DOCSLIB.ORG

DEMANDS in CHILE? a FEMINIST CRITIQUE Gina Louis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
DEMANDS in CHILE? a FEMINIST CRITIQUE Gina Louis ARE APPEALS TO HUMAN RIGHTS AN EFFECTIVE FRAMING FOR FEMINIST ‘PRO-CHOICE’ DEMANDS IN CHILE? A FEMINIST CRITIQUE Gina Louise Maria Floyd QUEEN MARY COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy – January 2015 1 Statement of Originality I, Gina Louise Maria Floyd, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Gina Louise Maria Floyd Date: 01/01/2015 2 Abstract My central question asks to what extent the politics of the interpretation of the human rights discourse acts as an obstacle to the legalisation of abortion. To answer this question, I set out the theoretical basis for the feminist critiques of the human rights discourse and its effect on women’s rights. I contend that those in control of informal and formal institutions have control of the interpretation of human rights. I situate this within the historical context, analysing the formal and informal institutional obstacles to feminist policymaking and activism. I analyse the gender ideology that underlies the “pro-life” discourse, and explore the mechanisms by which the “pro- life” sector ensures its cultural hegemony, arguing that what occurs in civil society (informal) shapes the formal and informal institutional responses to sexual and reproductive rights. I then assess how this discourse and gender ideology is reflected in the content of political projects related to abortion, thereby highlighting how informal institutions inform formal responses. I conclude by examining the tactics of a section of the radical branch of the feminist movement in Chile today and the innovative measures they utilise in order to challenge, deconstruct, and destabilise the conservative control of the informal institutions of gender norms that shape responses to issues of sexual and reproductive health in Chile. This research is intended to add to analyses seeking to assess the interplay between informal and formal institutions, and the potential this has in isolating entry points for advocacy and activism. I argue that the way to legalisation must proceed via shifting the discourse. 3 Table of Contents Statement of Originality ............................................................................ 2 Abstract .................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents ...................................................................................... 4 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................ 8 List of Tables ............................................................................................. 10 Acknowledgements .................................................................................. 11 Introduction ............................................................................................. 12 i) Original Contribution ..................................................................................... 13 ii) Purpose of Thesis .......................................................................................... 16 iii) Chapter Structure ......................................................................................... 19 Chapter 1 – The Politics of Human Rights ................................................... 25 1.1 Feminist Critiques of Human Rights ............................................................ 27 1.2 The Competing Claims of Individual Rights ................................................. 30 1.3 The Personal is Political ............................................................................... 32 1.4 Equality or Difference - Equal to Whom and Different From What? ...................................................................................................... 34 1.5 Integration or Autonomy – An Uncompromising Choice? .......................... 38 1.6 Universalism or Relativism .......................................................................... 42 1.7 How Can We Apply Feminist Institutional (FI) Theory? Gendering Gendered Institutions ..................................................................... 46 1.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 2 – Methodology and Theoretical Context .................................... 54 2.1 Existing Literature ....................................................................................... 54 2.2 Methodology and Epistemology ................................................................. 56 2.3 Methods ...................................................................................................... 57 4 2.4 Interview Process ........................................................................................ 58 2.5 Sample Limitations and Ethical Considerations .......................................... 60 2.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 62 Chapter 3 – Historical Limitations to Feminist Policymaking and Gender Activism ................................................................................. 64 3.1 The Changing Landscape – Abortion from 1930-1973 ................................ 65 3.2 Towards Socialism! ...................................................................................... 67 3.3 From ‘Militant Mothers’ to Rights Demanding Citizens.............................. 68 3.4 The Shadow of Dictatorship Falls ................................................................ 69 3.5 The Transition to Democracy – ‘Si la Mujer no está, la Democracia no va’ ......................................................................................... 74 3.6 The Return to Democracy and Policy Legacies in the Health Sector .......... 81 3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 86 Chapter 4 – The Mechanisms of Ideology: How the “Pro-Life” Movement Shapes the Debate .................................................. 88 4.1 Formal Institutional Obstacles .................................................................... 90 4.1.1 Conflicting Discourses .............................................................................. 90 4.1.2 The Feminist ‘Pro-Choice’ Position ............................................. 90 4.1.3 The Political Centre ..................................................................... 93 4.1.4 The Conservative “Pro-Life” Sector ............................................. 94 4.2 SERNAM: Friend or Foe? ............................................................................. 96 4.2.2 The Chilean Electoral System: How Does This Benefit the Conservative Sector?......................................................... 98 4.3 Informal Institutional Obstacles .................................................................. 99 4.3.1 The Professional Hierarchy ......................................................... 99 4.3.2 Social and Cultural Obstacles ...................................................... 100 4.4 The State of the Women’s Movement ........................................................ 106 4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 109 Chapter 5 – The Ideology of “The Right” and the Politics of Interpretation ....................................................................................... 110 5.1 The “Pro-Life” Vision of Society and Woman.............................................. 114 5 5.2 The Emergence of Foetal Rights – How Have Foetal Rights Silenced the Rights of Women? ............................................................. 117 5.3 The “Pro-Life” Ideology: Why Women Abort .............................................. 120 5.4 The Precarious Reality of Women’s Lives ................................................... 122 5.5 Emergency Contraception ........................................................................... 124 5.6 Sexual Education ......................................................................................... 127 5.7 Public Health ............................................................................................... 130 5.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 136 Chapter 6 – The Political Evolution of the Abortion Debate: Formal Institutional Responses ................................................................. 138 6.1 Bill 499 ........................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Movimiento Estudiantil Chileno: Institucionalizados E Institucionalizantes Desde La Comunicación
    MOVIMIENTO ESTUDIANTIL CHILENO: INSTITUCIONALIZADOS E INSTITUCIONALIZANTES DESDE LA COMUNICACIÓN GT11: Comunicación y Estudios Socioculturales Claudio Avendaño Ruz Universidad de Santiago de Chile Anamaría Egaña Universidad de Santiago de Chile Introducción Probablemente – a nivel mediático y social – los movimientos sociales desplegados en Chile desde comienzos de esta década han constituido ejes de conversación a nivel cotidiano, político y societal. Y también han planteado preguntas en el ámbito de la investigación en comunicación, especialmente el movimiento estudiantil (MECh). Emerge con intensidad en el otoño del 2011 (aunque tiene antecedentes en la revolución Revolución Pingüina del 2006), fue protagonizada por sujetos nacidos en el umbral de los procesos de digitalización y, en términos más amplios, crecieron tanto en espacios públicos y privados colonizados por la comunicación mediada como en los albores de la recuperación democrática luego de la dictadura (1973-1990). Ya a comienzos de la segunda década de este siglo desplegaron no sólo demandas de cambios estructurales al sistema educativo ampliamente apoyadas por la ciudadanía llegando a un 80% de apoyo, sino que lo han hecho de modos originales, creativos, lúdicos y recurrentes en el tiempo lo que se ha traducido en un poblamiento simbólico de nuevas gramáticas narrativas y soportes que dan cuenta de una generación autónoma en sus prácticas comunicativas, tanto en nuestro caso como en otros movimientos sociales (medioambientales minorías sexuales, defensa de los animales, entre otros) como en su propia vida cotidiana. Sin embargo, el asombro y entusiasmo ciudadano de los jóvenes no solo quedo en las marchas, calles y en las plataformas digitales, también han logrado marcar la agenda política chilena e incluso definir los ejes del nuevo gobierno (Bachelet 2014-2018).
    [Show full text]
  • Labor Parlamentaria Karol Cariola Oliva
    Labor Parlamentaria Karol Cariola Oliva Legislatura número 364 Del 11 de marzo de 2016 al 10 de marzo de 2017 Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile - www.bcn.cl/laborparlamentaria - documento generado el 11-06-2020 NOTA EXPLICATIVA Esta Labor Parlamentaria ha sido construida por la Biblioteca del Congreso a partir de la información contenida en los Diarios de Sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados y del Senado, referidas a las participaciones de los legisladores, documentos, fundamentos, debates y votaciones que determinan las decisiones legislativas en cada etapa del proceso de formación de la ley. Junto a ello se entrega acceso a su labor fiscalizadora, de representación, de diplomacia parlamentaria y atribuciones propias según corresponda. Para efectos de facilitar la revisión de la documentación de este archivo, se incorpora un índice desde el cual se puede acceder directamente al texto completo de la intervención. Cabe considerar que la información contenida en este dossier se encuentra en continuo poblamiento, de manera tal que día a día se va actualizando la información que lo conforma. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile - www.bcn.cl/laborparlamentaria - documento generado el 11-06-2020 ÍNDICE Labor Legislativa ........................................................................................................................ 3 Intervención ................................................................................................................................... 3 Mociones .....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Labor Parlamentaria Diego Schalper Sepúlveda
    Labor Parlamentaria Diego Schalper Sepúlveda Legislatura número 366 Del 11 de marzo de 2018 al 10 de marzo de 2019 Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile - www.bcn.cl/laborparlamentaria - documento generado el 11-06-2020 NOTA EXPLICATIVA Esta Labor Parlamentaria ha sido construida por la Biblioteca del Congreso a partir de la información contenida en los Diarios de Sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados y del Senado, referidas a las participaciones de los legisladores, documentos, fundamentos, debates y votaciones que determinan las decisiones legislativas en cada etapa del proceso de formación de la ley. Junto a ello se entrega acceso a su labor fiscalizadora, de representación, de diplomacia parlamentaria y atribuciones propias según corresponda. Para efectos de facilitar la revisión de la documentación de este archivo, se incorpora un índice desde el cual se puede acceder directamente al texto completo de la intervención. Cabe considerar que la información contenida en este dossier se encuentra en continuo poblamiento, de manera tal que día a día se va actualizando la información que lo conforma. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile - www.bcn.cl/laborparlamentaria - documento generado el 11-06-2020 ÍNDICE Labor Legislativa ........................................................................................................................ 3 Intervención ................................................................................................................................... 3 Mociones .....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Labor in the Coffee Shops of Santiago, Chile
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 9-2020 Precarious Empowerments: Sexual Labor in the Coffee Shops of Santiago, Chile Pilar Ortiz The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4072 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] PRECARIOUS EMPOWERMENTS: SEXUAL LABOR IN THE COFFEE SHOPS OF SANTIAGO, CHILE by PILAR ORTIZ A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2020 ã 2020 PILAR ORTIZ All Rights Reserved ii Precarious Empowerments: Sexual Labor in the Coffee Shops of Santiago, Chile by Pilar Ortiz This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy _________________ _______________________________________________ Date Victoria Pitts-Taylor Chair of Examining Committee _________________ _______________________________________________ Date Lynn Chancer Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Sharon Zukin Carolina Bank Muñoz Lynn Chancer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Precarious Empowerments: Sexual Labor in the Coffee Shops of Santiago, Chile by Pilar Ortiz Advisor: Victoria Pitts-Taylor Precarious Empowerments analyzes sexual labor in ‘tinted cafes,’ spaces hidden from public view where women dance for their male clients and clandestinely perform sexual services. Drawing from an embodied ethnographic account of the everyday lives of five coffee shops that fit into the lower status ‘tinted cafes’ where sexual labor is common, this thesis examines sex workers’ experiences at the intersection of class, racial, and gender hierarchies.
    [Show full text]
  • Two Conflicting Models of Society
    Public Issues N r 1,138 th November 29 , 2013 www.lyd.org ISSN 0717-1528 Two Conflicting Models of Society This election is probably the one In a recent talk, L&D adviser Lucía Santa Cruz analyzed Michelle Bachelet’s government program with most uncertainty as for the from the perspective of the changes in the principles direction that the next government that govern our society. Her points of view caused might take, if the candidate of the great impact on public opinion, and thus we decided Concertación and the Communist to reproduce the whole text given its contribution to Party wins. Her proposal implies a the debate previous to the ballotage of December 15th. radical change; none of the existing things seem irremovable. «Mario Vargas Llosa wrote not long ago: “the Discrepancies are not marginal, as prototypical factor of a third world election is that a developed democracy, but every issue seems to be in question and everything starts all over again, from the nature itself of the crucial ones. institutions to the economic policy and the relationships between power and society. Everything can be reversed according to the electoral result and, consequently, all of a sudden the country steps back, loosing all that has been gained throughout the years from one day to the next. Thus, the characteristic of living in underdeveloped countries is to be jumping all the time, more often backwards than forwards, or in the same place, without moving forward”. The obvious question today is: Are we again in front of the typical third world election
    [Show full text]
  • List of Delegations to the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly
    UNITED NATIONS ST /SG/SER.C/L.624 _____________________________________________________________________________ Secretariat Distr.: Limited 18 December 2015 PROTOCOL AND LIAISON SERVICE LIST OF DELEGATIONS TO THE SEVENTIETH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY I. MEMBER STATES Page Page Afghanistan......................................................................... 5 Chile ................................................................................. 47 Albania ............................................................................... 6 China ................................................................................ 49 Algeria ................................................................................ 7 Colombia .......................................................................... 50 Andorra ............................................................................... 8 Comoros ........................................................................... 51 Angola ................................................................................ 9 Congo ............................................................................... 52 Antigua and Barbuda ........................................................ 11 Costa Rica ........................................................................ 53 Argentina .......................................................................... 12 Côte d’Ivoire .................................................................... 54 Armenia ...........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • THE INTERSUBJECTIVE PRODUCTION of CHILEAN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS a Free Associative Group Exploration of the Unconscious Aspects of Professional Subjectivities
    THE INTERSUBJECTIVE PRODUCTION OF CHILEAN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS A free associative group exploration of the unconscious aspects of professional subjectivities María José Lagos Serrano UCL Institute of Education Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2020 ̶ This page intentionally left blank ̶ I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. María José Lagos Serrano 24 November 2020 This thesis, not including acknowledgements, bibliography and appendixes is 85, 230 words. ̶ This page intentionally left blank ̶ ABSTRACT This thesis examines the production of early childhood (EC) educator subjectivities in Chile from a psychoanalytic perspective. Existing literature on EC professionalism has described how educators negotiate conflicting professional discourses; complying with standardised understandings of professionalism to legitimise their practice, while embracing the care dimension of EC education. While it has been suggested by critical scholarship that the EC workforce responds to these tensions by developing a unified professional identity, it is critical to foreground that EC educators constitute a complex, multidetermined type of professional subjectivity, whose experience of the struggles of the profession cannot be completely anticipated. Acknowledging the ambivalent, paradoxical and contradictory aspects of educators’ singular engagement with their practice, opens the opportunity to explore some of its underlying dynamics and motives. Drawing on the psychoanalytic concepts of the unconscious and free association, as well as my own professional interest in the potentialities of working with groups, I developed an innovative method to explore the unconscious aspects of these dynamics.
    [Show full text]
  • Labor Parlamentaria Karol Cariola Oliva
    Labor Parlamentaria Karol Cariola Oliva Legislatura número 367 Del 11 de marzo de 2019 al 10 de marzo de 2020 Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile - www.bcn.cl/laborparlamentaria - documento generado el 11-06-2020 NOTA EXPLICATIVA Esta Labor Parlamentaria ha sido construida por la Biblioteca del Congreso a partir de la información contenida en los Diarios de Sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados y del Senado, referidas a las participaciones de los legisladores, documentos, fundamentos, debates y votaciones que determinan las decisiones legislativas en cada etapa del proceso de formación de la ley. Junto a ello se entrega acceso a su labor fiscalizadora, de representación, de diplomacia parlamentaria y atribuciones propias según corresponda. Para efectos de facilitar la revisión de la documentación de este archivo, se incorpora un índice desde el cual se puede acceder directamente al texto completo de la intervención. Cabe considerar que la información contenida en este dossier se encuentra en continuo poblamiento, de manera tal que día a día se va actualizando la información que lo conforma. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile - www.bcn.cl/laborparlamentaria - documento generado el 11-06-2020 ÍNDICE Labor Legislativa ........................................................................................................................ 3 Intervención ................................................................................................................................... 3 Mociones .....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Capitalist Struggles in 21St Century Latin America: Cooperation, Democracy and State Power
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by YorkSpace POST-CAPITALIST STRUGGLES IN 21ST CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: COOPERATION, DEMOCRACY AND STATE POWER MANUEL LARRABURE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2016 © Manuel Larrabure 2016 Abstract This dissertation develops the concept of ‘post-capitalist struggles’. This concept highlights how a post-capitalist future is a recurring moment within the capitalist present and can be developed through struggles that express the latent powers found within what Marx called ‘the collective worker’. Using a comparative and historical framework, I examine four case studies in Latin America: Venezuela’s socialist enterprises, Argentina’s recuperated factories, the Chilean student movement and the Brazilian transit movement. In expressing new values and practices, such as collective management, solidarity and participatory democracy, and their ability to develop the political capacities to formulate clear demands and strategies through the state, these four cases can indeed be considered examples of post-capitalist struggles. However, as mere glimpses of the future, these struggles display number of contradictions and ambiguities, particularly in relation to democratic practice and political organization. This is most marked in struggles that originate in the sphere of capitalist reproduction. A comparative analysis of the four cases also reveals the possibilities and limits of Latin America’s ‘pink tide’. These are found in what I call the ‘neostructuralist bargain’. Through this bargain, vulnerable sectors of the population become the target of small economic reforms that evidence a departure from the neoliberal orthodoxy of previous decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Michelle Bachelet: the Rise of the Supra-Madre from the Chilean Body
    MICHELLE BACHELET: THE RISE OF THE SUPRA-MADRE FROM THE CHILEAN BODY POLITIC by LINDA ELIZABETH MORAN A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern Languages College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham 25 June 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT Although the number of female leaders worldwide has yet to achieve par with that of male leaders, a growing number of female heads of state and female candidacies for that position signal that transformations are underway. Among them is Chile’s current president, Michelle Bachelet. Her first election generated significant debate since she possessed none of the qualities considered essential for eligibility. Attempts to lend logic to the contradictions imposed by that event are still largely inconclusive. This study investigates a deeper root system in Chilean history for causal factors with trajectories that lead into the twenty-first century. Under consideration are ways in which women attain political power, their management of power, and the role of the body politic in both of those.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Vol. 14, Num. 2 (Spring 2017): 208-237 Surplus Rebellion, Human Capital, and the Ends of Study in Chile, 20111 Bret Leraul Cornell University “Ese punto de la ciudad donde las estadísticas no llegan” In June 2011, as the protests of Chilean students became a truly mass mobilization, the announcement by President Sebastián Piñera (2010-14) of the Gran Acuerdo Nacional de la Educación (GANE) and his government’s repeated calls for dialogue fell on deaf ears. July saw the retrenchment of both sides. Tens and hundreds of thousands of protestors answered calls by student leaders for more demonstrations while others fortified the barricades at the more than six hundred universities and secondary schools already occupied. On the other side, the police took recourse to increasingly repressive crowd control tactics as government ministers continued their media assault, hoping to sway the stubbornly favorable public opinion of the movement. By August 2011, the confrontation between police and protesters had reached such a fevered pitch that the situation seemed poised to devolve into chaos. 1 I would like to acknowledge Bruno Bosteels, Tom McEnaney, Paul Fleming, and the anonymous reviewer at A contracorriente for their input in drafting this article, as well as Gavin Arnall and Alessandro Fornazzari for the chance to present some of its thinking in the seminar they organized at the 2016 meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association. I would especially like to thank Eloísa Paz Sierralta Landaeta for the generous conversation one hazy Santiago afternoon in 2013 that sparked the line of inquiry of which this article is one result.
    [Show full text]
  • The Discursive Construction and Attributions of Motive in Relation to the Chilean Student Movement (2011-2013) in the National News Genre
    The discursive construction and attributions of motive in relation to the Chilean student movement (2011-2013) in the national news genre (80,947 words) Carolina Pérez Arredondo, BA, MA Thesis submitted to Lancaster University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2017 Declaration I hereby, declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material which has been accepted or submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma. Abstract Carolina Pérez Arredondo, BA, MA. ‘The discursive construction and attributions of motive in relation to the Chilean student movement (2011-2013) in the national news genre’. PhD Thesis, Lancaster University, December, 2017. This thesis investigates how motive is linguistically and discursively constructed in news reports of the Chilean student movement. In particular, I analyse how these constructions of motive are recontextualized, represented and attributed to legitimize and/or delegitimize the actions associated with them. The corpus under study consists of a specialized corpus containing news articles about the student movement, drawn from seven major newspapers over a three-year span (2011-2013), sub-categorized into conservative and alternative press. The analysis builds upon my personal adaptation of van Leeuwen’s work on purpose and legitimation to analyse motive in the news genre. I combine this adaptation with positioning theory and corpus-assisted methods. Methodologically, I propose a three-step method to analyse motive in the news genre that consists of (1) an analysis of grammatical realizations of motives; (2) position analysis in order to identify the most common storylines with which the educational issues being contested are framed, and how the actors are positioned within them; and (3) a keyword and collocation analysis to identify the ideological struggle presented in these news reports in terms of representations of motives and (de)legitimation strategies.
    [Show full text]