During its 16 years in power, the military government of General Augusto A. Pinochet created an economic situation in Chile characterized by increasing misery for the poorest sectors of the population and increasing wealth for the upper-class elite (20 percent of the Chilean population receives 60 percent of the wealth and income, while 40 percent of the population receives only 11 percent), a reconcentration of private property, a reduction in social welfare spending, and a huge foreign debt. Of all the sectors in Chilean society, the lower class has been the hardest hit, with women being the most severely affected. In this article I will examine the consequences for women of the political and economic measures implemented by the hegemonic sectors of Chilean society. My purpose is to point out how, in these adverse circumstances, women have organized and developed strategies for opposing these hegemonic sectors that, at the same time, have helped them to increase their level of awareness and public participation, thus enabling them to play a primary role in the struggle against the dictatorship. In considering the various women's groups that have emerged in Chile since the coup d'etat of 1973, 1 will focus on the factors that have made it possible for a large number of women to organize, the composition of the various groups, their impact on the development and self-awareness of the women themselves, their effect on the popular movement, alliances and contradictions among the different groups, the changes that have occurred as a result of the redemocratization process, and, finally, the prospects for the women's movement under the elected government. This work is a contribution to the study of recent popular struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean and women's participation in these struggles. The triumph of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua and the spread of other