the first woman prime minister of Peru. A respected lawyer, senator and champion of democratic institutions, she has used leadership to advance the rights of women and marginalised communities. Excerpts from an interview:

- BY MANIRA ALVA AND NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

You were an architect of Peru's gender quota system. What convinced you that quotas were necessary?

This issue came to my attention during the Beijing conference (UN World Conference on Women, 1995). We did not have a system of quotas in my country, and there were 5 or 10 per cent women in Congress. Even before that, I had been to Sweden, where I saw a women's movement that demanded a quota system—it jumped representation there from around 6 per cent to 40 per cent almost overnight.

When I went to Beijing, I started listening to this seriously. One of the things key to getting results is consensus. You need the different parties to agree. So we opened a space—women from the official party and the opposition came together in a kind of unofficial caucus. The woman most fiercely opposed to this was a very smart, very powerful lady. She said, 'I don't need any quota.' And she didn't. But she was smart enough to realise that not everybody had her privilege. When the numbers were shown to her, and she was told that it would take 130 years to get close to equal representation, she said, 'No way. We are not going to wait 130 years. We are going to have to do it now.'

So we worked very quietly, very hard. One year after Beijing, we had the first quota system. And what I can tell you is: before, it was 5 per cent. Today, it is close to 40 per cent. If you ask me what you need to do, it is a no-brainer. You have to do it. Period.