1 Women and Politics in Chile

Abstract

This discussion examines the obstacles to political involvement among women in Chile and considers 1) what womens active participation in politics would actually involve if it were based on their own experience and observation of their own specific needs and 2) how feminist political activity developed historically and how could it be developed now in view of the ways in which and the reasons for which it has been accepted transmitted distorted or rejected as a valid political option in the past. The lack of interest in the question of womens participation in political life highlights the inappropriateness of the alternative popular political stance on this issue and perhaps its responsibility for the fact that its stated policies persistently elicit from women responses directly hostile to democratic change. Instances of this politically reactionary mobilization of women can be found not only in Chile but also earlier in Argentina and Brazil where it encouraged the advent of totalitarian regimes. From a feminist point of view once it has been established what womens active participation in politics would involve if based on their own experience and observation of their own specific needs the next step might be to determine the subjective and objective obstacles to a specifically political formulation of that activity and to its subsequent realization. The basic issue is to be able to identify the political dimension of the exactions rrquisitions and various forms of alienation to which women are subjected in society. For the purposes of this discussion political activity means the establishment and organization fo the search for a means to achieve full realization of an entity conscious of its own potentiality. Feminism is genuinely developing into a movement for social liberation in Chile in that it is combing the ideological struggle and ensuing creation of ideology with the struggle waged against class oppression and patriarchal oppression. Knowledge of the themes of women and politics is almost totally nonexistent in Chile or at best vague. Yet the situation seems to be changing as evidenced by the growing interest within and outside the feminist movement in debating and drawing attention to the significance and forms of womens political activity whether actual or potential.