Invisible Laws, Visible Gains

In Chapter 4 we introduce our unique Uruguayan panel survey, and also present data gathered from elite interviews conducted in Montevideo and content analyses of three major Uruguayan newspapers. Drawing on these data, we carefully demonstrate how the quota policy itself failed to attract visibility among the general population, but then show how women’s gains in elected office were more visible. By establishing the visibility of women’s descriptive representation following the sizable increase in women’s numbers in parliament, this chapter sets the stage for our empirical analyses of the Uruguayan data.