 So good evening to everyone. Achieving gender parity in political institutions has been an ongoing issue in democracies around the world. And so gender quotas, this fast-track approach to boosting political representation of women, is the ideal solution, right? Well, thank you again. In the late 80s and 90s, Latin America, like many other democratizing regions around the world, implemented gender quotas. Gender quotas, for those of you, are actually policies or legislation mandating that a significant proportion of women be included either on party lists during elections or be reserved seats in national legislators once elected to office. In that respect, Latin America was the first region in the world to actually experiment with these sorts of quota policies or affirmative action policies on a wide-range scale. And so a common assumption would be if gender quota policies were implemented, we would expect a high proportion of females to get elected to national legislators. But more importantly, they would have an active leadership role in shaping policymaking. Or in other words, they have a strong role in initiating, debating, discussing policy. However, that has not been the case. This sets the context for my research. There are mixed results concerning gender quotas and the effects on improving or boosting the political role of women in policymaking. Specifically, for my research, I look at two Latin American countries, Brazil and Costa Rica, who along with Argentina were the first set of Latin American countries to experiment with gender quotas. In Costa Rica, or in Brazil, in 1997, mind my Portuguese, the government introduced a law called saying le big quotas implement, mandating that 30% of females be included on party lists. While a similar law was passed in Costa Rica a year later in 1997, mandating that 40% of females be included on party lists during elections. Interesting enough, while Brazil has been unable to use quotas to successfully improve the role of women in policymaking, Costa Rica, the reverse is true. And I analyze the thesis in my research through three different variables. First, looking at a discussion through the barriers encountered by females in committee meetings. In Brazil, women legislators face far more challenges in articulating policy needs during committee meetings, while in Costa Rica, the sense of equality permeates where males and female legislators are seeking equal counterparts, therefore allowing them to articulate policy and shape policy. Second, in Brazil, there are far less female ministers than there are in Costa Rica. And the breadth and scope occupied in terms of female ministers and their portfolios speaks a lot about how equality is being shaped in these two countries. Finally, I look at women legislators and the significant policies that they've implemented in boosting women's representation, or policies that they've implemented to boost women's interest. And there you go, here's my research.