El triunfo de Bachelet y el ascenso político de las mujeres

Although it can be interpreted cynically as fruit of the need for a coalition with fifteen years in power to indicate its disposition to change, Michelle Bachelet¿s triumph can also be seen as part of a cultural change in Chile: the victory of the socialist leader challenges stereotypes about women¿s place in politics but also implies persisting with the neoliberal economic strategy that discriminates against women in the labor market. A result of the paradoxes and tensions of Chilean modernization, the Bachelet government will be able to produce authentic transformations to the extent that the women¿s movement is activated and obliges her to advance with an agenda designed to reduce gender inequality.Aunque puede interpretarse cínicamente como la necesidad de emitir una señal de cambio por parte de una coalición que ya lleva quince años en el poder, el triunfo de Michelle Bachelet también puede leerse como parte del proceso de cambio cultural que atraviesa Chile: la victoria de la líder socialista derriba los estereotipos acerca del lugar de las mujeres en la política pero implica, también, la continuidad con una estrategia económica neoliberal que las discrimina en el mercado laboral. Fruto de las paradojas y tensiones de la modernización chilena, el gobierno de Bachelet producirá auténticas transformaciones en la medida en que los movimientos de mujeres se activen y la fuercen a avanzar en una agenda que permita reducir la desigualdad de género

Hard times for citizenship: Women's movements in Chile and Mexico

This article comparatively analyses the cases of Mexico and Chile to understand how women's movements contest the meaning of citizenship in various national contexts. We also assess the consequences that different movement strategies, such as ‘autonomy’ versus ‘double militancy’, have for movements' citizenship goals. To explain the different outcomes in the two cases, we focus on the nature of the democratic transition, the internal coherence of women's movements, the nature of alliances with other civil society actors, the ideological orientation of the newly democratized state, the form of women's agency within the state, and the nature of the neoliberal economic reforms. We argue that a serious problem for women in both Chile and Mexico is the fact that governments themselves are deploying the concept of citizenship as a way to legitimate their social and economic policies. While women's movements seek to broaden the meaning of citizenship to include social rights, neoliberal governments employ the rhetoric of citizen activism to encourage society to provide its own solutions to economic hardship and poverty. While this trend is occurring in both Chile and Mexico, there are some features of the political opportunity structure in Chile that enable organized women to contest the state's more narrow vision of democratic citizenship. In Mexico, on the other hand, the neoliberal economic discourse of the current government is matched by a profoundly conservative ideological rhetoric, thereby reducing the political opportunities for women to forward a gender equality agenda

Cabinets, ministers, and gender

Historically, men have been more likely to be appointed to governing cabinets, but gendered patterns of appointment vary cross-nationally, and women's inclusion in cabinets has grown significantly over time. This book breaks new theoretical ground by conceiving of cabinet formation as a gendered, iterative process governed by rules that empower and constrain presidents and prime ministers in the criteria they use to make appointments. Political actors use their agency to interpret and exploit ambiguity in rules to deviate from past practices of appointing mostly men. When they do so, they create different opportunities for men and women to be selected, explaining why some democracies have appointed more women to cabinet than others. Importantly, this dynamic produces new rules about women's inclusion and, as this book explains, the emergence of a concrete floor, defined as a minimum number of women who must be appointed to a cabinet to ensure its legitimacy. Drawing on in-depth analyses of seven countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and elite interviews, media data, and autobiographies of cabinet members, Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender offers a cross-time, cross-national study of the gendered process of cabinet formation