相关背景：
目前，世界上促进妇女参政使用最广泛的机制是配额制。所谓的配额(quota)是指选举中为某一类或几类候选人设定的比例要求。
在各国实践中，30% 的女性配额被大多数国家认可为促进改变的最低比例，或者说临界比例， 至少达到或超过这一比例，女性才能在决策机构中形成力量，把相关利益和需求表达出来，进而产生影响、提高意见和建议被采纳的可能。因此，联合国提倡立法和决策机构中女性的比例应至少达到 30%。
从上图中，我们可以发现世界范围内，女性在议会席位所占比例平均只有 25% 左右（蓝色虚线）。此外，红色实线表示这几个国家设定的女性候选人在选举中的配额。
Latin America has embraced quotas[0] for female political candidates
[0]全文都在围绕着quota这个词讲 /'kwəʊtə,ˋkwotə/
1) an official limit on the number or amount of something that is allowed in a particular period 定额；限额；配额
2) 还有一个意思是：a particular number of votes that someone needs to get to be elected in an election 〔候选人当选所需的〕规定票数，最低票数
Each person was given a quota of tickets to sell.
每个人都被分派了售票的指标。
Whether that leads to more female-friendly laws remains unclear
“WHEN a woman enters politics, it changes her. When many women do, it is politics that changes.” So said Florentina Gómez Miranda, a former Argentine congresswoman. Despite its macho[1] reputation, or perhaps because of it, Latin America is unusually keen on quotas for female political candidates. In 1991 Argentina became the world's first country to require parties to nominate women in a minimum fraction[2] of races.* Today, of the 18 Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking countries in the Americas, 17 have a version of this policy. Elsewhere, around a third do. Five of the world's nine most female lower houses are Latin American. One of them is in Mexico, which on July 1st elected a near-even split of the sexes in both chambers.
*1991年，阿根廷国会为女议员设定了至少30%的配额。在1983年的选举中，只有3.6%的议员是女性。1995年，这一比例上升到27.7%。2005年，阿根廷35%的众议员和41.7%的参议员是女性。
[1]macho: /ˈmætʃəʊ/ You use macho to describe men who are very conscious and proud of their masculinity. 大男子气的
...displays of macho bravado.
…大男子气概的展现。
[2]fraction: A fraction of something is a tiny amount or proportion of it. 少量
Here's how to eat like the stars, at a fraction of the cost.
这就是如何花少量钱却能像明星一样吃喝的方法。
Many Latin countries got rid of[3] dictatorships in the 1980s, creating a group of young democracies unbound by[释放] precedent. Yet just 5% of elected legislators that decade were female. Feminists, many of whom had campaigned for[为...而发起活动] democracy, began painting political parties as sexist relics for failing to run female candidates. Argentina responded by imposing quotas on parties, and fellow Latin American states followed suit[效仿].
[3]get rid of: When you get rid of something that you do not want or do not like, you take action so that you no longer have it or suffer from it. 处理掉某物; 摆脱掉某物
The owner needs to get rid of the car for financial reasons.
出于经济原因，车主需要处理掉这辆车。
If you get rid of someone who is causing problems for you or who you do not like, you do something to prevent them from affecting you anymore, for example by making them leave. 摆脱掉某人; 撵走某人
He believed that his manager wanted to get rid of him for personal reasons.
他认为他的经理出于个人原因想要撵走他。
Quotas did not always achieve the intended result. In Brazil, where just 11% of lower-house members are women despite a 30% quota*, parties can run[竞选] multiple candidates for the same seat. They nominate the required share of women, but give more support to men. In some countries the old guard resorted to[4] tricks. In Bolivia, male candidates registered for elections in 1999 with female variants of their names, like “María” for “Mario”. When Mexico introduced a 30% quota in 2002*, its parties ran women in unwinnable districts, and put them at the bottom of party lists. In 2009, after the rules were tightened, eight female lawmakers quit within a week of being sworn in[宣誓就职]. Men took their places.
*1995年，巴西通过了性别配额规定法案，按照相关规定，各政党必须保证百分之三十空缺职位的候选人为女性。2002年墨西哥选举法规定候选人中女性至少须占30%，2014年又把比例提升至50%。
[4]resort to: to do something bad, extreme, or difficult because you cannot think of any other way to deal with a problem 采取，诉诸〔不好的事物〕
Officials fear that extremists may resort to violence .
官员们担心极端主义者会诉诸暴力。
Only on the third try did Mexican quotas work as planned. In 2014, a constitutional amendment[修正案] raised the minimum to 50%, and required understudies[替角] to be the same sex as the people they would replace. The new rules were applied to both houses for the first time this month.
Critics of quotas contend that they deprive voters of a free choice of candidates, though under the proportional representation (PR) rules that govern many Latin elections they never had that in the first place. Other critics fret[5] that women elected under quotas are likely to be less qualified, or puppets of male relatives. Jennifer Piscopo of Occidental College in Los Angeles says that most studies show the women are as accomplished as men. (In some places, that is a low bar[低标准].) Only one country in the Americas, Haiti, reserves[6] seats for women. In the rest of Latin America, women must either win an election to hold office or, under PR, appear high enough on a party list.
[5]fret:to worry about something, especially when there is no need 〔尤指不必要地〕烦恼，发愁
Don’t fret – everything will be all right.
别担心——一切都会好的。
[+ about/over ]
She's always fretting about the children.
她老是为孩子发愁。
fret that
men of fifty, fretting that they're no longer young
因不再年轻而烦恼的50岁男人
[6]reserve: to keep something so that it can be used by a particular person or for a particular purpose 〔为某个人或某种用途〕保留，留出
reserved parking spaces
预留的停车位
reserve sth for sb/sth
A separate room is reserved for smokers.
另有一个房间留给吸烟者用。
Despite the quotas, women still hold a small share of the most important legislative jobs. And the region's number of female presidents has fallen from four in 2014 to zero today. Unsurprisingly, quotas have increased the number of female lawmakers—especially since those lawmakers tend to vote to raise the quotas still further.
Whether quotas yield laws that improve women's lives is harder to answer. In the 12 years to 2009, female lawmakers in Mexico were six times more likely than males were to introduce bills invoking[7]women's rights or children's well-being. But a study of Argentina found that although the number of female-friendly bills rose as more women entered Congress, the share that became law fell. More female legislators do not necessarily boost women's voices in civil society or the press, which help to get bills over the line.
[7]invoke
1) to mention or use a law, rule, etc. as a reason for doing sth援引，援用（法律、规则等作为行动理由）
2) to mention a person, a theory, an example, etc. to support your opinions or ideas, or as a reason for sth提及，援引（某人、某理论、实例等作为支持）
The judge invoked an international law that protects refugees.
法官援用了一项保护难民的国际法律。
Nonetheless, female lawmakers and academics insist that quotas have borne legislative fruit[8]. Argentina's recent reform to increase access to contraception[9] needed a critical mass of women in Congress to pass, says Ms Piscopo. Similarly, Mexico is on the verge of[接近于;濒于] approving a law aimed at curbing political violence against women. “If women don't promote it,” says Cristina Díaz Salazar, a senator, “it doesn't pass.”
[8]borne是bear的过去分词，bear fruit意思是“结果实；奏效；取得成果”
[9]contraception: the practice of preventing a woman from becoming pregnant when she has sex, or the methods for doing this 避孕，节（制生）育
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Señora senadora" (Jul 26th 2018)