In 2009, Linda Suarez became the first woman to be elected vice president of the legislature. This powerful leadership position is the highest legislative appointment and the third-ranking position in the province – below only the positions of governor and vice-governor. In recent years, a few talented, well-connected women have risen to the top ranks of politics in Argentina. Ask most male politicians in Argentina and they will tell you that, without a doubt, women now have equal opportunities in politics; after all, Argentina has elected a female president. Similarly, many politicians from Vice President Suarez's province boast that a woman holds the top position in the legislature, frequently citing her as proof that women are on even footing politically in the province.

One would expect that Vice President Suarez would be very proud to serve as the first female vice president in her province and that she likely views it as an accomplishment and a testament to her hard work. Yet, when asked if she was the first woman to hold such a prestigious appointment in the legislature, Vice President Suarez had a surprising response:

Where many people use her position to illustrate their opinion that women have equal access to power, Vice President Suarez views her experience as exceptional and not representative of women's status in politics. Instead, she suggests that female legislators face a number of obstacles and disadvantages. In this chapter, I empirically evaluate women's marginalization in the Argentine provincial legislatures. I compare women's and men's access to leadership posts and powerful committee appointments in the legislatures to evaluate whether women and men have equitable political power.

It is important to assess women's access to political power in order to answer one of the central questions in this book: Why do women collaborate? Recall, my theory contends that women collaborate more than men because women face structural barriers that restrict their ability to exert influence in the policy-making process.