Gender parity in Argentina’s lower house is slipping – since the change of lawmakers on December 10, women now make up around 41 percent of the Chamber of Deputies.
Compared with its previous composition in October, before deputies elected in last year’s midterms took their seats, the lower house has five fewer female lawmakers. The chamber now has 105 women out of 257 deputies, down from 110 in the outgoing legislature.
One of the main reasons behind the decline is the composition of party lists. In the most recent election, around 70 percent of tickets were headed by men, limiting women’s chances of securing winnable seats despite formal parity rules.
Argentina passed a Gender Parity Law in 2017, which established requirements for party slates, including that candidate lists must alternate between men and women. However, the law does not mandate parity at the top of lists, a key factor in the outcome.
Most provinces elect between three and five deputies to the lower house. The main exceptions are Buenos Aires Province, the City of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Córdoba, which send a larger number of representatives.
Since the Gender Parity Law came into force, there have been four elections – in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 – yet at no point has female representation reached half of the chamber.
Only one woman currently presides over a majority caucus. Gisela Scaglia, from Santa Fe, leads Provincias Unidas, a bloc of 22 lawmakers.
Female representation within the ruling party almost doubled between the previous election and the most recent vote, although it remains below parity.
In contrast, the main opposition caucus, Unión por la Patria, saw its number of female deputies fall from 45 to 42, leaving women accounting for around 45 percent of the bloc.
Within several inter-bloc groupings – including Fuerzas del Cambio (PRO, UCR, MID and Por Santa Cruz) and Unidos (Provincias Unidas, the Civic Coalition and Encuentro Federal) – women make up less than 30 percent of deputies.
Only Argentina’s left-wing parties, which hold four seats, have achieved parity. In addition, there are three women heading single-member caucuses: Natalia De La Sota (Defendamos Córdoba), Marcela Pagano (Coherencia) and Karina Maureira (La Neuquinidad).
Despite the overall decline, several women continue to play prominent roles in the Chamber of Deputies. Among the most visible figures in the ruling camp are Silvana Giudici, Sabrina Ajmechet, Juliana Santillán and Leila Lemoine. For Peronism, notable lawmakers include Cecilia Moreau, Victoria Tolosa Paz, Sabrina Selva, Paula Penacca and Julia Strada. Other high-profile figures include Scaglia, Radical deputies Karina Banfi and Pamela Verasay, and left-wing representatives Romina del Pla and Myriam Bregman.
List of female deputies in Argentina’s lower house
La Libertad Avanza
Silvana Guidici, Virginia Gallardo, Sabrina Ajmechet, Lilia Lemoine, Lorena Villaverde, Cecilia Ibañez, Rocío Bonacci, Romina Diez, Andrea Vera, Mónica Becerra, Belén Avico, Patricia María Vásquez, Lara Soldano, Juliana Santillán, Laura Rodríguez Machad, Patricia Holzman, Lorena Petrovich, Karen Reichardt, Verónica Razzini, Valentina Ravera, Marìa Ponce, Miriam Niveyro, Luciana Muñoz, Soledad Molinuevo, Soledad Mondaca, Julieta Metral Asensio, Lorena Macyszyn, Johanna Longo, Mercedes Llano, Gladys Humenuk, Maura Gruber, Rosario Goitia, María Luisa González Estevarena, María Gabriela Frías, Alida Ferreyra, Giselle Castelnuovo, Eliana Bruno, Barbara Andreussi
Unión por la Patria
Blanca Osuna, Teresa García, Paula Penacca, Lucia Cámpora, Victoria Tolosa Paz, Kelly Olmos, Cecilia Moreau, Caren Tepp, Jimena López, Vanesa Siley, Adriana Serquis, Sabrina Selva, Nancy Send, Marina Salzmann, Agustina Propato, Gabriela Pedrali, Varinia Marín, Julia Strada, Natalia Zaracho, Luana Volnovich, Elena Velázquez, Luciana Potenza, Lorena Pokoik, Graciela Parola, Claudia Palladino, Estela Neder, Roxana Monzón, Fernanda Miño, Marianella Marclay, Cecilia López Pasquali, Moira Lanesan Sancho, Ana María Ianni, Andrea Freites, Gabriela Estevez, Fernanda Díaz, Graciela De La Rosa, Florencia Carignano, Julieta Campo, Ceia Campitelli, Alejandrina Borgatta, Hilda Aguirre
Provincias Unidas
Gisela Scaglia, Lourdes Arrieta, Alejandra Torres, Mariela Coletta, María Inés Zigarán, Carolina Basualdo
Coalición Cívica
Monica Frade
PRO
Florencia De Sensi, Daiana Fernández Morlero, Antonela Giampieri, Alicia Fregonese
Adelante Buenos Aires
Karina Banfi
UCR
Pamela Verasay
Innovación Federal
Yolanda Vega, Yamila Ruíz
Frente de Izquierda
Romina Del Plá, Myriam Bregman
Elijo Catamarca
Fernanda Ávila
Independencia
Gladys Medina, Elia Fernández
Producción y Trabajo
Nancy Picón Martínez
Defendamos Córdoba
Natalia De La Sota
La Neuquinidad
Karina Maureira
Coherencia
Marcela Pagano
– TIMES/NA
Comments