When he took power in Chili the leftist gabriel boric announced that hers would be a “feminist” government. One year later, the gender approach has managed to permeate the public discourse, despite the fact that there is still progress to be made in equality between men and women.
Boric took office on March 11, 2022 as the youngest president in the country’s history at the age of 36, accompanied for the first time by a cabinet made up of a majority of women (14 ministers versus 10 ministers).
He also appointed a woman to the Interior portfolio for the first time and integrated the head of the Ministry for Women and Gender Equality to the Political Committee, his closest circle of collaborators, also with a majority of women.
“Planning itself as a feminist government implies that all State actions are focused on gender parity and equality in the institutional and political arena, as well as being capable of incorporating the gender perspective in all policies that are related to the life of women and diversities”, Boric defined on June 1, during his first Public Account before Congress.
“There is no democracy without women”
In this year, the Boric government launched the Law of Parental Responsibility and Effective Payment of Alimony Debts, something that the women of Chile yearned for, where only 16% of the men sued are up to date with their child support. children.
During the commemoration of his government’s first International Women’s Day this week, Boric announced a universal childcare law. Current legislation only obliges companies where 19 or more women work to have or finance them.
The president also announced the reduction in the price of 27 types of contraceptives, in pharmacies with an agreement with the State, and the increase to 1,000 in the number of urinary incontinence surgeries for women.
“We want a Chile that includes women when it comes to formulating laws, developing policies or executing projects that affect them, because there is no possible democracy if more than half of the population cannot participate in it.”, affirmed the president in the act in the palace of La Moneda.
forceful change
“I notice a forceful change in the discourse, in the climate, in how issues are being put on the agenda that those of us in the feminist movement have been working on for a long time”Mariana Gaba, director of the Department of Gender at the Diego Portales University, told AFP.
Patriarchy, gender gaps and inequalities – common problems for women around the world – are, however, very difficult to eradicate, warns this specialist.
“We are talking about centuries. Obviously you have to demand and look for results; having a critical and reflective look, but in a year, being able to position symbolic changes and in conversation, is the most we can ask for and then move forward in the most concrete strategies ”, added.
But for Mónica Zalaquett, former Minister of Women in the second government of the right-wing Sebastián Piñera (2018-2022), expectations have not been met. “I feel that it has not translated into substantial changes,” criticized the AFP.
In Chile, the electoral participation of women exceeded 50% in the last elections but the income gap widened to 21.7% in 2021 from 20.4% the previous year.
Congress is still largely made up of men: 12 women in the Senate, out of a total of 50 seats, and 55 women parliamentarians in the Chamber of Deputies, out of a total of 155 legislators, according to official data.
The feminist agenda achieved a resounding victory by establishing parity in the bodies in charge of drafting the new proposals for the Constitution, while at the internal level of the government the position of first lady, highly criticized by feminists, was dismantled.
Irina Karamanos, the president’s partner, agreed to occupy the position of first lady to reformulate it from within. In nine months, she executed a plan to disassociate the presidency from the six social foundations under her administration. She closed the office in the government palace and returned to her political and academic work.
“I think it is remarkable to feel that we have normalized having women at the table, something that did not happen 10 years ago, when one still saw that women were a minority and that the female voice was a minority”, Environment Minister Maisa Rojas told AFP.
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Source: Gestion
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