Bogota, Colombia – On March 8, Colombians not only elected their senators and representatives, but also chose their preferred candidates in three presidential primaries from left-wing, right-wing and centrist coalitions.
The election, held on International Women’s Day, featured a record number of female candidates, with Paloma Valencia receiving the most votes in the primary for the first time in history.
But with women’s representation in parliament stagnating, analysts say much progress is still needed to achieve gender equality in Colombian politics.
After the March 8 election, two women emerged as the most likely presidential candidates in a prospective coalition. Paloma Valencia, leader of the Centro Democratico (Democratic Center) party, won a landslide victory in her right-wing coalition, while former Bogota mayor Claudia López took the lead in the centre.
“We women have to work twice as hard to make sure people actually understand that we are doing the work,” Valencia said in an interview. “Female leadership is typically interpreted as ‘too authoritarian’ and limited to certain areas.” Latin America Report.
Despite Valencia winning more than 3 million votes in the primary, ahead of 15 other candidates, women’s representation in Congress still falls short of expectations.
“Women’s leadership is recognized as a force to mobilize, collaborate and build bridges. It tends to be a much more transformational type of leadership oriented toward motivation and consensus building,” said Nathalie Méndez, associate professor of government at the University of Los Andes in Bogotá. Latin America Report.
But one individual’s success alone is not enough. According to a report released by the Home Office, for the first time in history, female candidates made up 40.9% of the total list registered in parliament.
However, despite being the election with the highest female participation rate, this surge was not reflected in the results. From 2026 to 2030, there were 32 female senators (31.4%) and 53 female representatives (28.96%). This means that 85 of the 286 seats, or 29.7% of the entire parliament, were held by women.
The fact that exactly the same number of women were elected to parliament in the 2022 election highlights the lack of real progress in representation.
“Women are not given the same resources as men, nor are they placed in positions where they have a real chance to win elections. As a result, the increase in female candidates is nothing more than paper figures,” Méndez explained.
Colombian society is also very conservative, creating a cultural environment that perpetuates patriarchy and invalidates women in all fields.
“What we see in Colombia is the persistence of a double type of barrier, which I call institutional and cultural,” Méndez said.
These barriers are particularly evident in certain regions, such as Caldas and Quindío, where not a single woman represents her community in the House of Representatives.
“In local politics, financing is still tied to political machines and local elites deeply entrenched in male leadership. Breaking this panorama is still very difficult for women,” Méndez said.
Additionally, some party lists have been closed, meaning people vote for party logos rather than specific people. This may cause some voters to focus primarily on the party’s brand and not know the names of specific women on the list, making female candidates more invisible.
“For example, women are required to demonstrate more experience and obtain more degrees, and cultural biases continue to surface even after they have proven that they are as good as men,” Méndez said.
However, the candidate who received the most votes in the entire parliament was Nadia Ble. The Conservative leader claimed a huge victory, taking more than 178,000 votes to become the highest individual vote-getter in the 2026 election. Her success on March 8 proves that while overall women’s progress appears to have been blocked, individual female leaders are winning their battles and shattering expectations in the polls.
“This means that there are women who have broken the glass ceiling, either through their own trajectories or through strong political legacies, but that alone is not enough to change Colombia’s political culture,” the researcher added.
This election showed that just getting your name on the ballot isn’t enough. Real victory will come when we allow women to occupy equal political space with men in all regions of Colombia.
Featured image caption: International Women’s Day March 2024 in Colombia
Main image source: Wikimedia Commons
