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When Do First Ladies Run for Office? Lessons from Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2022

Ignacio Arana Araya Open the ORCID record for Ignacio Arana Araya [Opens in a new window]  and
Carolina Guerrero Valencia Open the ORCID record for Carolina Guerrero Valencia [Opens in a new window]
Ignacio Arana Araya
Affiliation:
Ignacio Arana Araya is an assistant teaching professor in the Institute for Politics and Strategy, Canegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. iarana@andrew.cmu.edu.
Carolina Guerrero Valencia
Affiliation:
Carolina Guerrero Valencia is an associate at the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies, Hamburg, Germany. carolina.guerrero@giga-hamburg.de.
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Abstract

Between 1999 and 2016, 20 former first ladies ran 26 times for the presidency, vice presidency, or Congress in Latin America. Despite the growing importance of this unique type of candidate, political analysts routinely describe them as mere delegates of ex-presidents. We argue that this view has overlooked the political trajectory of former first ladies, and we claim that women with elected political experience should be regarded as politicians who use the ceremonial role of first lady as a platform to enhance their careers. We hypothesize that first ladies with elected political experience are more likely to run for office as soon as they leave the executive branch. We test our argument by analyzing the 90 former first ladies who were eligible to become candidates in 18 Latin American countries from 1999 to 2016. The results support our argument, opening a new research agenda in the study of women’s representation.

Keywords

First ladiesgenderelectionsLatin Americapolitical experience
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 93 - 116
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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Footnotes

Conflict of interest: Ignacio Arana Araya and Carolina Guerrero Valencia declare no conflict of interest.

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