Women in politics and the Chilean political landscape

July 2008

Paula Pereda candidate PhDVictoria University of Wellington

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Women in politics

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Women in politics

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Why it is important to look at women in politics?

• The Political• For the advancement of democracy

• Presidentialism • Electoral system• Quotas

• The legal• Because gender equality

• The socioe-conomical• For the advancement of development• For the overcoming of poverty

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Rank Country RegionLower or

single House

Upper House or Senate

Democracy Index

Rank

Human Develop

ment Index

Gender Equity Index

1 Rwanda Africa 48,8% 34,6% 118 161 83%2 Sweden Europe 47,0% --- 1 6 89%3 Cuba Latin America 43,2% --- 124 51 66%4 Finland Europe 41,5% --- 6 11 84%5 Argentina Latin America 40,0% 38,9% 54 35 70%6 Netherlands Europe 39,3% 34,7% 3 9 77%7 Denmark Europe 38,0% --- 5 14 79%8 Costa Rica Latin America 36,8% --- 25 48 66%9 Spain Europe 36,3% 28,3% 16 13 77%

10 Norway Europe 36,1% --- 4 2 83%11 Belgium Europe 35,3% 38,0% 20 17 74%12 Mozambique Africa 34,8% --- 96 172 65%13 Iceland Europe 33,3% --- 2 1 79%14 New Zealand Pacific 33,1% --- 11 19 78%15 South Africa Africa 33,0% 40,7% 30 121 70%16 Austria Europe 32,8% 24,6% 14 15 72%17 Germany Europe 31,6% 21,7% 13 22 80%18 Uganda Africa 30,7% --- 100 154 67%19 Burundi Africa 30,5% 34,7% 107 167 63%20 Tanzania Africa 30,4% --- 99 159 72%34 Ecuador Latin America 25,0% --- 92 89 72%38 Honduras Latin America 23,4% --- 69 115 61%40 Mexico Latin America 23,2% 18,0% 53 52 61%60 Venezuela Latin America 18,6% --- 93 74 67%61 Nicaragua Latin America 18,5% --- 83 110 52%69 El Salvador Latin America 16,7% --- 70 103 69%69 Panama Latin America 16,7% --- 44 62 69%70 Dominica Latin America 16,1% --- 74 71 65%76 Chile Latin America 15,0% 5,3% 31 40 62%

Some figures…..

Correlations between

% Women in Lower or Single House and Democracy Index

is -0,21

% Women in Lower or Single House and Human

Delopment Index is -0,21

% Women in Lower or Single House and Gender Equity

Index is 0,67

Gender equity and Development Index is -0,49

Gender Equity and Democracy Index is -0,54

Democracy Index and Human Delopment Index is

0,83

Some considerations about Chilean Politics

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The legacy of the Military dictatorship

Restricted Democracy

Authoritarianism

Constitution of 1980

Binominal electoral system

Party coalition

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Chilean President Michelle Bachelete

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Why? Back to Bourdieu I

• Coalition needed renew their image

• A step towards real democracy and progress

• Clean-sweep – space for women to get in

• Scandal and corruption in politics

Strategy: capacity to manoeuvre and improvise

Oriented to maintain power in politics• Women are 53% of voters

• Women historically tend to vote for the right wing

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Why it is important to look at women’s in politics in Chile? I

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Why it is important to look at women’s in politics in Chile? II

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• Political symbolic domination – ‘women are there representing women’ BUT tokenism; jeopardise coalition and her position; no women’s organisations outside.

Why? Back to Bourdieu II

Symbolic Power• Symbolic efficacy – Political representation

produces and reproduce groups. “Real existence of women” as a group.

• Masculine domination – objective gender divisions changing, but cultural system keep gendered cognitive schemes.

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From here . . . Work in progress

• The big picture of the thesis

• Further analysis of in-depth interviews

• Systematic history and structure of society (done today to some extent)

• Demographic/statistical overview

• Mass media analysis – ‘societal’ perceptions

• Understand women’s participation in politics in Chile

• And contribute to operationalising Bourdieu’s work

The end