Participación de la mujer en los diferentes niveles decisorios de las ramas y órganos del poder público

Abstract

Women have been traditionally excluded, a reality that gradually began to change in the country since the issuance of Law 28 of 1932, which recognized the possibility for married women to freely manage and dispose of their property, abolishing marital power and thus men as their legal representatives; Subsequently, Decree 2820 of 1974 granted both women and men parental authority over their children, eliminating the obligation of obedience to the husband, living with him and always following him wherever he moved his residence. Article 94 of Decree-Law No. 999 of 1988 also abolished the obligation for spouses to bear their husbands' surnames, among other provisions of law advocating gender equality. Seen in this light, this trend towards the gradual recognition of women's rights finds an important point of consolidation in the 1991 Political Charter, which, by defining Colombia as a democratic State, establishes that the participation of citizens in the taking of the main decisions that affect the political and public life of the nation is a fundamental principle and right. However, since it is a social State governed by the rule of law, it is hoped that this ideal of equitable and egalitarian participation will become a reality, especially in the case of minority groups and/or those in conditions of greater vulnerability or manifest weakness, who are the object of special protection by all constitutional and legal bodies. However, express recognition of the fact that women have equal prerogatives, guarantees and rights as men has been slow to evolve in the public sphere, since it was previously impossible to conceive of them as active participants with absolute power and total capacity to interfere in the dynamics and main decisions of the organs of State power. It was then that, with the issuance of Law 581 of 2000, the Congress of the Republic regulated the adequate and effective participation of women at the highest decision-making levels (that is, the highest positions in the three branches and bodies of public power, establishing 30 per cent as the minimum percentage of female participation in them). However, despite the considerations made so far, in accordance with the position taken by the Constitutional Court in Ruling C-371 of 2000 (M.P. Carlos Gaviria Díaz), although women have the same qualifications to hold public positions at the decision-making level, there are practices that transgress this equality between men and women to access such positions, as well as regulatory instruments that are insufficient to guarantee these dynamics of equal inclusion between both genders, making it necessary to establish affirmative measures to remove the obstacles that prevent women's participation in the scenarios already described. Although women's participation in the decision-making levels of the branches and bodies of public authority has been increasing, it is necessary to verify that real equality of quotas for women in decision-making positions has now been achieved, since these rarely exceed the percentages imposed by law.