Sustainable development goal 5: Women's political participation in South America

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also called the 2030 Agenda, introduce a new development agenda focused on long-term articulated solutions. The agenda has adopted an inclusive and transversal project, which considers girls and women as essential to achieve sustainable development. Amongst their 17 goals, SDG 5 addresses gender equality and female empowerment. This paper emphasises SDG 5 and, more specifically, the 5.5 goal, which concerns female participation in political and leadership spheres. This research aims to indicate the female empowerment advances through the initial mapping of initiatives related to female representation in power spheres underway in South America. The methodology includes documentary and bibliographic research, supported by empirical data. The paper is structured into five sections: a historical review about development agendas, feminisms critical approaches, strategies to subvert gender inequalities in politics, other gender-sensitive public policies, and analysis of SDG 5 advances. The results point out gender is far away from parity, despite recent slight advances in South America. In addition, the increase of women in politics is seen as primordial to achieve gender equality.