Bridging the Leadership Gap: Women in Local and Regional Governments

Local women leaders translate global commitments into lived realities—yet women remain significantly underrepresented in local and regional governments, particularly in executive decision-making roles. Across Latin America and globally, mayoralties, governorships, and other local and subnational executive offices continue to be dominated by men, despite decades of international commitments to gender equality, democratic governance, and inclusive development. This gap matters: local governments are where policies are implemented, services are delivered, and trust in institutions is built or eroded.

In response, GWL Voices, through its Women in Politics (WIP) Initiative, has culminated a two-year research effort with the report Bridging the Leadership Gap: Women in Local Governments in Latin America. Covering six countries—Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Panama—the study, to be presented on the sidelines of CSW70, provides provides new, systematically compiled data on women’s participation in local and subnational executive leadership. It identifies persistent structural barriers, including gender norms, gaps in parity frameworks to violence against women in politics and, the unequal burden of unpaid care , and calls for policy and institutional reforms to accelerate parity and strengthen democratic governance from the local level upward.

The event will convene a high-level, multi-stakeholder panel reflecting global leadership, multilateral policy expertise, and lived experience from women holding local and subnational executive office:

• Opening remarks by: Ms. María Guijarro Ceballos, Secretary of State for Equality of Spain
• Moderated by: Ms. Susana Malcorra, President and Co-founder of GWL Voices; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina; Former Chief of Staff to the United Nations Secretary-General
• Panelists:
• Ms. Michelle Bachelet, GWL Voices Member and Vice President of the Club de Madrid; Former President of Chile; Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Former Executive Director of UN Women
• Ms. Epsy Campbell Barr, GWL Voices Member; Former Vice President of Costa Rica; Former Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent
• Ms. Bibiana Aído, Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, UN Women
• Ms. Emilia Saiz, Secretary-General, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
• Ms. Roberta Zambrano Ortiz, Prefect of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and Vice President of Consortium of Provincial Governments of Ecuador (CONGOPE)

• Key Findings presented by: Ms. Claudia Briones Smith, Coordinator of the Women in Politics Initiative, GWL Voices; Lead researcher and author of the report

If you are student and planning to attend, apply here to our Open Call for exclusive conversations with GWL Voices members and more