Chilean Women in the Political Party System, 1950-1970
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CONSOLIDATING POWER: CHILEAN WOMEN IN THE POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEM, 1950-1970 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Anna M. Travis, M.A. **** The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Donna J. Guy, Advisor Professor Kenneth J. Andrien ________________________ Professor Stephanie Smith Advisor Graduate Program in History ABSTRACT This study examines the role women had in the Chilean political party system from 1950 to 1970. It traces the evolution of the women’s movement, as it related to the party structure, and illustrates how women’s ideological and class interests deterred the formation of a cross-class and multi-party women’s movement. This work argues that Chilean women did not retreat from politics after suffrage. During the 1950s, women expanded their presence and function in the party system and behaved as political actors from within the system, rather than an interest group or outside agent. Thus, they consolidated their presence and power in the political party structure, which allowed them to incorporate feminist issues into party agendas in the 1960s. This dissertation applies gender analysis to examine women’s evolutionary role in the political party system and to explore legislative debates founded on paternalistic attitudes toward women and children. It also explains how legislative reforms directly and indirectly challenged the patriarchal family structure. It argues that legislative battles that centered on women’s labor and social security in the 1950s and national day care and divorce in the 1960s illustrated a shift in how Chilean society viewed the existence of alternative family systems. Despite this recognition, lawmakers and reformers were reluctant to adopt legislation that significantly altered gender relations. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a great debt to my advisor, Donna Guy, for her infinite patience, wisdom, encouragement, and inspiration. I also must thank her for the gentle, yet firm, push she gave me toward the end of this project. I am fortunate to have had Kenneth Andrien take an active and pastoral role in my intellectual formation. I am grateful for his support and faith in me and my ability to produce a dissertation that makes me and, hopefully, him proud. I thank Stephanie Smith and Lilia Fernandez for generously giving their time and providing insightful comments. And, I thank Joby Abernathy for keeping me sane. This research was supported by a Tinker Foundation Research Grant and an Alumni Grant for Graduate Research and Scholarship from The Ohio State University. I must also acknowledge those who aided my research in Santiago, Chile and provided valuable guidance and access to government documents and political party materials. I received institutional backing from FLACSO as well as constructive comments about my research field. Teresa Valdés and María Inés Bravo assisted me with mundane issues and provided intellectual stimulation. The staff at both the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile and the Bibiloteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile were patient with my requests and offered extremely helpful suggestions. I also thank friends at the University of Texas Benson Library, Melissa Guy and Jorge Salinas, for their help in procuring necessary materials. iii I am most grateful for family and friends whose unconditional love and support allowed me to complete this project. Lack of space prevents me from acknowledging every person who listened to minute details or provided much needed down time. I must give thanks to those friends who always reassured me and refrained from asking me to share my thoughts: Laura Bartlett, Cindy Sprague, Leigh Ann Craig, Amy Zalimas, and the wonderful women in my reading and dinner club. I also thank Scot Taylor for his editing skills and Anne Tull’s mastery of Adobe. For those not specifically mentioned, please forgive me and know that I appreciate you. I deeply appreciate my mother Maria Travis and mother-in-law Jeanne Clark for spending thousands of hours with my children. And I will always cherish Bill Travis, my father, for believing in my talents. I will forever be indebted to my children Griffin and Alena for understanding and forgiving my absences and always loving me, despite my need to write and comb over material. My husband Casey deserves a completion medal for seeing me through the ups and downs of my research and writing. I can never adequately express my gratitude or my love for him. iv VITA October 18, 1967……………………………Born-Delaware, Ohio 1990…………………………………………B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University 1995…………………………………………M.A. History, The Ohio State University 1994-1995………………………………….. FLAS Fellowship, The Ohio State University 1996-2003…………………………………...Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University 2004-2005………………………….………..Adjunct Faculty Member, Pontifical College Josephinum 2005-2006……………………………….…..Lecturer, Ohio Wesleyan University 2006-present…………………………………Adjunct Faculty Member, Pontifical College Josephinum FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….. ii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………..iii Vita…………………………………………………………………………………. v Chapters: 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………… 1 Women’s Politics in Transition……………………………………………..9 Twentieth Century Chilean Feminism……………………………………...12 2. Constructing a Women’s Movement in Chile………………………………25 Women and the Patronato…………………………………………………. 27 Women and the Vote………………………………………………………..32 Women’s Organizations and the Suffrage Question……………………….. 34 Dismantling of a United Front………………………………………………50 3. Chilean Women’s Entrance into the Political Party System……………….. 55 Political Transitions…………………………………………………………58 The Radical Party…………………………………………………... 59 The Chilean Women’s Party……………………………………….. 68 Conservative Parties and Women’s Recruitment…………………………...77 The Conservative Party…………………………………………….. 77 The Liberal Party……………………………………………………80 Women and Leftist Parties………………………………………………….85 The Socialist Party………………………………………………..... 85 The Communist Party ………………………………………………88 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 96 4. Chilean Women’s Political Party Participation in the 1960s………………. 99 Women and the Left-wing Parties………………………………………….102 The Socialist Party………………………………………………….102 The Communist Party ………………………………………………108 Women and Right-wing Parties…………………………………………….115 vi The Conservative Party……………………………………………..115 The National Party…………………………………………………. 124 Women and the Democratic Christian Party………………………………..127 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..137 5. Women’s Rights, the Family, and the State…………………….………….. 141 Social Security and Women’s Early Retirement……………………………146 Legitimacy, Child Support, and Inheritance…………………….…………. 166 Marital Possessions and Adultery………………………………..………… 171 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 186 6. Preserving the Sanctity of the Family: National Day Care and Divorce Legislation…………………………………………………………………..190 National Day Care and Nurseries………………………………………..… 194 The Divorce Debate……………………………………………………….. 217 Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 238 7. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 243 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….. 249 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Elena Caffarena, a cofounder of the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women/MEMCh (Movimiento por Emancipación de la Mujer Chilena), explained in a 1942 interview that Chilean women’s inability to form a cohesive movement resulted in their continued legal and social oppression. “I believe that in Chile if no more has been advanced in the field of women’s demands, it is because of a lack of a union among women and the combativeness of women’s organizations.”1 Her observations revealed the greatest obstacle Chilean women faced: their inability to compromise ideological goals and to unite over gender concerns. A suffragist, feminist, and attorney, Caffarena understood that there were too many conflicting messages targeted at women. Political party leaders swayed women to support their candidates by claiming their ideological premises protected women’s legal and economic interests. Caffarena did not discount party leaders’ need to develop militancy within their ranks and to promote their agenda. She advocated that women should support a specific party and argued that party concerns and gender issues need not be mutually exclusive. Caffarena stated, “A woman can and must act with the parties, but it is indispensable that there be a group of women that works independently without adhering to party interests to hold up the banner of 1 Quoted in Georgina Durand, Mis entrevistas (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1943), p. 199. 1 women’s demands.”2 Her words were prophetic and her call to find a balance between party and gender advancement went unheeded. Caffarena believed that women’s liberation required the creation of a cross-class women’s group separate from the political parties. She argued that women needed to balance party agendas with gender interests. She described the most incredulous display of party loyalty over women’s interests as a ‘fantastic’ case in Chile, “worthy of appearing in Ripley’s collection, that in the Radical Party assembly it was actually the women who advocated that the Party’s Convention pronounce against the opportunity of conceding women’s vote.”3 Caffarena claimed that this illustrated how women had become their own worst enemies, prioritizing party agendas over women’s