Feminism in Chile began in 1884 during the first-wave feminism era. The main goal of suffrage for women was achieve during that home, however, it was still struggling to receive rights within politics. One of the main characters throughout the battle for women’s suffrage in and out of politics was Augusto Pinochet, the President of Chile between the years of 1973 and 1990. During his presidency, the second wave of feminism was occurring. However, there was a setback because during President Pinochet’s dictatorship, equality for women was a controversial aspect. The reason why women were not allowed to become urban or be part of the industrialization as because their roles at home would be transformed.
There were a variety of reasons that women sought to gain more freedom. One of the reasons consisted on the fact that Chilean women were trying to mirror the independence that women had in North America during the Industrial era. The second explanation for their desire towards a greater suffrage movement was to challenge the roles of gender that were practiced in Chile. The third explanation for a stronger Chilean suffrage movement was that there were two strong movements in Chile, one being the first wave of feminism and the other being the second wave of feminism. These two movements solicited for two different demands, but overall they would create a more radical institution that insisted to transform unequal gender treatment.
One of the main reasons why women demanded equal gender rights was due to the rise of industrialization. Women were eager to work, and make money. However, there was a very large belief that if women worked, then households would fall apart. These misconceptions eventually faded once the second wave of feminism grew. Some of the strategic preferences that allowed for women’s rights was autonomy, double militancy, and integration.
Autonomy within the women’s movement in Chile meant that they chose to fight for their rights without support from other institutions. This was quite complicated since there were other alternatives such as integration, which was becoming part of an institution or political parties rather than being involved in movement politics. These two options that are strategic preferences to the women’s rights movement were a decision the movement had to make itself. However, normally women would choose to be autonomous since they refused to join a political organization within their government. With these two terms being, integration and autonomy, the Chilean feminist movement had to use double militancy in order to achieve power. The reason why double militancy was so prevailing was because it allowed the movement to participate in the government while also using autonomous power without the government.
The power that the Chilean feminist movement utilized allowed them to gain attention and popularity. However, because of their use of double militancy, there were many complications such as, confusing the demand for a certain request to either be within the government or within organizations. There are many other systems that the Chilean movement for women’s rights advocated. Some of the leaders of these movements had used these same strategies in order to boost their attention.