Panama’s Minister of Social Development, Beatriz Carles, presented a bill to the National Assembly that eliminates the Ministry of Women.

The Ministries of Women emerged in the late 1990s in response to the growing demands of the feminist movement in Central America and other Latin American countries.

However, countries like Argentina and Ecuador eliminated their Ministries of Women, citing administrative reorganization and cuts in public spending.

This weakening of protection policies for women, as well as the advancement in the rights of sexual and gender diversity, coincides with a global rise in conservatism.

In Panama, the beginning of institutions with a gender perspective occurred in 2008 with the creation of the National Council for Women (CONAMU), which in 2015 became the National Institute for Women (INAMU).

In 2023, INAMU was converted into a dependency of the Ministry of Women; however, in July 2025, the President of Panama, Raúl Mulino, announced its restructuring.

In his first year in office speech, Mulino indicated that the Ministry would become a Secretariat within the Ministry of Social Development, as part of a reform to «dismantle overlapping structures that were designed in another era.»

At that time, the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women of the OAS expressed its concern about the announcement.

Days before its dissolution, the Ministry of Women reported more than 12,000 cases of domestic violence during 2025, demonstrating the severity of gender-based violence in the country.