Análisis del techo y acantilado de cristal: experiencias de las mujeres gobernantes del cantón Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

The sexual division of labor, based on gender, assigns different roles to men and women (Guy & Newman, 2004; Cárdenas et al., 2014; Bird & Codding, 2015). In the political sphere, this translates into a negative social assessment of female participation, generating a series of obstacles that limit their access, permanence and performance in positions of power (Mengo, 2009; Ruiz & Grande, 2015; ONU Mujeres, 2019). In Ecuador, the sectional elections of February 2023, swore in six women and seven men as councilors, and 38 women and 67 men as members of the rural parish autonomous governments of the Cuenca canton, figures that show the minority representation of women. Therefore, the present research was based on the analysis of the experiences of the women governors of the Cuenca canton, regarding their political participation from the perspective of the glass ceiling and cliff. A qualitative ethnographic approach was adopted, with a non-probabilistic convenience sampling, made up of 10 women governors representing the municipal council and the rural parish autonomous governments of the Cuenca canton. The information was collected through in-depth interviews, and the data was analyzed with the ATLAS.ti. 25.0 software. The results revealed that internal, interactive, and external barriers constitute a challenge in the electoral cycle of political participation, influencing women's access, growth, and retention in governance positions.