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 Sex and Power in Chile |
In March
2006, the socialist candidate, Michelle Bachelet, became the first
woman ever elected president of a South American country. Her
rise to power sent shock waves through Chile's political elites, who
still, after a year of her government, remain implacable. Between the
lines, their message could be read as this: “She is a woman, she acts
like a woman, and women don't know how to exert authority.”A
close look at the private lives of ordinary Chileans reveals changes
that were quietly laying the groundwork that made it possible for a
woman to become president in spite of the conservative influence of the
Catholic Church and the political elites.But
after Bachelet's first year in the government, many of her critics
maintain they were right, since the center-left coalition is
experiencing its worst period and showing obvious signs of wear. If
Michelle Bachelet can be criticized for anything it's her inefficiency
in constructing a story, an epic of this new form of governing—that of
a woman who wants to govern as a woman, with geniality and greater
participation of ordinary citizens.Women Take Power
As
is true of almost all Latin American countries, Chilean society has
always been patriarchal. Ever since the Spanish conquest, the figure of
the “señor” or “lord” reigned supreme in the large, landed estates and
later in the cities. Until the 1960s, women were largely excluded from
government, work, and business; their lives centered on matters of the
home and child raising. Military dictator
Augusto Pinochet embodied the most stereotypical characteristics of
this machismo: those of the omnipotent and authoritarian man. He
promised order and security in exchange for liberty and human rights.
Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet, wife of the dictator, told women to take a
secondary role in support of their husbands. With
the end of the dictatorship in 1990, the democratic coalition installed
a more benign patriarch: President Patricio Aylwin. Ricardo Lagos, the
third president after the dictatorship, also represented a patriarchal
figure who, in moments of conflict, would bang on the table to get the
last word—a practice that increased his popularity. Michelle
Bachelet does not fit any of these characteristics. She is a socialist,
agnostic, and daughter of a general assassinated by the dictatorship.
She is separated, with children from different fathers; her youngest
was born when she was single. She is seen as unpredictable in her
friendly, feminine, maternal ways. As Lagos'
minister of health and later of defense, she was well-liked. It was
citizens, not the political class, who invested in her candidacy and
later in her presidency. The fact that she has
become president is the clearest sign of an erosion of traditional,
masculine ways of wielding power. A snapshot of this change was
captured on the day Bachelet was elected. Thousands of women gathered
in Santiago de Chile's main avenue wearing the tri-colored presidential
ribbon as if to say that the power now belongs to all women. But how real is this image? In
2000, journalist and author Pia Rajevic presented her research into
changes in the private lives of Chileans during the time of the
dictatorship and the first decade of the return of democracy. Her book
El Libro Abierto del Amor y el Sexo en Chile (The Open Book of Love and
Sex in Chile) debunked various myths. Rajevic showed that Chileans
aren't as conservative as believed; youth lose their virginity earlier
than the Dutch; different family models exist (single parents, extended
families, and so on); homosexuality, though illegal, is widely
accepted. Since the 1960s, Chile has been a pioneer in family planning,
and contraceptive methods. But Rajevic also
showed that this openness in private life was not supported by the
country's elites. As a result, the legal code, the public discourse,
and the mass media hid the reality of private life in Chile. This
explains why the political powers for many years refused to adopt a
divorce law, although a majority of marriages had resulted in
separations and almost half of all children were born outside of
wedlock. It wasn't until 2004 that the divorce law finally passed,
making Chile the last western nation to legalize matrimonial
dissolution. The strong influence in public
life of the profoundly conservative Chilean Catholic Church, made the
asymmetry possible. Though 80 percent of Chileans call themselves
Catholics, they generally do not follow the dictates of the
ecclesiastic hierarchy in matters of private life. A
mural from a prisoner's unraveled sweater. This inventiveness allowed
political prisoners jailed under Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to
make gifts for loved ones. Later, the Cooperative Commitee for Peace in
Chile supplied materials to the prisoners and found markets for their
crafts. Today, Fundacion Solidaridad helps the poor and indigenous
create and distribute handicrafts.
Photo courtesy of Fundacion Solidaridad.www.fundacionsolidaridad.clMasculine Expressions of Power
The
dictatorship, which began with the overthrow of President Salvador
Allende in 1973, was not only a huge political setback in a country
that had been on an exemplary democratic course. It was also a cultural
and social regression in private life. Women lost the ground they had
gained over the previous decade. Instead of recommending contraception
at public clinics, for example, poor women were told to “have all the
children God gave them.”The economic crisis of
the early 1980s forced hundreds of thousands of housewives to get jobs,
which inevitably brought them a level of empowerment that had not
existed until then. Women's steadily increasing economic autonomy was
key to their adopting a role similar to that of men. Today,
after decades of struggle in the home and on the streets, women have
advanced substantially. Nobody today would dare to portray Mrs.
Pinochet as a symbol of Chilean womanhood. Now she represents a
pretentious way of being prevailing in a country crippled by antiquated
values inherited from an invented past. The icon of today is Bachelet,
a medical doctor, from the middle class, who lives simply as head of a
household without a husband, and who built her life through her own
effort. Jewelry for a girlfriend or daughter made from dried bread and avocado pits.
Photo courtesy of Fundacion Solidaridad.www.fundacionsolidaridad.clNonetheless, the
majority of the powers-that-be continue to question her leadership
style, which is inclusive rather than authoritarian. She creates broad
commissions to write bills concerning such issues as pensions and
secondary education. While the political class is resistant to this
cultural change, the general public continues to award her approval
ratings above 50 percent. This is especially remarkable given the bad
press and setbacks that resulted from policies of the previous
government of President Lagos. This shows that
what Pía Rajevic described in her book seven years ago remains
unresolved: the elite still have a taste for masculine expressions of
power. But these aspirations collide with reality, and the men—the
patriarchs—ramble about in disagreement and puzzlement. Gender Balanced
Without
doubt, the power of the Catholic Church has receded, allowing changes
in the private lives of Chileans that are unlikely to be reversed.
However, women still do 95 percent of the housework; they represent
only 35 percent of the labor market (below the Latin American average);
only 20 percent of company executives are women; and the average income
for women is 30 percent lower than that of men.
When
Bachelet took office, she kept her campaign promise and appointed a
gender-balanced cabinet. This provoked protests in her own coalition as
it left out some important male leaders. But it also showed that
exerting power is not only for the experts, but is something more
commonplace and civic, therefore more maternal than paternal. But
power is still power—in itself conservative—and it's too soon to
predict the effects of a woman president on Chilean society. In the
private realm, the feminization of Chile is obvious, but it remains to
be seen how far it will turn into a public virtue.
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