Who Gets to Lead? Organizational Structures and Women’s Leadership in Latin American Parties

Why do women lead some political parties and not others? This article examines the organizational and institutional factors shaping women’s access to party leadership in Latin America. Drawing on an original dataset of 54 parties across 16 countries (1990–2025), V-Party/V-Dem data, and mixed-effects regression analysis, we find that gender organizational structures exhibit contingent effects conditioned by party ideology: contrary to expectations, formal gender models do not per se increase women’s presence in party leadership, but autonomous structures produce a significant positive effect among centrist parties, offsetting their otherwise negative general effect. Party institutionalization consistently predicts women’s leadership, as formal rules and standardized procedures create more inclusive conditions. Previous experiences of female leadership also generate path-dependent effects that increase the probability of repetition. The findings reveal how formal and informal dynamics interact to shape women’s opportunities and identify the organizational features most conducive to breaking the “glass ceiling” in party leadership.