Gender quotas have been implemented in countries around the world in order to increase the share of women in national parliaments, and scholars have reported varying levels of success. It is even less clear how gender quotas affect other aspects of representation, such as women lawmakers' roles, status, and achievements in the legislature. This is the case in Colombia, where research on the country's 2011 gender quota law has focused on its effects on the 2014 national election. This thesis presents an integrated investigation of Colombia's gender quota, examining its impact on women's descriptive representation and women's empowerment in the Congress. It employs qualitative analysis, descriptive quantitative analysis, and personal testimonies to do so. Beginning with the quota's impact on women's descriptive representation, I review the history of advocacy and reforms that lead to the gender quota law and analyze the 2014 and 2018 national election results. I find that the quota has been associated with small gains in the percentage of women in Colombia's Congress, and has been inhibited by its weak design, the electoral system, and its historical and cultural context. I then consider the quota's effects on the empowerment of women lawmakers, conducting an analysis of women's access to leadership positions and prestigious committees in the Congress. I find that the quota has not contributed to the empowerment of women lawmakers, and appears to have even restricted their access to the most powerful positions and committees, confining them to \"women's issue\" and \"soft issue\" roles. These results show that Colombia's gender quota law has had distinct effects on different dimensions of women's political representation, and has produced little progress overall.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Politics","Gender","Latin America"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24021