The president of the government is Laura Fernández Delgado, who recently won the national elections. Yesterday, Yara Jiménez Fallas was also elected president of the Legislative Assembly, in a legislature that also has a majority of women, with 30 female representatives compared to 27 men.

In addition to the three main branches of government, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) is also headed by a woman, Eugenia María Zamora Chavarría.

The same is true of another institution of great importance in the country, the Comptroller General’s Office, led by Marta Acosta Zúñiga.

The country also has an ombudswoman, who is of Afro-Costa Rican descent: Angie Cruickshank Lambert.

Many Costa Rican government agencies, including ministries, are also led by women, as part of a gender parity system that the country has been promoting for about two decades.

The only exception to this pattern is found in the Judiciary, where both the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the President of the Constitutional Chamber are men: Orlando Aguirre Gómez and Fernando Castillo Víquez, respectively. In addition, the Attorney General is also a man, Carlo Díaz Sánchez (although his predecessor was a woman: Emilia Navas Aparicio).

The sole PUSC representative, Abril Gordienko, highlighted this reality in Costa Rica yesterday in her opening speech to the legislative plenary, offering a message of hope that the situation will change, especially at a time when machismo and authoritarianism prevail in the country.

Costa Rica had its first female president in 2010, Laura Chinchilla Miranda, as well as its first female president of the Legislative Branch, Rosemary Karpinsky Dodero, in 1986. The first woman to head the Judicial Branch was Zarela Villanueva Monge, in 2013.

Costa Rican Elizabeth Odio was also the first president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

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