GOBIERNO DE CHILE
GENDER EQUALITY IN
DEMOCRACY IN CHILE
ISSUES FROM 1990 TO 2006
Presented by Ms. Vivianne Blanlot Soza
Minister of National Defense
Government of Chile
July 2006


The great question that has never been answered,
and which I have not yet been able to answer,
despite my thirty years of research into the feminine
soul, is "What does a woman want?“- Sigmund Freud
“Sigmund Freud once said, "What do women want?"
The only thing I have learned in fifty-two years is
that women want men to stop asking dumb
questions like that.” – Bill Cosby
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (i)
Chilean last 15 year's advances:
(1991) National Service for Women was created as a public
service responsible for women’s issues, working at the
national and regional levels and headed by a Minister.
(1999) Constitutional reform to recognize equality before
the law between men and women.
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (ii)
(2000) Creation of Council of Minister on Equal
opportunities and Equal Opportunity plans (1994-1999 y
2000-2010)
(2002) Public Management Improvement Program (PMG),
including gender equality concern in all public services, as
part of the modernization process.
(1999) Organic Constitutional Law on Municipalities
empowers the municipalities to implement Equal
Opportunity Plans at the local level.
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (iii)
Family
Reform to family law to grant equal status to all children
born in or out of wedlock, and thereby establish for them
full equality before the law. (1998)
Domestic violence law (1994), creation of Centers for
Prevention and Care for Victims of Family Violence and a
specialized police unit (Carabineros).
Creation of a new property ownership regime, alternative to
joint spousal ownership, granting the wife and husband
equal rights and obligations.(1994)
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (iv)
Family
Visiting rights for children in the custody of one of their
parents, to allow children to maintain a regular and direct
relationship with both parents. (2001)
Social programs have focused on women heads of
household, who have increased rose from 25.3% in 1992 to
31.5% in 2002. (40% of indigent families in “Chile Solidario”
are headed by a woman)
Creation of Family Courts and a Mediation System, to
establish a specialized jurisdiction for dealing with family
matters, with the assistance of professional interdisciplinary
teams. (2004)
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (v)
Work
Work leave for mother or father of a sick child (1993)
Right to a minimum of two Sundays off per month
(specially for workers in commerce) (1996)
Prohibition of any conditions relating to pregnancy to affect
access, mobility, advancement and renewal of employment
for women. (“Pregnancy test”) (1998)
Law on sexual harassment in the workplace (2005)
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (vi)
Work
Women's participation in the labor force has risen sharply over
the last decade, from 28.06% in 1992 to 35.57% in 2002. (Labor
force participation rate for men declined by 1.49 percentage
points over the same period). Despite this, Chilean women lag
behind the female participation rate for Latin America, which
stands at 45.2%.
Employed women have higher levels of schooling than men.
Working women with 13 years or more of schooling account for
37.79% of their total, while the proportion for men in this
category is 26.83%. At the other extreme, 12.25% of women
have little schooling (six years or less), while the corresponding
rate among men is 17.75%.
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (vii)
Work
In the last decade, efforts to reduce poverty in the country
have shown positive and very significant results, including
those for reducing female poverty. Between 1990 and
2000, the total poverty rate was cut almost in half, from
38.6% to 20.6%, female poverty declined from 39.3% to
20.8%, and the indigent population declined from 12.9% to
5.7%
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (viii)
Education
Reform of the Constitutional Organic Law of Education to
recognize the right of access to educational establishments
for female students who are pregnant or are nursing
mothers (2000)
Constitutional reform making 12 years of schooling
compulsory (2004)
Between 1992 y 2002 the number of women in superior
education doubled from 7.7% to 15.7% of women,
representing half of all students.
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (ix)
Other Legal Reforms
Ratification of the Interamerican Convention on the
prevention, sanction and eradication of violence against
women “Belem do Pará” (1998)
Ratification of ILO 103 y 156 Conventions (1999) on the
protection of maternity and shared family responsibilities.
Law on family abandonment and payment of alimony, to
ensure timely and equitable alimony provisions, and their
effective enforcement.(2001)
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (x)
Other Legal Reforms
Reform to the Civil Marriages Act recognizing divorce
(2004)
Law to facilitate paternity or maternity claims (2005)
Paternal leave on the birth of a child (2005)
PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (x)
Participation and Cultural Change
 First women: Supreme Court, Minister of Defense,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, General of Carabineros.
 In public policies, images and discourses in mass media,
roles for men and women in the family and society.
 Lead to: First Woman President Ms. Michelle Bachelet
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (i)


Women joined the Armed Forces in Chile in 1974, but
their participation lacked a set of rules to ensure
equality.
They suffered discrimination in career
advancement, salaries and professional opportunities.
Each institution followed its own path, and they
offered different opportunities and career conditions.
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (ii)
Policy objectives:
1. To implement the constitutional principles of equal rights
between men and women and equal opportunities in the
Defense institutions.
2. To establish specific principles for the participation of
women in the armed forces as an integral part of the
Defense Policy (“White papers”), in order to ensure a high
level recognition of a stable, common, clear and consistent
set of rules for all institutions. This allows accountability and
public scrutiny.
3. To support the contribution of women in the armed
forces, through the selection and recruitment of the most
capable people regardless of their sex.
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (iii)
Principles:

Equal opportunities for men and women.

Integrated participation of men and women in all
professional activities.

Professional skills as the main criteriae for selection.

Equity in treatment of all

Leadership support to the integration process

Permanent consideration of this integration process
in institutional planning.
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (iv)
Comments on policy:



It received an award for public policies, plans and
programs with impact on gender equity in Latin America
and the Caribbean by the Interamerican Development
Bank (October 2005).
Monitoring the implementation and development of new
proposals are in charge of a permanent Advisory
Committee in the Ministry of Defense.
Available at www.defensa.cl
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (v)
Army


(2003) Women officers can join Support
to Combat Arms (Telecommunications,
Artillery and Engineers) and have the
possibility of becoming Generals.
Women can follow all specialties
(Parachutes, Pilots, Mountain experts,
etc) according to the Army's needs and
requisites, in equal terms with men.

Since 2004 women have been part of
the peace operation force in Haiti.

Since 2005, 1000 women volunteers join
the Army as conscripts.
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (vi)
Navy
Navy



(2003) First women officers in
professional services ( Justice and
Health)
(2006) First women will be
selected to enter the Naval
Academy.
(2007) First class integrated by
men and women will enter the
Naval Academy.
WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES POLICY (vii)
Air Force



(2000) The Air Force opens its
Academy to women, including all
Arms ( Pilots, Engineers and
Artillery) and offering the same
possibilities for men and women.
(2003) The First class integrated
by men and women graduated. A
woman cadet graduated at the
top of the class.
(2006) First women trained and
graduated as combat pilots.
NEAR FUTURE CHALLENGES (i)
Democratic and Government Parity
 High visibility of women
 Different citizen expectations about the government and
the President
 Democratic parity quotas for parliamentary and municipal
elections, no more than
 60% of the list of candidates may be of the same sex.
 INCREASE FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN THE WORKFORCE
AND CHILDCARE SYSTEM
NEAR FUTURE CHALLENGES (ii)
Wage Gap
Earnings gap has narrowed in recent years, from 40.6% in
1998 to 35% in 2000.
But…
Women with up to three years of schooling earn on
average 18.6% less than men, while women with 13 years
or more of education earn on average 51.5% less than
their male peers.
The gap increases with age, with education, and with job
responsibilities (management positions).