FEMALE POLITICIANS IN CHILE: UNFOLDING THE MEANINGS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILEAN POLITICS IN THE TWENTY- FIRST CENTURY BY PAULA ANDREA PEREDA PÉREZ A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington November 2011 i Abstract The aim of this thesis is to unfold the meanings and implications of female politicians in Chile in the twenty-first century. Based on interviews with Chilean politicians and employing a methodology based on Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and relational ontology, I unpack the complex relationships between gender and political power. My central claim is that the way in which female politicians are perceived by themselves and by male politicians, and how female politicians might affect views on political behaviour, is something widely influenced by the history and trajectory of Chilean politics. I explore issues of representation in politics and democracy and reassess the relevancy of the concept of representation for elaborating the meanings and implications of increased numbers of female politicians in Chile. Highlighting the strategic character of political practices, I analyse symbolic representation by looking at it from political representatives’ points of view. I problematize the complex relationships between democracy, representation, and economic development in the context of neoliberal globalization, in which the place of women in politics remains both promising and uncertain. I analyse interview data collected by integrating ‘conceptual blending theory’, critical discourse analysis and Bourdieu’s theory. From this integral perspective, I analyse political practices as both embodied experience and as a reflection of socio-political reality. Through a socio- historical journey, I explore the foundations of Chilean democracy, political participation, and representation. I argue that the main milestone which affects the meanings and implications can be found in Chile’s late granting of women’s suffrage (1949) and in the democratic breakdown during Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990). ii I argue that Chilean political institutions of formal representation impede women’s descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation from fully taking place in the Chilean political system. Interview analysis demonstrated that political institutional design is an expression and reflection of the shortcomings of Chilean political culture. This was found to prevent the furthering of a democracy in which female politicians are central actors. This political context sheds light on Michelle Bachelet’s presidential triumph in 2006, which represented a push for a more democratic and egalitarian society, as well as the political strategy by the weakened ruling coalition who sought to remain in power. Finally, I explore the temporal dimension of the meanings and implications of female politicians in Chile. By looking at the temporality of political processes, practices and institutions, I return to the symbolic dimension of representation. I demonstrate that the states of uncertainty and crises of politics offer contested spaces for political power distribution and for further elaboration on the private and public division of social life. The temporality of politics as social practice reflects its deeply gendered nature, as well as the arbitrariness of political power. iii Acknowledgments For their enduring support and encouragement on the long road to completing this project, I would like to express my sincere gratitude the following people: First and foremost, with much respect I would like to thank my research participants (interviewees), who despite the tremendous demands and busy schedules life in politics places on them were willing to meet with me for interviews. Despite my ‘student status’, these senators and congressmen and congresswomen were not only generous with their time, but offered me brilliant and illuminating analysis and insights into politics and social life, both in the Chile context and in general. I also must also express my heartfelt thanks to my family for their unchanging love and support during this long period away from ‘home’. Despite the vast the Pacific Ocean between us, our weekly phone conversations and my occasional (very occasional!) visits keep me afloat in some of the more trying times of both my thesis and life abroad. Special thanks are of course due to my supervisors, Dr. Sandra Grey and Dr. Jenny Neale, for their incredible patience and kindness. As they can tell you, my English was to say the least ‘limited’ coming in, and I can only imagine how it must have been to read my early drafts. However, through pain and dedication on all our parts, my writing gradually came to fruition in the once foreign medium of English. A special acknowledgment is also due to Sandra for the supplementary research opportunity she provided me with, which I greatly appreciated. My sincere thanks also go to the administrative team at the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University and particularly to Monica Lichti. Without her positive energy, support and sense of humour, some of my days on the ninth floor of the Murphy building would’ve been too much to bear. Many thanks go to Dr. Chamsy el-Ojeili for his insightful iv conversation and also for the teaching and research opportunities generously offered me, and Charles Sedgwick, who I thank for his valuable ideas and support when preparing conference papers. I wish to thank my friend Bianca Class, for her generosity, patience, understanding, and support, but especially for being an unconditional friend and for me all these years of my PhD life. Last but not least, thanks to my boyfriend Christopher, for his love, company, patience, generosity, and sense of humour. His permanent support, wise proofreading, and cheerful encouragement in the final period of my thesis indeed were crucial to the finished product and to my sanity. Finally, thanks to Victoria University of Wellington for the facilities provided and to the always helpful staff, in particular those at the Central Library and Student Services. I also give genuine thanks for the financial assistance offered to me by Victoria University of Wellington in the form of a Postgraduate Scholarship, PhD Submission Scholarship and research grants that helped to offset the cost of research and enabled to travel to conferences. v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... iii List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................. vii Acronyms .................................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Representation in politics: Towards an approximation of the meanings and implications female politicians ......................................................................................................... 12 Political representation .............................................................................................. 14 Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 2: Bourdieu’s constructivist structuralism approach in the analysis of female politicians ........................................................... 33 Relational Ontology ...................................................................................................... 34 Epistemological Reflexivity ....................................................................................... 36 Methodological Relationalism .................................................................................. 39 Using Bourdieu’s perspective to advance the analysis of meanings and implication of female politicians in Chile ............................................................. 54 Concluding Remarks .................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 3: Researching the meanings and implications of female politicians in Chile: Qualitative research design ............................. 62 Research methods: Researching female politicians ........................................ 63 Reading the discourses on female politicians .................................................... 80 Chapter 4: The historical context to understand the meaning of Women in Chilean politics in the twenty first century ............... 100 vi Tracking the origins of the political field and the political habitus: Democratic Republic and citizenship in Chile................................................. 103 Women in the civil society and political community ................................... 109 Women in politics during the dictatorship and transition period .......... 121 Chapter 5: Institutional dimensions of the meanings and implications of female politicians in Chile ....................................... 144 The Constitution and the military in Chilean politics .................................. 148 The “transition to democracy” .............................................................................