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A Revolution with a Female Face? Gender Debates and Policies During Rafael Correa’s Government

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Assessing the Left Turn in Ecuador

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

Abstract

This chapter discusses the advances and contradictions that shaped Rafael Correa’s ten-year presidency in relation to women’s rights and gender equality in Ecuador. Under Correa’s presidency, gender criteria were introduced into the formal policy discourse, and gender equality gained visibility as a force for institutional transformation in Ecuador. According to Correa, among the priorities of his government were that women be assured access to health care, social security, and employment, and that structural problems that perpetuate gender-based exclusion be addressed. In practice, however, his government over-relied on change at the formal institutional level, meanwhile replicating colonialist and heteronormative practices that undermined Ecuadorian women’s access to their full rights. Using this case, this chapter looks at conceptual notions of gender-based institutional exclusion and the role of formal and informal practices in perpetuating gender-based discrimination in Ecuador.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Voice, Ecuadorian Network for Women in the Sciences (REMCI), Quito, Ecuador

    Marcela Morales Hidalgo

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  1. Marcela Morales Hidalgo
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Iberoamérica, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Francisco Sánchez

  2. Department of Political Science, FLACSO Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

    Simón Pachano

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Morales Hidalgo, M. (2020). A Revolution with a Female Face? Gender Debates and Policies During Rafael Correa’s Government. In: Sánchez, F., Pachano, S. (eds) Assessing the Left Turn in Ecuador. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27625-6_6

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