Women in Chile
Gender Inequality Index[2] | |
---|---|
Value | 0.247 (2019) |
Rank | 55th out of 162 |
Global Gender Gap Index[3] | |
Value | 0.736 (2022) |
Rank | 47th out of 146 |
Part of a series on |
Women in society |
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The lives, roles, and rights of women in Chile have gone through many changes over time. Chilean women's societal roles have historically been impacted by traditional
Women's educational attainment, workforce participation, and rights have improved, especially since Chile became a democracy again in 1990. Chile legalized divorce in 2004 and is also one of the few countries to have elected a female president.[4] However, Chilean women still face many economic and political challenges, including income disparity, high rates of domestic violence, and lingering patriarchal gender roles.
History of Women
Women were granted the right to vote in 1931 and 1949 during Chile's
Women in society
Chile has been described as one of the most
In comparison to the United States, Chile did not have so many feminists among its evolution of women's intrusion to the political sphere. Chilean women esteemedIn 1875, Domitila Silva Y Lepe, the widow of a former provincial governor, read the requirements deeming "all adult Chileans the right to vote", and was the first woman to vote.[16] Other elitist Chilean women followed her bold lead, which resulted in the anticlerical liberal party of congress to pass a law denying women the right to vote. Despite this set back, Ms. Lepe and other elite women expressed their religious standings to the conservative party. The conservative party were favorable of the women because they knew their support would influence the conservative party's domination in politics.
In 1912 Social Catholicism began to erupt.[16] Social Catholicism- upper-class women's organization of working-class women-was led by Amalia Errazuriz de Subercaseaux. She introduced the Liga de Damas Chilenas (League of Chilean Ladies) amongst 450 other upper-middle-class women with intentions to "uphold and defend the interests of those women who worked for a living without attacking the principles of order and authority". Following this organization, many other elite women began socially constructed women's institutions. Amanda Labarca was also an elitist, but disagreed with the privileged women's subjection of working-class women and founded the Círculo de Lectura (ladies reading club) in 1915.[16] She believed women should be educated, regardless of their socioeconomic status to have a more influentially productive role in society.
Gender roles
Traditional gender role beliefs are prevalent in Chilean society, specifically the ideas that women should focus on motherhood and be submissive to men.[17] A 2010 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported that 62 percent of Chileans are opposed to full gender equality. Many of those surveyed expressed the belief that women should limit themselves to the traditional roles of mother and wife.[18] However, the 2012 World Development Report states that male attitudes toward gender equality are that "men do not lose out when women's rights are promoted."[19]
Motherhood
Catholicism is embodied wholly among Chilean family identities.
Legal rights
Currently, women have many of the same rights as men.
Marriage
Until 2020, women lost their right to manage their own assets once they were married[24] and husbands received all of the wealth,[5] but that law has since changed and women can now administer their own assets.[24] A couple can also sign a legal agreement before marriage so that all assets continue to be owned by the one who brought them into the marriage.[24]
The Chilean Civil Code previously mandated that wives had to live with and be faithful and obedient to their husbands, but it is no longer in the law.[5] A married woman cannot be head of the household or head of the family in the same way as a man; however, married women are not required by law to obey their husbands.[25]
Divorce
Chile legalized
With divorce now being legal, four marital statuses exist within Chile: married, separated, divorced, and widow (er). Only the divorced and widow (er) statuses allow a new marriage.[27] Before the legalization of divorce, the only way to leave a marriage was to obtain a civil annulment which would only be granted by telling the civil registrar that the spouse had lied in some way concerning the marriage license, thereby voiding the marriage contract.[8]
Property
In marriage, there are three types of assets: those of the husband, those of the wife, and the common assets that pertain to both. Land and houses in a marriage continue to be the property of the person who brought them to the marriage, but in order to sell them, both the husband and wife must sign.[24] In the case of divorce, both the man and woman are entitled to ownership of the marital home.[25] In the case of the death of a spouse, the surviving spouse, regardless of gender, has equal inheritance rights to the marital home.[25] If there is no will when the husband dies, the wife is given an equal category as the children for inheritance.[24] Before marriage, a couple can sign a legal document separating all assets so that the woman and man each administer her or his own; in this case, the husband cannot control his wife's assets.[24]
If women work outside the home independent of their husbands, acquire personal assets, and can prove that they came by these assets through their independent work, then these working women can accumulate these assets as their own, unable to be touched by husbands.[24]
Sons and daughters have equal inheritance rights to
In rural Chile, inheritance is the principal way in which land is acquired by both men and women, whether the land has titles or not.[24] Sometimes women and men cannot claim their inheritance to land without titles because the cost of legal documents is too high.[24]
Suffrage
Women were granted the right to vote in municipal elections in 1931[5] and obtained the right to vote in national elections on January 8, 1949, resulting in their ability to vote under the same equal conditions as men and increasing women's participation in politics.[6]
Family law
Both Chilean men and women qualify for a family allowance if they have dependent children under the age of eighteen (or twenty-four if in school). There are differences in entitlement requirements for the spouse-related family allowance since a man qualifies for a family allowance if he has a dependent wife, but a woman only qualifies for a family allowance if her husband is disabled.[10] Until a reform of paternity laws in 1998, children born outside marriage had less right to parental financial support and inheritance than children born within marriage.[8] A bill was passed in 2007 to give mothers direct access to child support payments.[8]
Working mothers of a certain low socioeconomic status and with proof of an employment contract and working hours receive subsidized child care through legislation passed in 1994. This system excludes: women whose household income is too high, unemployed women, women working in the informal sector, and women whose jobs are not by contract.[10] Chile offers paid maternity leave for women working in the formal sector, paying women 100 percent of their salary during the leave, and also allows women a one-hour feeding break each day until the child has reached the age of two.[10] Female workers unattached to the formal market and without an employment contract do not receive paid maternity leave.[10]
Postnatal maternity leave is now six months instead of the previous three.[28]
Education
Women's
Employment
Participation
Chile has one of the lowest rate of female employment in all of
Formal and informal work
Women have increasingly moved out of unpaid
Income gap
For jobs that do not require higher education, women make 20 percent less money on average than men. For jobs requiring a university degree, the gap in pay increases to 40 percent. Women without a university degree make 83 percent of the income men make without a university degree.[30] The quadrennial 2004 National Socio-Economic Survey and World Bank report in 2007 say that the overall gender income gap stands at 33 percent (since women make 67 percent of men's salaries).[23]
Politics
Female participation in politics
Women were not involved in politics until 1934, when they could first use their municipal vote.[7] The municipal, and later national, vote caused women to involve themselves in politics more than before, pressuring the government and political parties.[5] With women's increased political importance, many parties established women's sections for support and tried to pursue women's votes, though it would take years for political parties to truly view women as important to politics.[7]
On December 1, 1971 thousands of women who were against the newly elected Salvador Allende marched through Santiago to protest government policies and Fidel Castro's visiting of Chile.[7] This march, known as the March of the Empty Pots and Pans, brought together many conservative and some liberal women as a force in Chilean politics,[7] and in 1977 Augusto Pinochet decreed the day of the march to be National Women's Day.[32] Women also made their voices heard in the late 1980s when 52 percent of the national electorate was female, and 51.2 percent of women voted "no" in Augusto Pinochet's plebiscite.[5] The women in these popular protests are considered to have played a central role in increasing national concern with the history of women's political activism.[33]
As of 2006, Chile was lower than eight other Latin American countries in regards to women in political positions.[11] With only a few women legislators, sustaining attention to the topic of women's rights a difficult task, especially in the Senate, where there are fewer female representatives than in the Chamber of Deputies.[8] Unlike neighboring Argentina, where 41.6 percent of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies is made up of women, only 22,6 percent of Chile's lower house is made up of female representatives. Chile has no government mandate requiring that women must make up a certain percentage of party candidates.[9] Women's political representation is low but is on the rise in many political parties, and there is growing support for a quota law concerning women's representation.[8] The progressive parties of the Left have greater openness to the participation of women, evident in the Party for Democracy's and Socialist Party's quotas for women's representation as candidates for internal party office.[8]
In 2009, activists demanded that presidential candidates develop reforms that would improve work conditions for women. Reforms included
Second Wave Feminism
Following these Chilean women, the contemporary phase of feminism was constructed through the social conflict between socialism and feminism.[34] The democratically elected president, Allende, was ousted on September 11, 1973 when a military coup invaded his palace, brutally excising all Popular Unity Government officials and resulting in Allende's debated suicide.[34] This revolution "The Chilean Road to Socialism" abruptly came to an end, revitalizing the foundation of the government. However, the foundation was hastily corrupted by patriarchal values. Prominent feminist sociologist Maria Elena Valenzuela argued, the military state can be interpreted as the quintessential expression of patriarchy: "The Junta, with a very clear sense of its interests, has understood that it must reinforce the traditional family, and the dependent role of women, which is reduced to that of mother.[34] The dictatorship, which institutionalizes social inequality, is founded on inequality in the family."[34] These inequalities began to agitate Chilean women. Women began to formulate groups opposing the patriarchal domination of the political sphere.
Michelle Bachelet's presidency
Bachelet served as the first executive director of United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.[8]
On March 11, 2014, she became president of Chile for the second time.
Policy
The
Historically the progressive parties of the Left have drawn more attention to women's rights.[8] Yet many political parties insincerely support women's agenda and the concept of gender equality, instead leaving any action to be taken by SERNAM or nongovernmental organizations.[5]
Although SERNAM exists to aid women, there is no non-discrimination clause in the Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile.[25]
Organizations
State
The
A common complaint that SERNAM has is that the top appointees are not women linked to the feminist community.[8] The institution also has restrictions when it comes to policy regarding women due to its state ties, as seen in 2000 when SERNAM favored but would not explicitly support the bill to legalize divorce because it was under the leadership of the Christian Democratic party. In 2002 it was finally allowed to support the bill.[8]
Research and activism
Many of Chile's women's groups function outside the state sphere.[10]
Centers for research began to emerge in the later part of the twentieth century, including the Centro de Estudios de la Mujer (The Women's Study Center) and La Morada.[33] The Women's Study Center is a nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and conducts research, trains women, has a consulting program, and tries to increase women's political participation.[36] La Morada is another nonprofit organization that works to expand the rights of women through political involvement, education, culture, and efforts to eradicate violence.[37]
Chile’s feminist anthem “The rapist is you,” went viral in 2019. The chant became an anthem for women during the social unrest of 2019, which was sparked by deepening inequality in the country.
International relations
Chile ratified the United Nation's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1988, internationally declaring support for women's human rights.[32]
One of Chile's missions as part of the UN is commitment to democracy, human rights and gender perspective as foundations of multilateral action.[38]
Crimes against women
Domestic violence
From January to November 2005, 76,000 cases of family violence were reported to the Carabineros; 67,913 were reported by women, 6,404 by men, and approximately 1,000 by children.[22]
Rape
Sexual harassment
A 2005 law against sexual harassment provides protection and financial compensation to victims and penalizes harassment by employers or co-workers.[22] The law provides severance pay to anyone who resigns due to being a victim of sexual harassment if she/he has worked for the employer for at least one year.[42] During 2005 the Labor Directorate received 244 complaints of sexual harassment,[22] and in 2009 there were 82 complaints were received.[42] The majority of the complaints come from women.[43]
Discrimination
A 2005 study by Corporacion Humana and the University of Chile's Institute of Public Affairs revealed that 87 percent of women surveyed felt that women suffered discrimination. According to the survey, 95 percent believed women faced discrimination in the labor market, 67 percent believed they faced discrimination in politics, 61 percent felt that women were discriminated against by the media, and 54 percent within the family.[22]
Other concerns
Family
Today, younger women are opting out of marriage and having fewer children than their predecessors.[9] The total fertility rate as of 2015 was 1.82 children born/woman.[44] This is below the replacement rate of 2.1, and also lower than in previous years. A 2002 study reported that urban women averaged 2.1 children per woman, with women living in rural areas having more children, at 2.9. As of the 1990s, both urban and rural women were averaging fewer children than previously. For those women who do have children, after former president Michelle Bachelet's childcare mandates, childcare centers that provide free services are four times more numerous. Nursing mothers also have the legal right to breastfeed during the workday.[9] Women are less likely to seek divorces and marriage annulments.[45]
Health and sexuality
Women in Chile have long life expectancy, living an average of 80.8 years, about six years longer than men.[9][45] Sex education is rarely taught in schools and is considered "taboo" by many Chilean families. Friends and family usually are the main source of sex education.[17] In 1994, Chile decriminalized adultery.[46]
HIV/AIDS
The HIV/AIDS rate in Chile was estimated in 2012 at 0.4% of adults aged 15–49.[47] While cases of
A 2004 study found that Chilean women with HIV/AIDS were susceptible to coerced
Abortion
Between 1989 and 2017, Chile had some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, banning the procedure completely.[48] The current law allows abortion if the mother's life in danger, in case of lethal malformations of the fetus, or in cases of rape.[49]
Notable Chilean women
- Literature
Chile has a rich literary history, being described as the "Land of the Poets."
- In 1945,
- Other notable female authors from Chile include Isabel Allende, Marta Brunet, María Luisa Bombal, Marcela Paz, and Mercedes Valdivieso.
- Politics
This section needs to be updated.(October 2017) |
- In 1999, Gladys Marín was one of the first women to be a presidential candidate in Chile.[6] The year before, she was the first person in Chile to charge Augusto Pinochet for crimes committed during his dictatorship.[6]
- Sara Larraín was the other woman, along with Marín, to be one of the first female presidential candidates in Chile.[6]
- From 2006 until 2010, Michelle Bachelet served as the first woman president of Chile.[9]
- In the 2006 election, SERNAM.[6]
- The daughter of late President Salvador Allende, Isabel Allende, also second cousin to the author of the same name, is a prominent Chilean politician.
- Senator Carolina Tohá is the president of the Party for Democracy.
- Chilean student movement as well as a member of the Central Committee of Communist Youth of Chile.
- Other
- Chile's first canonized saint of the Teresa de los Andes, a Discalced Carmelite, canonized by Pope John Paul IIin 1993.
- Javiera Carrera Verdugo was the first woman to have sewn a national flag of Chile.[6]
- cantinières who fought in the War of the Confederation and War of the Pacific, respectively, and were recognized for their courage in battle.[52]
- Margot Duhalde was the first female war pilot from Chile, having flown for the Air Transport Auxiliary of the Royal Air Force in World War II.[6][53]
See also
- Prostitution in Chile
- Michelle Bachelet
- Gabriela Mistral
- Chilean Civil Code
- National Women's Service
- History of Chile
- Politics of Chile
- List of Chile-related topics
Further reading
- Asunción LavrinWomen, Feminism and Social Change: Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890–1940. (Nebraska Press, 1995)
References
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- ^ es:Margot Duhalde