CHAPTER 6

Feminism and Gender Policies in Post-­

Dictatorship Chile (1990–2010)

Nicole Forstenzer

Introduction
During 2015, the Chilean Congress undertook a heated debate on the
legalization of abortion in specific situations (danger for the mother’s life,
severe fetal malformations or pregnancy as a result of rape), thus shining
the spotlight on President Michelle Bachelet’s ability to deliver on one
of her many campaign pledges. Women’s rights and, perhaps more tell-
ingly, women’s reproductive and sexual rights, have reached center stage
in the political debate. This could potentially put an end to a long period
of stalemate on fundamental issues for women’s agency. An era during
which feminist voices were muffled and gender policies turned a blind eye
to often life-threatening situations of illegal abortions and lack of effective
access to birth control seems to have been partially overcome.
Indeed, since Chile’s transition to democracy in 1990, the femi-
nist movement went from being a vibrant and plural social movement
committed to bringing Pinochet’s military dictatorship down alongside
other social movements (trade unions, university and secondary-student

N. Forstenzer (*)
UMR Développement & Sociétés, Paris, France

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 161

S. Donoso, M. von Bülow (eds.), Social Movements in Chile,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-60013-4_6
162   N. FORSTENZER

­movements, pobladores movements, etc.), to a highly divided and hardly

audible voice in the public debate on women’s rights. At the same time,
however, the newly established democracy incorporated some of the
claims set forth by the feminist and women’s movement.
Having the Chilean state step into the field of gender equality entailed
far-reaching changes for the feminist movement. Some feminists chose to
cooperate with the state, whether directly from within the Servicio Nacional
de la Mujer (National Agency for Women, henceforth, SERNAM), or
indirectly from the outer fringe of the public sector, that is, non-profit civil
society organizations. Other feminists, on the contrary, viewed this turn of
events as an attempt to subdue their more radical claims and force them
into accepting reform as the only way forward. The feminist movement
thus underwent clashes and confrontations which ultimately led to seri-
ous fault lines calling into question the very existence of a “movement.”
These divisions, as well as the general backlash against social and political
participation, led to a clearly delineated field of legitimate and accept-
able women’s rights. This entailed the rejection of more radical claims,
depicted as idealistic and marginal.
In this chapter, I analyze the dynamics of the feminist movement since
the last years of the dictatorship. I highlight the impact of the interplay
between gender public policies and feminist professionalization in fram-
ing women’s rights issues in newly democratic Chile, ruled by a center-­
left coalition but deeply indebted to Pinochet’s political and institutional
framework. A brief historic overview of second-wave feminism and the
transition is presented as an introduction. I then examine the changes
within the landscape of feminist organizations and the debates around the
approval and implementation of gender public policies. In doing so, I seek
to highlight the evolution in feminists’ collective action repertoires in rela-
tion to different moments within the cycles of protest.1 I also summarize
the Chilean state’s gender policymaking activity.
Mobilizing these two levels of analysis, I show how the combined out-
come of these last 25 years has involved an overall rejection of more radical
claims and voices and has not led to as many changes for women as could
have been expected. I discuss the opposition between “institutional” and
“autonomous” feminists and argue, in a discussion with Franceschet,2
Stoffel,3 Ríos Tobar et  al.,4 and other analysts, that there is a third cat-
egory of feminist organizations in the Chilean social movement landscape:
social mobilization organizations. I then focus on two major feminist
claims—violence against women and sexual and reproductive rights—to
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   163

illustrate how the political context and power relations within the feminist
movement have interacted and led to divergent policy outcomes. Lastly,
I contend that the last decade has gradually spurred a re-politicization of
gender and therefore a new role for feminist voices in the public debate,
alongside the overall protest dynamics initiated by other social movements
(see the analysis by Somma and Medel in this volume).
The analysis in this chapter is based on fieldwork carried out between
2004 and 2009 in Valparaiso, Chile. The approach chosen for this research
follows the general premise of this volume, namely, the need to go beyond
the traditional divide in social sciences between public policy studies and
social movement theory. This involves incorporating a longitudinal and
cross-sectional perspective to analyze the complex interplay of collective
action and gender public policies.
The choice of the research site, Valparaiso, proved fruitful: Valparaiso
is a port which left the height of its glory behind when the Panama Canal
opened at the beginning of the twentieth century and is now one of
Chile’s poorest cities. Nonetheless, it is an energetic political and cultural
landscape, namely because of its significant student population, with many
small grassroots organizations, such as artists’ squats or work cooperatives,
alternative media outlets or more traditional student unions or environ-
mental and right-to-the-city groups. With approximately 275,000 inhab-
itants, Valparaiso is also the third largest city in Chile. It is located only
120 km from Santiago and is home to the Chilean Congress, which ties the
city into the closer loop of political debates and policymaking. Regarding
the feminist movement, there is a small but nonetheless significant num-
ber of feminist and women’s groups in Valparaiso and its province, which
are mostly grassroots organizations. The Casa de la Mujer de Valparaíso
(Women’s House of Valparaiso) as well as the Foro Red de Derechos
Sexuales y Reproductivos (Forum Network for Sexual and Reproductive
Rights) played a crucial role in the 1990s bringing organizations together
and welcoming new activists. The Casa de la Mujer de Valparaíso was shut
down at the beginning of the 2000s due to lack of funding, whereas the
Foro Red fell prey to a series of internal conflicts which impelled many
member organizations and activists to leave it. The Colectiva Feminista
Las Sueltas was created in 2005 as a result of these events by five feminists
who had previously been Foro Red participants but no longer felt that was
the space for their activism. As a member of the Colectiva, I worked along-
side other local feminist groups (Colectivo Belém de Sárraga, Católicas por
el Derecho a Decidir) and participated in network organizations such as the
164   N. FORSTENZER

Red Chilena contra la Violencia Doméstica y Sexual and the Campaña 28

de septiembre for the decriminalization of abortion. This meant organizing
campaigns and events, as well as coordinating protests.
Fieldwork also included a comprehensive document analysis of Chilean
government reports and other documents, as well as studies on women
and gender in Chile published by regional and international organiza-
tions In addition, semi-structured interviews were carried out between
November 2008 and March 2009 with four public officials at SERNAM’s
regional office in Valparaiso, with two public officials in charge of women
at the Viña del Mar municipality, as well as with professional gender advo-
cates working at NGOs.
In sum, then, the outcome of this research is situated knowledge, with an
explicitly recognized political positioning as both an activist and a researcher.

Studying Gender and Feminism in a Post-­

Dictatorship Context
On a theoretical level, this research builds on the literature on feminism
and gender policies from Chile (K. Araujo, M. Ríos, M. Pisano, T. Valdés),
from North America (S. Franceschet, L. Baldez, P. Richards, among oth-
ers) as well as French-language research (B. Marques-Pereira, S. Stoffel).
Before delving into the analysis of the interaction between feminist poli-
tics and gender policies in Chile, it is important to clearly define some of
the key concepts that are used in this chapter: gender, the Feminist and
Women’s Movement and the Chilean transition and post-dictatorship.
The notion of gender has been used increasingly over the last 20 years
as it has penetrated the arena of international organizations and policy
recommendations. It is currently used as a synonym for women, biological
sexual differences, or even feminism, in a markedly depoliticized manner.5
It was initially set forth by feminist research—Oakley used it for the first
time in 1972 in her study called “Gender, Sex and Society”6—as a means
to highlight the social rather than natural or biological nature of male and
female categories. French feminism, namely the materialist movement,
proposed several other concepts to account for the structural inequality in
men and women’s relations, such as “social sex”7 or “sexage”.8 The con-
cept of “social relations between male and females” (rapports sociaux de
sexe) gradually became the materialist branch of French feminism’s chosen
concept. Kergoat9 defines “social relations” as “a tension which is present
throughout the social field:
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   165

“[…] In this case, it is the tension between men as a social group and
women as a social group—these social groups cannot be equated to the
biologically-inspired dual categorization of males and females.[…] Their
relations can be characterised as follows:  - the relationship between these
groups is antagonistic; - the differences that can be observed between men
and women’s practices are social constructions and cannot be linked to a
biological causation; - this social elaboration has a material and not a merely
ideological basis—to put it differently, “a change in peoples’ mindsets” will
never take place spontaneously if it is disconnected from the sexual division
of labor–(…).”

As regards feminist movements, according to Fougeyrollas-Schwebel,10

they develop in parallel to the idea of human rights and to the assertion of
universal equality. Scholars worldwide acknowledge that two key moments
of feminist mobilization—called “waves”—stand out: the first wave is
made up of the struggles for women’s enfranchisement from the mid-­
nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. The second
wave refers to a later period of mobilization starting in the 1960s–1970s
which focused on demands such as sexual and reproductive rights and
challenged the gendered labor division. Second-wave feminists’ claims can
be summed up as positing the private sphere as a political issue.
In Latin America, and especially in the Southern Cone, second-wave
feminism developed later, at the end of the 1970s and during the 1980s,
in the context of military dictatorships. In fact, many women leftist activ-
ists had come into contact with European and North-American second
waves while exiled from their home country. The difference between fem-
inist movements and women’s movements is fundamental in Chile, but
also helps to understand the struggles for women’s rights in other areas
of the world. Regarding the European context, Fougeyrollas-Schwebel11
writes that “Feminist movements must be distinguished from popular
women’s movements which do not directly express demands for specific
rights for women (…).” In Chile, the term “feminist” is highly con-
troversial and sometimes elicits rejection: indeed, it has been linked to
first-wave liberal feminists and is therefore too often reminiscent of bour-
geoisie or middle- and upper-class educated women’s interests, despite
many popular women’s participation in the Chilean first wave namely
during the Popular Fronts.12 Chilean second-wave feminism was made up
of a feminist movement as well as a plural array of women’s organizations,
making it an alliance of middle-class and working-class women united by
the aim of ousting the dictatorship and demanding political agency. As I
166   N. FORSTENZER

will explain hereafter, after the return to democracy the women’s move-
ment disappeared and the feminist movement shattered into a myriad
of different organizations. Feminists in Chile do not consider that these
organizations put together actually constitute a movement anymore, not
since the 1990s.
Since its second wave, the feminist movement has developed in a similar
way at the global level, namely as a reaction to the United Nations’ action
in favor of women’s rights and gender equality. Indeed, the Decade for
Women (1976–1985) and the UN Conference for Women in Mexico in
1975 were the starting point for a series of major international confer-
ences which reached a climax at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing. As I argue in this chapter, Fougeyrollas-Schewebel’s
conclusion can easily be applied to Latin American and Chilean feminism:
“(…) international pressure has furthered the cause of women’s rights but
has led to less radical feminist movements. They are henceforth meant to
behave as non-profit organizations working on women’s behalf. (…)”.13
The characterization of the current period as the Chilean “post-­
dictatorship” rather than the Chilean “post-transition” is a key compo-
nent of the theoretical framework developed in this research. As Joignant14
points out, the transition narrative is aimed toward the present and the
future, conveniently turning its back on Chile’s murkier past. At mid-­
term, the first democratically elected President Patricio Aylwin stated
that the transition had ended and that Chile had successfully renewed its
longstanding republican and democratic tradition. This was only the first
of a long series of political operations which sought to define the transi-
tion as the very short period between the end of the military regime and
the beginning of the first democratically elected government’s term even
though the democratic recovery was painstakingly slow and frequently
called into question by the military or Pinochet himself.15 Despite these
attempts, the Chilean transition has constantly resurfaced in political
debates and social protest, especially at the time of Pinochet’s arrest in
London.16 The narrative of post-transition Chile now bent on consolidat-
ing democracy, modernizing the state, and public governance also carries
the implication that the past is past and can—and should—be put to rest.
However, this narrative is ceaselessly contradicted by social demands for
truth and justice (Verdad y Justicia) on human rights violations and the
location of disappeared people’s remains, the “obstinate memory”17 of a
past that simply will not be allowed to pass quietly into history.18
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   167

These issues have been thrust onto the political agenda and are far-­
reaching: as a candidate in the 2013 Presidential elections, Bachelet
pledged to do away with the 1980 Constitution, to make education
public and free (see Donoso’s chapter in this volume), and to continue
reforming pensions and the social welfare system. Indeed, as pointed out
in the introduction, the 1980 Constitution included a series of lock-in
provisions that made it nearly impossible to make radical changes. These
marked authoritarian constraints on the newly reinstated democracy have
led many analysts and observers to characterize the Chilean regime of the
1990s as a “protected”,19 “limited”20 regime, or as a democracy “under
guardianship”.21
Thus, some scholars challenge the prevailing label of “post-transition”
used by many.22 In this sense, I have chosen to refer to this period as the
“post-dictatorship”: the teleological implications of the transition narra-
tive contribute to concealing the crucial role the dictatorship has played in
the current political context’s genesis.
Importantly, feminists are currently divided around this main challenge
of how to deal with the post-dictatorial political landscape. These divi-
sions are based on political beliefs and loyalties (reformists vs. radicals)
as well as the individual belonging to different generations of activism.
The Concertación’s gender policies have relied heavily on professionalized
feminists who have chosen to tone down some of their own demands and
have in turn requested this—more or less explicitly—of other feminists as
a precondition for any unity or action as a “movement.”
As I show in the following pages, the institutional provisions estab-
lished by the dictatorship as well as the right-leaning center of gravity in
Chilean politics have made some crucial feminist claims, such as the right
to autonomous decision-making and physical integrity or women’s social
and economic rights, impossible to address in the framework of public
policy.

Chilean Second-Wave Feminism: The Struggle

for Democracy in the Country and at Home

As in other Latin American countries, Chile’s second feminist wave in the

1980s took place under A. Pinochet’s dictatorship. The particular context
proved to be, albeit paradoxically, an opening for women to play a more
prominent role in Chilean politics. After the coup of September 11, 1973,
168   N. FORSTENZER

many female UP militants had to flee their country and came into contact
with European and North-American second-wave feminism while in exile.
Others were forced to take their political activity underground and cau-
tiously endeavored to organize the resistance to the brutal new regime.
Women were at the forefront of the resistance, as the military tended to
perceive them as less political. As Franceschet23 has argued, in Chile gen-
dered citizenship patterns are based on masculine versus feminine spheres
for public participation. Political crises in Chile have involved a blurring
of the distinction between political and social activism, allowing women
to step out of their traditionally assigned social roles and into more tra-
ditionally “masculine” politics while asserting that they are bringing in
something “different.” Baldez24 stresses the key condition of political
party realignment for women to mobilize as women in Chilean politics,
portraying themselves as “outsiders” beyond party divides. The extreme
political situation of the 1980s therefore carved out a space for women to
organize as women, claiming to be above and beyond partisan politics and
in favor of fundamental principles such as life or concern for loved ones.
During the 1980s, women organized in three main fields.25 They orga-
nized as mothers, wives, daughters, or sisters of disappeared victims of
the dictatorship’s repression. Second, women from Chile’s shantytowns
bearing the brunt of the economic crisis also created new organiza-
tions and led mobilization efforts. Lastly, specifically feminist organiza-
tions were created. In all of these different settings, women organized
politically as women, staging new and often ambiguous forms of militant
motherhood.26 Women seized this characterization and stepped out of
the traditional frame, in an exercise in “gender-bending,” politicizing and
subverting the motherhood frame and stretching it to include fundamen-
tally political claims.27
The women’s and feminist organizations created during the 1980s were
diverse. They included Indian women’s organizations, women workers,
pobladoras (such as MOMUPO, Movimiento de Mujeres Pobaldoras), and so
on.28 Some were avowedly feminist whereas others were wary of the feminist
label because it has been construed as an expression of educated, middle-
class or even bourgeois women (as was often the case in Chilean first-wave
feminism—cf. Maza Valenzuela)29 despite working-class women’s involve-
ment in feminist and women’s organizations during the Popular Fronts.30
They chose to identify as women or as a specific brand of feminists: pobla-
doras feministas, for instance. Without a doubt, this issue is closely linked to
the intersection of social class and gender in Chilean history.
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   169

As feminist groups staged flash protests in the streets of Santiago and

the series of protests against the regime initiated by trade unions gained
momentum, the feminist and women’s movements came together to
take part in the anti-regime uprising and to voice their specific claims.
Recurrent rallying cries were “Democracy in the country and at home,”
or “There can be no democracy without women,” which highlighted the
feminists’ reflection on their experiences of political participation prior to
the coup: most feminists were leftist militants who called into question
their political activity within parties before the coup.31
The federation of organizations that was prominent in first-wave femi-
nism, Movimiento pro Emancipación de la Mujer Chilena (MEMCH), was
re-established in 1983, in order to bring the different feminist and women’s
organizations together. International women’s days, celebrated on March
8, demonstrated the movement’s strength and provided for increasingly
massive demonstrations. In December 1983, over 10,000 women gathered
in Santiago and the movement Mujeres Por la Vida was officially born.
As early as the mid-1980s, however, divisions surfaced within the Feminist
Movement. Kirkwood,32 a feminist sociologist who played a key role in the-
orizing Chilean feminism in the midst of the second wave, argued that the
division between “feministas” and “políticas,” grounded in the contentious
issue of double militancy, could be summed up as follows: the “políticas”
believed “there is no democracy without feminism” whereas “feministas”
held the opposite view, “there is no feminism without democracy.”
As political parties were re-established and negotiations with the mil-
itaries in power unfolded, the decision to pursue feminist activism or to
postpone it on behalf of the greater overarching objective of overthrowing
the regime caused serious splits in the movement. The políticas were also
divided between feminists who were militants in left-wing parties such as the
Communist Party or the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR),
which refused to buy into the regime’s conditions for a gradual and pre-
defined transition based on the steps laid out in the 1980 Constitution, and
instead believed in an armed intervention or in a massive social uprising.33
The feminist movement nonetheless remained strong until the end of the
1980s, when all efforts turned toward the 1988 plebiscite.34 Different sets
of demands were set forth: Mujeres por la Vida presented a series of claims to
the opposition parties in 1986. In 1988, as the plebiscite was scheduled to
take place, the Movimiento Feminista published a document called Women’s
Demands to Democracy. A total of 20,000 women attended a concentra-
tion at the Santa Laura stadium in Santiago on March 8, 1989.
170   N. FORSTENZER

In the run-up to the country’s first democratic elections in over 15

years, Pinochet abolished the Health Code’s article 119, which provided
for abortion in medically justified cases,35 but also had Congress ratify
Chile’s signature of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).36 These seemingly contradic-
tory initiatives teased out boundaries for the ensuing period’s approach of
women’s rights: women’s rights fit into Chile’s overall endeavor to return
to the international stage while providing reassurances on human rights,
but do not include any potentially contentious issues such as abortion.
Shortly after the reinstatement of democracy, in 1991, SERNAM was cre-
ated as part of the Ministry of Social Affairs (the MIDEPLAN, Ministerio
de la Planificación), in 1991.
The feminist and women’s movement entered a long-lasting period of
divisions, unmet expectations and setbacks.

The Feminist Movement: “Autónomas,”

“Institucionales” and Activism
The state’s intervention in the field of promoting and furthering wom-
en’s rights and equal opportunities proved highly divisive for the Feminist
Movement. The core tension in Chilean feminism from the days of suffrag-
ette struggles has been the opposition between autonomy versus integra-
tion, rather than the equality versus difference frame of North American
and European feminism.37 This opposition can be defined as the alterna-
tive between including feminist claims and activism within the traditional
channels  of formal politics, that is, mainstream political parties or mass
social organizations, or choosing to pursue an independent agenda for
social change (independent on an organizational, theoretical, and militant
level). At the beginning of the 1990s, the “políticas” versus “feministas”
conflict was replaced by the “institucionales” versus “autónomas” conflict,
which echoed the continental level and played out during regional femi-
nist encuentros throughout the 1990s.38
In a sea change which affected not only feminist movements across
the world, the 1990s was an era of ideological turnabout regarding social
movements: they were pressed by governments and international orga-
nizations to give up claiming and complaining, to become proactive and
adopt the narrative of capabilities and human rights while speaking the
language of projects.39 This required a specific set of skills that are not
traditional activist skills.40 In addition, it demanded a shift in focus, from
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   171

a more horizontal organizing and awareness-raising endeavor turned

toward society and the public opinion, toward a more vertical relationship
with State and supranational organizations in charge of drafting legislation
and granting civil society organizations funding for the implementation of
policies and programs.
In Latin America, this global context was exacerbated by the lack of
funding available for grassroots organizations as democratic States ushered
out authoritarian regimes and monopolized aid flows. In the case of Chile,
the fact that the transition was led by a coalition including socialist parties
placed a particular strain on feminists’ relationship to the state.41 Double
militancy provided for a preferential access to state resources and oppor-
tunities for some feminists, whereas others were marginalized and viewed
as disruptively dissident. This is the case for feminists who were double
militants but in more radical left-wing parties, such as the Communist
Party or the MIR.42
The less-educated activists from the women’s and Feminist Movement
soon felt they had been sidelined and “abandoned” by the “femocrats”:
the more-educated, middle-class feminists who had developed professional
skills that were quickly put to use in government positions or civil society
organizations. These are the “institucionales,” according to their critics, a
name they themselves reject. The political ties among these women led to
what Woodward has called a “velvet triangle”,43 the smooth circulation of
feminists between government, academia and civil society organizations.
This configuration of gender policymaking necessarily involved feminists
reframing feminist claims to make them suitable for public policy and gov-
ernment narratives on gender and social inequality. In the Chilean case,
nonetheless, this was also combined with the serious constraints on the
quality of democracy, leading many feminists to tone down or censor their
own claims or claims made by other feminists and grassroots organizations,
from outside the realm of policymaking and politically acceptable claims,
especially during Bachelet’s first term in office. Richards,44 for example,
sets forth a compelling analysis of this situation’s impact on pobladoras,
rural and indigenous women. Pobladoras’ difficulties in being viewed as
partners and not just social policy recipients by femocrats and the state
have also been documented and analyzed by Adams45 and Schild.46
Some scholars (Franceschet, Marques-Pereira, among others) have
argued that the evolution of the feminist movement in post-dictatorship
Chile has led to “state feminism.” As I have argued elsewhere,47 this must
be nuanced by the systematic rejection of anything related to feminism in
172   N. FORSTENZER

gender policies and by the political conflicts surrounding women’s rights,

which have involved watering down and stifling the claims and initia-
tives which could potentially have the greatest impact on women’s liv-
ing conditions and empowerment. Therefore, rather than state feminism,
this institutional branch of feminism can be more accurately designated as
“professional gender advocates”.48
The autonomous branch of feminism decided very early on that the
policymaking system was rigged against radical societal change and that
breaking down their agenda into a “shopping list of demands” was not
an option. They have consistently advocated for civilizational change and
for complete autonomy from funding sources. Autonomía theoreticians,
such as Pisano49 and Gaviola, describe the insidious impact of profession-
alization and institutionalization within the movement and have set forth
landmark analyses for Latin American feminism.50
Prominent Chilean feminists, such as Margarita Pisano, are some of the
autonomous movement’s key theoreticians.
As of 1998, separate continental encuentros are organized. In 2009, the
founders of the autonomous current nonetheless broke with the autonó-
mas’ encuentro and explained that even their autonomy had been tainted
by a brand of feminism that had lost touch with radical feminism’s history
and memory and no longer represented a credible possibility for political
mobilization. From then on, these feminists chose to leave the feminist
political identity all together and labeled themselves “Rebel Movement
from the Outside” (Movimiento Rebelde del Afuera).51 They have also
made a point of keeping professional feminisms from rewriting feminist
history and presenting it as a linear series of achievements enabled by
cooperating with the government and international organizations, as at
the Chilean 2005 feminist encuentro in the run-up to Bachelet’s first elec-
tion as President or regarding documentary films or books on the feminist
movement.52
As most scholarly attention focused on the institucionales/autónomas
conflict, grassroots feminist organizations have been overlooked. These
organizations make up a third category that I have chosen to call “social
mobilization feminism.” These organizations believe autonomy is key for
activism but decide on a pragmatic basis when and how to work with state
agencies, international organizations, and even other feminist civil society
organizations. Their members are volunteers and they struggle with con-
straints such as having to balance work, family responsibilities, and activ-
ism. These organizations come and go but have continued to exist since
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   173

the return to democracy. Unlike the more institutionalized feminists, most

of the women in these organizations were not left-wing party militants
before the dictatorship. They are the next generation of feminists who
came to political activism during the campaign for the “No” in the 1988
plebiscite.
The three branches of Chilean feminism have different repertoires
of collective action. The professionalized feminists focus on producing
expert knowledge, on advocacy and monitoring compliance with interna-
tional commitments (Cañas53 and Alvarez54 on Latin American feminism;
Araujo55 on the transnationalization of Chilean institutional feminists).
These actions require adequate organizational structures, financing, and
technical and political skills.56 The autónomas produce critical reflections
on feminism and on neoliberalism and capitalism’s impact on women’s
daily lives. They also carry out awareness-raising activities within the
Feminist Movement and beyond. The social mobilization feminists have a
more classical militant repertoire, including petitions, rallies, demonstra-
tions, happenings, as well as more novel forms of online political agitation,
as noted during fieldwork in Valparaiso.
The feminist activist year is based on a calendar of special mobilization
dates, from International Women’s Day on March 8 to the International
Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25,
including regional campaigns such as the September 28 Day for the
Legalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean. These
small groups work together informally or within networks or campaigns
and include more professional groups with easier access to funding and
­international fora, such as Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir and more
marginal anarco-feminist or eco-feminist groups.
This state of play within the feminist movement and the work-in-­
progress of gender policies have overlapped, have run parallel or even
opposite ways and at times have intersected to redefine the scope of claims
for women’s rights. A distinction has gradually surfaced between “legiti-
mate” and “radical” demands, excluding dissident voices from public
debates and framing women’s rights as an issue of equality of opportuni-
ties or equity. Inequalities among women along multiple positions of class,
race/ethnicity and sexual orientation, women’s autonomy, thanks to sex-
ual and reproductive rights, or the calling into question of the neoliberal
model have been banned from the realm of legitimate, state-sanctioned
women’s rights because of their disruptive potential.
174   N. FORSTENZER

The Institutionalization of Gender Policies

and the Role Played by Professional Gender
Advocates
The 1990s was a decade of far-reaching changes within the feminist and
women’s movement. SERNAM’s creation in 1991 was the outcome of
the first in a long series of political stand-offs on women’s rights in the
post-dictatorship.
The institutional framework set up by the dictatorship allowed little
room for changing the economic and social policies’ general direction.
As noted in the introduction, the neoliberal transformation of the state,
which was trimmed of most of its powers and fields of intervention, left
labor relations, health care, pensions, education, natural resources, etc.
in the hands of the private sector. In addition to this, Chilean socialists
were first-hand witnesses and participants in international socialism’s shift
toward social-democracy or reformism.57 The left-right divide thus was
rebuilt around the series of moral issues (temas valóricos) on the politi-
cal agenda: women’s rights/gender versus traditional family values; sexual
and reproductive rights versus faith-based perspectives on sex and repro-
duction; marriage and divorce; crime, drugs, and insecurity.58
The discussion of the bill that created SERNAM showcased the politi-
cal tensions surrounding the institutionalization of gender policies. Not
only the right-wing parties, but also the Christian Democratic Party, dog-
gedly opposed any threats to family as a fundamental social unit or to the
close association of womanhood and motherhood. The text which was
finally adopted thus expressed the tension between women’s individua-
tion, which Marques-Pereira59 defines as “their acknowledgment as sub-
jects beyond roles as mothers and spouses,” and familialism, a fundamental
trait of Chilean society according to Araujo.60 Article 2 states SERNAM’s
mission, stressing the strengthening of the family and women’s nature
and specificity. Franceschet therefore notes61: “Given the Concertación’s
unwillingness to pursue policies that it knew would be divisive, SERNAM
came into existence with a potentially irresolvable tension at its core: to
pursue women’s equality while strengthening the (traditional) family.”

The Development of SERNAM

Two main phases stand out in SERNAM’s development: a first phase of
institutional consolidation and cautious gender policies, from 1991 to
2000, and a second, bolder phase, from 2001 to 2010.
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   175

SERNAM’s first years (1991–2000) were aimed at setting the stage

for policies that would be acceptable within the two main frames that co-­
existed in Chilean post-dictatorship politics on gender, namely, women’s
rights and conservative moral values. The two first Ministers of SERNAM
were Christian Democrats with no feminist track record (Soledad Alvear,
who would later become the Christian Democratic Party leader between
2006 and 2008, and independent but Christian Democratic affiliated
Josefina Bilbao). This reflected the predominant role of the Christian
Democrats during this first ten-year phase (1991–2001) of democratic
rule.
During this period, SERNAM’s efforts focused on defining its institu-
tional mandate and building legitimacy. Its first action plan was drafted in
1994 (Plan de Igualdad de Oportunidades). It presented general lines of
action but remained vague on the means and tools to achieve these goals.
As a highly sensitive policy field, its first achievements were legal reforms
asserting formal gender equality: the Constitutional reform enshrining
men and women’s equal rights (amendment of articles 1 and 19-2 of
the Constitution), legal equality for children born in or out of wedlock
(1998), and the first law on domestic violence (1994). SERNAM was
designed as a coordinating body: it can only implement pilot programs
or supervise implementation of programs designed by other government
or local authorities. Its main substantive policies during this phase were
poverty alleviation programs targeting women from the poorest q ­ uintile,
heads of households or seasonal workers (temporeras). The Chilean del-
egation’s participation in the UN Conference of Beijing on Women’s
Rights sparked a controversy regarding the use of the term “gender,” con-
strued as a threat to family values, and the assertion of pro-life positions.
The teenage sex education program JOCAS (Jornadas de Conversación
en Afectividad y Sexualidad—Conversations on Sexuality and Feelings)
was shut down in the midst of a scandal on providing secular options for
teenagers’ sex life and birth control.62
The turn of the millennium brought a new impulse to gender pol-
icies in Chile. On the one hand, the power balance shifted within the
Concertación, as the “progressive” pole gained more clout when Ricardo
Lagos, member of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy (PPD,
Partido por la Democracia), was elected President in 2001. Moreover, the
first woman President, Michelle Bachelet, also from the Socialist Party,
was elected for the following term of office (2006–2010) and though
not a self-identified feminist, she made gender a political priority. On the
whole, this second phase (2001–2010) made for a more active role of
176   N. FORSTENZER

SERNAM, headed by PPD Adriana Delpiano and Christian Democrat

Laura Albornoz, who, despite her party affiliation, made for a very pro-
active and visible SERNAM.  SERNAM’s second Equal Opportunity
Plan (2000–2010) was at the same time more operational and more far-­
reaching, and Michelle Bachelet’s Gender Agenda, drafted by profession-
alized feminists, was undoubtedly a peak for this new era in gender policy.
The emphasis shifted from formal equality (equal opportunities) to gender
equity. Iconic measures characterize this phase: the legalization of divorce
(Civil Marriage Act, 2004), the criminalization of domestic abuse (Second
Intra-Family Violence Act, 2005), the nomination of women ministers in
key departments (foreign policy, defense) under Lagos then the idea of
parity under President Bachelet, support for affirmative action for political
representation, the development of child care solutions and a better access
to the labor market for women were among SERNAM’s priorities in this
second phase.

The Nexus Between Gender Policies and Feminist

Politics: Defining Women’s Rights
Gender Policies and Women’s Rights: The State’s Definition
of Women’s Rights
The Chilean state’s gender policies can be grouped into three catego-
ries: legal changes, social policies targeting poor women, and state mod-
ernization involving gender mainstreaming, which will not be discussed
in this chapter. The legal changes enacted thanks to SERNAM sought,
first, to enshrine formal equality in the Chilean legal framework, such as
the Constitutional amendment stating that “men and women are equal”
(1999) or the law granting the same rights to children born in and out of
wedlock (Ley de Filiación, 1999).
The second phase in SERNAM’s legal action focused more on for-
mal issues with a significant impact on many women’s living conditions,
such as the legalization of divorce (Ley de Matrimonio Civil, 2004),
which allowed for a better enforcement of alimony payments, or the first
law on intra-family violence (1994) which made intra-family violence a
misdemeanor but more crucially laid the ground for more State and/or
State-funded programs for women victims (more on the issue of domestic
violence below).
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   177

More recently, SERNAM’s law-sponsoring activity has become bolder

(except under Piñera’s administration, the first right-wing President
elected since the 1950s, between 2010 and 2014) to encompass laws mak-
ing intra-family violence a crime (2nd Intra-Family Violence law, 2005),
making femicide a specific criminal offense (2010), advocating quotas for
electoral politics (several bills but none was adopted) and decriminaliz-
ing abortion for “therapeutic” reasons (rape, serious fetal malformation,
danger for the mother’s life—this bill is currently being examined by the
Chilean Congress). Legal reforms have been crucial for formal equality as
well as for laying the ground for more substantive policies in fields such
as health care, education, or employment. International law and bind-
ing commitments made by the Chilean state, such as UN’s CEDAW or
the Belem do Para OAS Convention on Violence against Women (1994),
have been central in securing many of these legal reforms. Several profes-
sional feminists have specialized in this field, drafting shadow reports for
international organizations on the Chilean state’s compliance efforts, for
instance, or taking the Chilean State before the Inter-American Justice
Tribunal (this is the case of the NGO Corporación Humanas, for instance).
The second key field in SERNAM’s activity has been social and welfare
policies, even though the agency only has remit for pilot programs or
coordinating substantive programs with other public authorities. Shortly
after its creation, SERNAM launched the Program for Women Heads
of Household (1994), delivered by municipal Women’s Offices and act-
ing as a nexus between the different services available to women such as
childcare (JOCAS), job placement (OMIL), finishing secondary educa-
tion cycles or participating in technical and vocation training programs,
health care namely dental care. The program initially targeted the poorest
households headed by women providers (1994–2001) but was at a later
stage reoriented toward lower-income households above the lowest decile
(when the program was reinstated in 2007). This program has continued
until today with results varying between municipalities, often depending
on the public officials in charge of its implementation.63
Beyond SERNAM’s limited capacity to design and implement substan-
tive policies, several social policy measures have specifically targeted wom-
en’s living conditions and well-being. The Chile Solidario benefit system
established during Bachelet’s first term (in 2002, under MIDEPLAN’s
authority) is designed to reach out to the poorest Chilean households
and help them access sectoral programs or benefits. Chile Solidario is also
based on a conditional cash transfer program alongside psycho-social
178   N. FORSTENZER

guidance (Programa Puente) and implies a series of responsibilities for

the recipients, such as making sure children attend school and get medi-
cal check-­ups, adults actually seeking employment and the family being
in touch with the different state-run social agencies. Women are targeted
as priority beneficiaries for the program as they are considered more reli-
able and more likely to put the money received to use to benefit the
whole family. However, as many Conditional Cash Transfer Programs
(CCTP) schemes, it relies heavily on women’s reproductive role within
the family and on a social level. The numerous demands to be met in
order to continue to receive benefits are time-consuming and not inher-
ently empowering,64 contributing to making CCTPs impact on women’s
agency ambiguous, at best. Moreover, the pension reform enacted in
2012 created a basic minimum pension, especially meant for women who
hadn’t contributed for long enough to receive a pension. It also added
years of contribution per child, thus compensating women, to a certain
extent, for career interruptions due to child-birth and rearing.
These measures reflect post-2000 social policy orientations based on
the idea of individual empowerment and capabilities, often implying cat-
egories of worthy/unworthy poor, rather than social and economic rights
and entitlements.65 Women are not viewed as agents of their own living
conditions, especially women from poor neighborhoods (pobladoras)
or rural women (even more so for indigenous women) and the aim of
empowerment falls short of engaging these women in true ownership of
these programs or allowing them to weigh in on the decision-making pro-
cess. In a repetition of old patterns, when upper-class women would bring
tea and sewing activities to shantytown women (from nineteenth-century
Church charities to late twentieth-century Centro de Madres), today edu-
cated middle-class feminists provide professional services and support to
poor pobladoras.
This legislative activity has nevertheless remained squarely within the
boundaries drawn by the post-dictatorship. Blofield and Haas’s 2005 study
of the Chilean Congress’s law-making activity from 1990 to 2002 shows
that a bill is most likely to be enacted if it is not a major questioning of the
social and economic neoliberal model or of traditional gender roles.66
In sum, then, 25 years of gender policies have gradually led to a clearly
defined scope for women’s rights initiatives: women’s rights are framed
as an issue of equal opportunities rather than substantive equality and are
allowed onto the policy agenda only inasmuch as they do not call into
question the status quo on a moral level, based on the centrality of family
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   179

values and women’s primary role as mothers, or on a material level, i.e.

the social and economic neoliberal vision of society, of public/private and
individual/collective rights and responsibilities.

Making Change Happen: At the Interface of Gender

Policies and Feminist Politics
Violence against women and sexual and reproductive rights has been two
major feminist claims since 1990. Both are linked to women’s right to
bodily integrity and to autonomous decision-making regarding their bod-
ies and sexuality. On the issue of violence against women, feminist coali-
tions bringing together grassroots organizations and professional gender
advocates effectively weighed in on the policymaking process and achieved
progress on different fronts, even though it involved initial failures and
trade-offs on framing and narrative. On the highly controversial topics
of abortion and birth control, however, the political context was sealed
off to broaching these issues and feminists divisions on strategy as well as
substance meant the stalemate lasted for almost the whole period.

Combating Domestic Violence: The Intra-Family Violence

Legislation
Violence against women was one of the main topics set forth by second-­
wave feminism for the nascent democracy to take action on. As Chile rati-
fied major international conventions requiring the state to prevent and
sanction violence against women (CEDAW, Belem do Para) and SERNAM
was created, combating domestic violence surfaced as a priority for gen-
der policies. As second-wave feminism faded, the umbrella organization
Red Chilena contra la Violencia Doméstica y Sexual (Chilean Network to
Combat Domestic and Sexual Violence) was created in 1994.67 This net-
work gathered feminist NGOs alongside grassroots women’s organiza-
tions, philanthropic battered women’s shelters and activist groups and set
out to advocate in favor of criminalizing domestic abuse. Engaging with
the Executive branch and with female lawmakers involved a far-reaching
reframing of the problem, which went from conjugal violence to intra-­
family violence (cf. Araujo et  al.68). This meant that the focus was not
exclusively on women but was broadened to encompass children or elderly
dependents exposed to abuse behind homes’ closed doors. It also meant
that men were not singled out as the main, if not exclusive, perpetrators
180   N. FORSTENZER

of abuse. A first law was enacted in 1994, making intra-family violence a

misdemeanor. SERNAM was given the mandate to provide protection for
victims of intra-family violence and carry out awareness-raising activities.
This first experience of engaging in law-making proved a failure for most
feminists, as the outcome was so far removed from their initial goals.
Indeed, very quickly it became clear that the campaign was pushing
women to seek help from the police but the measures following a com-
plaint did not provide women with effective protection. More and more
women were harassed, threatened and too often killed by their partners,
boyfriends, husbands or exes, often despite temporary court restraining
orders or the fact that legal proceedings were underway.69 In 2005, a sec-
ond VIF law was enacted, making “routine abuse” (maltrato habitual) a
criminal offence. Over the period, the Red continually sought to position
violence against women as a major public issue and to remind the public
of the different aspects of violence against women (psychological abuse,
economic violence, etc.). Starting in 2005, it launched a major campaign
called El Machismo Mata, with different components and events such
as marches with torches on November 25th (International Day against
Violence against Women), traveling monuments to victims of violence,
paper and online graphic campaigns.
In 2005, SERNAM Minister Laura Albornoz also became very pres-
ent and outspoken in the media on violence and femicides and SERNAM
started to keep count of women killed by their partners or exes on its web-
site. The media seized the subject but chronicled these women’s deaths at
the hands of people they shared their lives with in gruesome detail, remain-
ing at the surface of their implications for gender relations in Chilean soci-
ety. In 2011, a law specifically criminalizing femicide was enacted.
Violence against women has clearly not disappeared in Chile, but it is
now a legitimate concern for political debate and policymaking. Violence
against women also continues to be one of feminists’ major concerns and
claims, as there is still much to be done to highlight and combat the differ-
ent dimensions and forms violence against women can take. In this sense,
this demand is a rallying cry for diverse feminist and women’s organiza-
tions and is a meaningful platform for collective action.

Sexual and Reproductive Rights: Birth Control and Abortion

Sexual and reproductive rights are another key feminist demand in the post-
dictatorship. Abortion had been legal in Chile, for medical reasons, since
1933. Yet, as previously mentioned, as Pinochet was on the verge of leaving
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   181

power, he had the Health Code amended and criminalized all attempts to
terminate a pregnancy or aiding or abetting a woman to do so, in all cir-
cumstances. These issues were also—and more crucially—divisive for the
coalition in power between 1990 and 2010, since the Christian Democrats
tended to side with the right rather than with their coalition allies when
pressed on this turf. For a long time, abortion was a political taboo, men-
tioned by no candidate for fear of losing the election over anti-family and
non-Christian positions. Of course, Chilean women have continued to have
abortions, in often life-threatening situations: rich women travel abroad or
have an abortion performed in expensive upper-­class Santiago private clin-
ics whereas poor women use risky and unsafe methods without medical
care (parsley, knitting sticks, and clandestine abortion doctors). The use of
misoprostol as a means to self-administer a drug-based abortion has made
abortions somewhat safer if the women have access to adequate informa-
tion and purchase the genuine chemical compound, but has also led to a
new black market and to a decrease in abortion-related mortality, meaning
unsafe abortions are construed as less of a public health issue.70
At the turn of the millennium, the battleground therefore shifted
toward birth control and the “morning after pill.” Right-wing parties,
the major faith organizations and extremist Catholic sects (Opus Dei,
Schoenstatt, Legionarios de Cristo), also in control of major media out-
lets and Chilean big businesses, have waged a long legal battle against
this drug (for a full recount, cf. Casas Becerra71). They were able to
prevent its market availability for almost 20 years, arguing before courts
that it has an “abortive effect.” When they lost this battle and Bachelet
decided to make the morning after pill available in public health centers—
because despite the fact that it was legal to carry the drug hardly any
pharmacies did—the right-wing took the issue before the Constitutional
Tribunal (2008). At a time when Chilean society was expressing a col-
lective refusal of social injustice and impunity vis-à-vis the dictatorship’s
unpunished human rights violations,72 the opinion bristled, stressing
that the Constitutional Tribunal was a dictatorship-era legacy with no
right to creep into people’s beds and do away with 60 years of fam-
ily planning policies (the request had to do with the hormone levo-
norgestrel, which is also found in regular hormonal birth control, i.e.
pills and hormonal  intrauterine devices, IUDs). The Constitutional
Tribunal nonetheless ruled against the morning after pill’s distribution
in Minister-run health centers, once again jeopardizing women’s access
to effective birth control. Nonetheless, the issue of abortion surfaced in
the political debate and through this last struggle came to be reframed
182   N. FORSTENZER

as a matter of social justice, unfairly hindering poor women’s sexual and

reproductive rights and even putting them in life-­threatening situations.
As Bachelet was running for her second presidential term, she pledged
to ask Congress to lift the ban on abortions for medical reasons (whether
related to the fetus or the mother) and in the event of the pregnancy
being the outcome of rape. This bill is currently under parliamentary
discussion.
This issue has been highly divisive for feminists as it calls into ques-
tion the Concertación’s position as well as the general power relations
within the movement. On the one hand, professionalized feminists have
been in favor of keeping a low-profile on this topic, advocating the simple
­decriminalization of abortion or limiting claims to medical-related termi-
nations of pregnancy, whereas grassroots organizations have made legal,
free, and safe abortion the sine qua non condition of women’s empower-
ment (cf. debates at the Encuentro Nacional Feminista in Olmué in 2005).
Ultimately, significant headway has been made lately thanks to the general
ascendant protest dynamic and the acute awareness of Chilean society’s
unfair distribution of wealth and power rather than to feminists’ engage-
ment with this issue in the public debate.

Conclusion
The feminist movement has undergone a radical transformation in post-
dictatorship Chile, going from the height of the second wave, hand in hand
with a powerful women’s movement, to a fragmented and diminished land-
scape of activists and organizations lacking voice and presence in the public
space. The divisions brought about by double militancy and the transition’s
political orientation, combined with the institutionalization of gender pub-
lic policies, deepened the fault line between “institutional” and “autono-
mous” feminists. The third category of social mobilization feminists, which
I have contributed to analyze and highlight, are key players in keeping femi-
nist politics alive. Beyond a merely strategic or tactical disagreement, the
autonomy versus institutionalization discussion shapes and frames feminist
philosophical and political approaches to fundamental issues such as the
gendered division of labor or sexual and reproductive rights.
However, this should not lead to overlooking the remaining femi-
nists and their intense and passionate efforts to change gender relations
in Chilean society, whether through public policy and a reform agenda,
theoretical productions or social awareness-raising and political activism.
 FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   183

Gender policies in post-dictatorship Chile have made cautious, but none-

theless significant improvements to women’s rights, as other issues have
gradually surfaced within the public debate. The post-­dictatorship pro-
vided ideal conditions for the creation of a “velvet triangle” (A. Woodward,
2004) between State agencies, universities, and non-­governmental organi-
zations. However, I have argued that this took place while the State and the
formal political realm deliberately established a clear distance from femi-
nist claims. Thus, rather than a case of state feminism, the professionalized
feminists in Chile could be referred to as “professional gender advocates.”
Chilean feminists must now learn to build alternative political visions
with others, within the feminist landscape and beyond, with other social
movements, to ensure that neither feminist demands nor overarching
claims for equality are left behind in the upcoming struggles for more
democracy and social justice in Chile, namely the yet ill-defined process of
drafting a new Constitution for Chile.

Notes
1. McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, “Pour une Cartographie de la Politique
Contestataire.”
2. Women and Politics in Chile.
3. “Pratiques et Stratégies Pour un Meilleur Accès des Femmes à la Cité:
Considérations à partir du Cas Chilien.”
4. ¿Un Nuevo Silencio Feminista? La Transformación de un Movimiento Social
en el Chile Postdictadura.
5. Bisilliat, “Le Genre: Une Nécessité Historique Face à des Contextes
Aporétiques.”
6. Oakley, Sex, Gender and Society.
7. Mathieu, L’Anatomie Politique, Catégorisations et Idéologies du Sexe.
8. Guillaumin, Sexe, Race et Pratique du Pouvoir. L’idée de Nature.
9. Kergoat, “Division Sexuelle du Travail et Rapports Sociaux de Sexe,” 39–40.
10. Fougeyrollas-Schwebel, “Mouvements Féministes.”
11. Ibid., 139.
12. Rosemblatt, Gendered Compromises.
13. Fougeyrollas-Schwebel, “Mouvements Féministes,” 143.
14. Joignant, “La Politique des Transitologues: Luttes Politiques, Enjeux

Théoriques et Disputes Intellectuelles au cours de la Transition Chilienne
à la Démocratie.”
15. Gl. Pinochet was Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean armed forces until
1998 and then was a lifelong Senator (Senador vitalicio, a position given to
all former Presidents).
184   N. FORSTENZER

16. Joignant, “La Politique des Transitologues: Luttes Politiques, Enjeux

Théoriques et Disputes Intellectuelles au cours de la Transition Chilienne
à la Démocratie.”
17. Reference to the title of Guzman’s documentary film «Chile, The Obstinate
Memory», 1996–1997.
18. Huneeus, “La Démocratie dans un Pays Divisé par le Passée: Le Chili.”
19. Olavarría, “Protected Neoliberalism.”
20. Moulian, Chile Actual. Anatomía de un Mito.
21. Guillaudat and Mouterde, Les Mouvements Sociaux au Chili, 1973-1993.
22. Franceschet, Women and Politics in Chile; Ostiguy, “La Transformation
Du Système de Partis Chilien et La Stabilité Politique Dans La
Post-Transition.”
23. Franceschet, Women and Politics in Chile.
24. Baldez, Why Women Protest, 107.
25. Marques-Pereira and Raes, “Trois Décennies de Mobilisation Féminines et
Féministes en Amérique Latine.”
26. Craske, Women and Politics in Latin America.
27. Franceschet, Women and Politics in Chile, 57–58; Marques-Pereira, “Le
Chili: Les Femmes et la Gauche. Une Relation Amicale?”
28. Valdés, De lo Social a lo Político. La Acción de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas.
29. “Liberales, Radicales y la Ciudadanía de las Mujeres en Chile

(1872-1930).”
30. Rosemblatt, Gendered Compromises.
31. Kirkwood, Ser Política en Chile; Las Feministas y los Partidos; Marques-
Pereira, “Le Chili: Une Démocratie de Qualité Pour Les Femmes?”;
Franceschet, Women and Politics in Chile.
32. Ser Política en Chile; Las Feministas y los Partidos.
33. Ríos Tobar, Godoy, and Guerrero Caviedes, ¿Un Nuevo Silencio Feminista?
La Transformación de un Movimiento Social en el Chile Postdictadura,
58–59.
34. The October 1988 plebiscite was part of the Constitution’s plan, which, in
1980, determined that there a plebiscite should be held, to ask the Chilean
people if they wished to keep General Pinochet in office. Nonetheless,
contrary to its initial intentions, the opportunity was seized upon by the
opposition as a means to exit the dictatorship peacefully: opposition parties
campaigned intensely for the “No” option and there was a voter registra-
tion drive.
35. Law 18.826 of September 15th, 1989, with one article stating that «No
action undertaken in order to provoke an abortion will be tolerated». This
is one of the numerous «leyes de amarre», tie-in laws, Pinochet passed to
lock the country into his policies or political views.
36. December 6th, 1989.
FEMINISM AND GENDER POLICIES IN POST-DICTATORSHIP CHILE (1990–2010)   185

37. Franceschet, Women and Politics in Chile; Kirkwood, Ser Política en Chile;
Las Feministas y los Partidos.
38. Cañas, “Le Mouvement Féministe et les Institutions Internationales.”
39. Destremau, “Les Droits Sociaux à L’épreuve Des Droits Humains: Les
Limites de la Solidarité Internationale.”
40. Marques-Pereira, “Le Savoir du Genre au Chili: Une Connaissance à

Vocation Politique et Pragmatique Dans un Contexte de Démocratisation.”
41. Marques-Pereira, “Le Chili: Les Femmes et la Gauche. Une Relation

Amicale?”
42. Ríos Tobar, Godoy, and Guerrero Caviedes, ¿Un Nuevo Silencio Feminista?
La Transformación de un Movimiento Social en el Chile Postdictadura.
43. Woodward, “Building Velvet Triangles: Gender and Informal Governance.”
44. Pobladoras, Indígenas and the State. Conflicts over Women’s Rights in Chile.
45. “Gender and Social Movement Decline Shantytown Women and the

Prodemocracy Movement in Pinochet’s Chile.”
46. “Recasting ‘Popular’ Movements”; “Market Citizenship and the ‘New
Democracies.’”
47. Forstenzer, “Représenter les Intérêts des Femmes dans le Chili de la Post-
Dictature: Enjeux et Conflits.”
48. Ibid.
49. Margarita Pisano (1932–2015) is a major Chilean feminist theoretician.
She is the author of Un Cierto Desparpajo, among many other books and
papers.
50. Pisano, Un Cierto Desparpajo; Gaviola, Bedregal, and Rojas, “Feminismos
Cómplices, Más Gestos Para Una Construcción Radicalmente
Antiamnésica.”
51. Gaviola, Bedregal, and Rojas, “Feminismos Cómplices, Más Gestos Para
Una Construcción Radicalmente Antiamnésica.”
52. Forstenzer, “Représenter Les Intérêts des Femmes dans le Chili de la Post-
Dictature: Enjeux et Conflits.”
53. “Le Mouvement Féministe et les Institutions Internationales.”
54. “El Estado del Movimiento y el Movimiento en el Estado.”
55. Araujo, “Transnationalisation et Politiques Publiques; Les Processus

D’institutionnalisation Des Agendas Féministes.”
56. Marques-Pereira, “L’accès Des Femmes à L’espace Public: Du Local au
National, de L’international au Transnational; L’excercice de La
Responsabilité Publique et les Rapports de Genre En Amérique Latine”;
Spanou, Fonctionnaires et Militantes: Etude des R ­apports entre
L’administration et les Nouveaux Mouvements Sociaux, 184.
57. De Sève, “La Chute du Mur de Berlin et l’Ebranlement de la Gauche
Chilienne.”
58. Hecht Oppenheim, “La Democracia Chilena en los Años Posteriores a
1990 y la Incorporación Política de las Mujeres.”
186   N. FORSTENZER

59. La Citoyenneté Politique des Femmes, 123.

60. “Representaciones Simbólicas de lo Femenino y Esfera Política Chilena: El
Caso de Bachelet.”
61. Franceschet, Women and Politics in Chile, 119.
62. Forstenzer, “Une Déradicalisation Collective? Institutionnalisation et

Divisions du Féminisme Chilien.”
63. Forstenzer, Politiques de Genre et Féminisme Dans le Chili de la Post-
Dictature, 1990-2010.
64. Arriagada and Mathivet, “Los Programas de Alivio a la Pobreza Puente y
Oportunidades; Una Mirada desde los Actores.”
65. Borgeaud-Garciandía et al., Penser le Politique en Amérique Latine.
66. “Defining a Democracy.”
67. Araujo, Guzmán, and Mauro, “El Surgimiento de la Violencia Doméstica
como Problema Público y Objeto de Políticas.”
68. Ibid.
69. Haas, “The Rules of the Game: Feminist Policymaking in Chile.”
70. Red Chilena contra la Violencia Doméstica y Sexual, Violencia Sexual y
Aborto, Conexiones Necesarias.
71. La Saga de la Anticoncepción de Emergencia En Chile: Avances y Desafíos.
72. Doran, “Les Effets Politiques des Luttes Contre L’impunité au Chili: De
la Revitalisation de L’action Collective à la Démocratisation.”

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