The Normalization of Conservative Gender Politics in Chile and the Role of Civil Society

Abstract

The article discusses two cases of gender policy making during the Chilean transition to democracy, the policy on domestic violence and the divorce law. By comparing the official discourses on these two policy projects we show that authoritarian gender regimes can resist transition to democracy despite a vivid civil society. The case of Chile was selected, on one hand, because it exhibits particularly resistant authoritarian institutional enclaves. On the other hand, Chilean women's movements are often cited as a paragon of women's movements in transitions. Despite the central role of Chilean women's movements as a strong civil society force conservative gender roles and institutions inherited from the autocratic regime (e.g., conservative divorce and reproductive rights) have remained dominant. I argue that during the time of transition conservative political actors, but also parts of civil society, negotiated on these gender roles and institutions and thereby reached a status quo. Recent cases of sexual violence in response to student's uprisings show that this status quo is quite stable and prevents a real coming to terms with state violence.

Is BDSM in the eye of the beholder? Variations in Conventional and non-Conventional Sexual Behaviors by Self-Identification vs. BDSM Practice Frequency in the General Population

“…Thus, the overlap may be the product of self-identi ed BDSM individuals declared BDSM behavior frequency, and not the other way around. On the other hand, whereas in the last years Chile has made great strides in terms gender and sexuality matters (Silhi, 2019), Chile is still considered a sexually conservative country (see Graf, 2020;Jacobs, 2004;Palacios & Martínez, 2006). Yet, as predicted by sexual script theory (Wiederman, 2015), women would tend to experience less prejudice when sexually self-identify as anything but cis-gender or heterosexual than men do in a sexually conservative society (e.g., Katz-Wise & Hyde, 2015; Mulick & Wright Jr, 2002).…”

Social reproduction in crisis: Gendered labour regimes in agro‐export sectors in Ecuador and Chile

“…Despite active feminist engagement, including Women's Day strikes and the-rapist-is-you performances linking Chile's institutions to gender violence, gender inequities permeate civil society and family relations. Government policies reinforce the 'traditional' Catholic family hierarchy (Graf, 2020) with women spending over double the time men do on unpaid family care (Table 2). Divorce was illegal until 2004 and all abortions were banned until 2017; the current law allows abortions under limited circumstances (Maira et al, 2019).…”

“…Women's labour force participation rates in Chile are among the region's lowest, in part due to weak gender equity laws, wage disparities and high care burdens (Graf, 2020; Hiner, 2020). Chile's ‘economic miracle’ came at the expense of poor working women, disadvantaged by pervasive structural gender inequities and patriarchal norms placing care burdens on women.…”

Proyectos laborales y familiares en jóvenes: la revolución silenciosa

“…El Estado de Chile ha implementado desde 1990 políticas públicas orientadas a estimular la participación de las mujeres en el ámbito público (particularmente, el trabajo remunerado). Sin embargo, el ámbito privado (especialmente la sexualidad y el trabajo de cuidado no remunerado en la familia) han permanecido relativamente inalterados en términos de la acción del Estado, excepto en lo que se re%ere a la violencia intrafamiliar (Franceschet, 2010;Graf, 2019). No obstante, al nivel de prácticas sociales, ya en la década anterior habían comenzado a diversi%carse los modelos familiares disponibles para las generaciones más jóvenes.…”