Women's suffrage in Chile

Last updated

Women's suffrage in Chile was introduced on the communal level in 1935, and on national level on 8 January 1949. [1] It was the product of a long period of activism, tracing back to 1877, when women were allowed to attend university, a reform which stimulated the formation of a women's movement. The women's suffrage was a reform which was actively promoted since the 1920s by the organizations Consejo Nacional de Mujeres de Chile Comité Nacional pro Derechos de la Mujer , Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women and Federación Chilena de Instituciones Femeninas (FECHIF).

Contents

Beginning

The Decreto Amunátegui  [ es ] of November 6, 1877 is considered a starting point, as it enabled women to undertake university studies. Pioneering professionals emerged gradually in different areas, conceptualizing the inferiority women found themselves in.

They began to form and lead feminist organizations seeking social, political and civil vindication of women. [2]

First attempts at electoral registration

In 1875 San Felipe, the first formal attempt to participate in popular elections was made by a group of women. They concurred to put their names on the electoral registers, with the argument that the law did not indicate voter sex. [3]

It was the San Felipe Registration Board that decided to register Domitila Silva y Lepe by majority vote. The citizen was a widow of a former governor of the same province. She fulfilled the requirements imposed by the electoral law of 1874: to be Chilean and to know how to read and write.

Erika Maza, the author of  "Catholicism, Anticlericalism and the Expansion of Women's Suffrage in Chile," points out that due this Registration Board’s reasoning, more women registered in other areas of the country. This is also expressed in works by Teresa Pereira and Germán Urzúa Valenzuela.

Evidence of women's desire to participate generated considerable debate within the political class, and was widely reflected in the press of the time. However, women were ultimately not permitted to exercise this right in the Elections Law of 1884. [4]

Prohibition of female suffrage by the Electoral Law of 1884

As previously mentioned, the January 9, 1884 Article 40 No. 8 of the Elections Law specified that women cannot register to vote, despite meeting the requirements stipulated in Article 39: [5]

ART. 39

The board should enroll natural or legal Chileans in the voter registry who request registration and meet the following requirements:

1. Be twenty-five years of age if they are single, or twenty-one if they are married;

2. Know how to read and write;

3. Live in the respective sub-delegation.

It is presumed by right that he who knows how to read and write has the income required by law

ART. 40

The following groups will not be registered, even when they meet requirements listed in the previous article:

1. ° Those who, due to physical or moral impossibility, do not have the free use of their reason;

2. Those who are in the condition of indentured servitude;

3. Those who, at the time, are being processed for a crime or offense that deserves an afflictive penalty. Additionally, those who have been sentenced to penalties of this kind, unless they have obtained rehabilitation;

4. Those who have been convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy and have not been rehabilitated;

5. ° Those who have accepted jobs or distinctions from foreign governments without special permission from Congress, unless they have obtained rehabilitation from the Senate;

6. ° Individuals enrolled in the rural police, or who perform any paid service in it;

7. ° The classes and soldiers of the permanent army, navy and police forces;

8. ° Women; and

9. The regular ecclesiastics.

Law No. 5357

On January 15, 1934, President Arturo Alessandri Palma promulgated Law No. 5357, [5] allowing women to participate in municipal elections:

Art. 19.

The following groups have the right to register in the Municipal Registry:

a) Women of Chilean nationality, over 21 years of age, who know how to read and write and reside in the corresponding commune; and

b) Foreigners; men and women over 21 years of age, with more than five consecutive years of residence in the country, who know how to read and write and reside in the corresponding commune.

The same law allows women to be candidates:

Art. 56.

In order to be elected to the Council it is required that one:

a) Be Chilean;

b) Meet the requirements to register in Municipal Electoral Registries;

c) Have residence in the commune for more than one year;

Women may also be elected.

The first municipal election in which women participated was that of 1935. In this first municipal election, 76,049 of the 850,000 potential voters registered. 98 candidates presented themselves and held 2% of the positions. [3] [6]

First proposal of a universal suffrage law

In 1941, the Movement for the Emancipation of Women in Chile (MEMCH) proposed a Universal Suffrage Bill. It was drafted by Elena Caffarena (as a jurist) and Flor Heredia (a law student), relying on the support of President Pedro Aguirre Cerda. The proposal was sent to Congress, but never came to be enacted due to the untimely death of the President. [7] This event stalled the bill.

FECHIF proposal

The project regained strength in 1944, the year in which the First National Congress of Women was held in Santiago and gave rise to the Chilean Federation of Women's Institutions (FECHIF): a body dedicated to organizing demands against any discrimination towards women, who then represented 51% of the potential electorate.

Strategies to obtain the right to vote focused on applying pressure to members of parliament through the articulate force achieved between the different women's organizations—which were convinced that they had the necessary arguments to obtain political rights. [4]  

In 1946, FECHIF was forcefully weakened by the radical Gabriel González Videla’s arrival  to the presidency. Tension caused by the Cold War and the new president’s anti-communist position produced a great breakup in FECHIF. This happened when the Radical party delegates voted, without an absolute majority and without MEMCH’s presence, for the expulsion of the Communist Party supporters. Without the communists present in the Federation, MEMCH decided to withdraw by denouncing the arbitrary expulsion of the supporters. [8]

Because of this, the FECHIF bill is not the original bill proposed by MEMCH.

Law No. 9292

On January 8, 1949, President Gabriel González Videla passed Law No. 9292, allowing women to participate in presidential and parliamentary elections, and separating the Registry into the Electoral Registry of Men and the Electoral Registry of Women:

Art. 1

Subsection 9. In article 14, the following shall be added as the second subparagraph:

"The Electoral Registry, intended for the elections of President of the Republic and of Senators and Deputies, will be divided into the "Electoral Registry of Men" and the "Electoral Registry of Women." These registries, supplemented with the "Municipal Registry of Foreigners " will serve for the municipal elections."

Within ninety days following the enactment of the law, the Director of the Electoral Registry deleted the registry of those disabled, of both sexes, by Law No. 8987, known as the Damned Law  :

Art. 3.

Beginning January 1, 1946, the Municipal Registry of Women and Foreigners formed during the extraordinary electoral registration period will have the value of the "Electoral Registry of Women," created by this law. For this purpose, within 90 days following the effective date of this law, the Electoral Registry Director will proceed to eliminate foreigners, men and women from the Municipal Registry, canceling their respective registrations, and will communicate these cancellations to the corresponding Real Estate Conservators. In turn, they can make the same eliminations in the copies of the Municipal Registry under their domain. At the same time, publication of the list of canceled registrations will be ordered in a newspaper of the capital and in a newspaper or newspaper of the head of the corresponding department. These cancellations will be communicated, by office, to each of the persons eliminated from the Municipal Registry. Once all these eliminations have been completed, the said Municipal Registry will be entitled "Electoral Registry of Women".

Unlike the other articles, modifications for the women's right to vote apply one hundred and twenty days after its proclamation: [5]

Final article

This law shall take effect from its publication date in the Official Gazette, except in relation to the exercise of political vote by women, which shall govern one hundred and twenty days after said publication.

Controversy over the electoral registers' cancellation

Communist Party members were erased from the electoral register, as well as persons suspected of participating in said organization by the Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy, better known as the Damned Law.

Elena Caffarena, a leading figure in women's vindication, was not invited to the ceremony held for the celebration of the Female Suffrage Law. Three days after the event, the government suspended her civil rights. She was accused of being a communist and instigating rebellion. It was an arbitrary act since she never joined a party, although her sympathy was directed to the left.

During those days, the lawyer decided to put all her knowledge at the service of those being persecuted by that law, which would be repealed in 1958 in the context of presidential elections.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suffrage</span> Right to vote in public and political elections

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums. In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage, as distinct from passive suffrage, which is the right to stand for election. The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called full suffrage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Electoral Council (Venezuela)</span>

The National Electoral Council (CNE) is one of the five branches of government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela that was designed to be independent. It is the institution that has the responsibility of overseeing and guaranteeing the transparency of all elections and referendums in Venezuela at the local, regional, and national levels. The creation of the CNE was ratified in Venezuela's 1999 constitutional referendum. Following the election of Nicolás Maduro – Hugo Chávez's handpicked successor – into the presidency, the CNE has been described as being pro-Maduro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in Chile</span> Political elections for public offices in Chile

Elections in Chile are held nationwide, including the presidency, parliament, regional offices, and municipal positions. Chilean citizens and foreign residents with legal residency of at least five years, who are 18 years or older on election day, are eligible to vote. Previously, voting was voluntary, but since 2023, it has become compulsory.

In electoral systems, voter registration is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote.

At the national level, Argentina elects a head of state and a legislature. The franchise extends to all citizens aged 16 and over, and voting is mandatory for all those who are between 18 and 70 years of age.

<i>Instituto Nacional Electoral</i> Federal electoral agency of Mexico

The Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) is an autonomous, public agency responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those related to the election of the President of the United Mexican States, the members of the Congress of the Union as well as elections of authorities and representatives at local and state levels. The agency's president is Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, appointed in 2023 for a 9-year tenure.

Suffrage, the right to vote, is often extended to non-citizens. This right varies widely by place in terms of which non-citizens are allowed to vote and in which elections, though there has been a trend over the last 30 years to enfranchise more non-citizens, especially in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilian nationality law</span> History and regulations of Brazilian citizenship

Brazilian nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of Brazil. The primary law governing nationality requirements is the 1988 Constitution of Brazil, which came into force on 5 October 1988.

The Equality Party was a left-wing political party in Chile. It was founded in 2009 by various social movements of workers, students, mortgage borrowers, townspeople and human rights organizations, among other actors. Its first president was former communist councilor of Peñalolen, Lautaro Guanca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elena Caffarena</span> Chilean lawyer, jurist and politician

Elena Caffarena Morice was a Chilean lawyer, jurist and politician. Contemporary historians and humanists consider her to be one of the most important 20th-century public figures in Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminism in Chile</span> Feminism in the country

Feminism in Chile has its own liberation language and activist strategies for rights that is shaped by the political, economic, and social system of Chile. Beginning in the 19th century, Chilean women have been organizing with aspirations of asserting their political rights. These aspirations have had to work against the reality that Chile is one of the most socially conservative countries in Latin America. The Círculo de Estudios de la Mujer is one example of a pioneering women's organization during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1989) which redefined women's responsibilities and rights, linking “mothers’ rights” to women's rights and women's civil liberties. The founding members of the Círculo de Estudios de La Mujer consisted of a small group of Santiago feminists who were from the Academia de Humanismo Cristiano. These women gathered "to discuss the situation of women in Chile," their first meeting drew a crowd of over 300 participants and from there challenged the authoritarian life in Santiago. These women helped shape the rights for women in Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María Rivera Urquieta</span> Chilean professor and feminist

María Rivera Urquieta was a Chilean professor and feminist. She was one of the founding members of the Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women. She was a lecturer for the Chilean Federation of Feminine Institutions and led one of the conference meetings at the Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres held in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aída Parada</span> Chilean educator and feminist

Aída Parada Hernández was a Chilean educator, feminist, founding member of Movimiento Pro-Emancipación de las Mujeres de Chile and the first Chilean delegate to the Inter-American Commission of Women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marta Vergara</span>

Marta Vergara Varas was a Chilean author, editor, journalist and women's rights activist. Introduced to international feminism in 1930, she became instrumental in the development of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) helping gather documentation on laws which effected women's nationality. She pushed Doris Stevens to broaden the scope of international feminism to include working women's issues in the quest for equality. A founding member of the Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women, she was editor of its monthly bulletin La Mujer Nueva. When she was ousted from the Communist Party she moved to Europe and worked as a journalist during the war. At war's end, she returned to Washington, D.C., and worked at the CIM continuing to press for women's suffrage and equality, before returning to Chile, where she resumed her writing career.

Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women was both a historic women's rights organization, which pressed for equality between 1935 and 1953 and a current umbrella organization reorganized in 1983 to organize other women's organizations to provide unity in the struggle for the country to return to democracy. Once the dictatorship was overturned the NGO turned their focus to uniting organizations which pursue a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to women's rights and development.

Citizens was a Chilean political party founded in 2013, with members comprising militants and independents of the center and center-left whose beliefs did not align with New Majority or Chile Vamos. Party militants mainly came from the Christian Democratic Party and the Party for Democracy.

Women's suffrage in the Spanish Second Republic period was the result of efforts dating back to the mid-1800s. Women and men working towards universal suffrage had to combat earlier feminist goals that prioritized social goals, including access to education, political rights such as a woman's right to vote and equal wages. As a middle class developed and women gained more access to education, they began to focus more on the issue of suffrage but this was often around specific ideological philosophies; it was not tied into a broader working class movement calling for women's emancipation.

Women's suffrage in Ecuador was introduced into the Constitution in 1929. Ecuador was the first country in South America to introduce women's suffrage.

The right to vote in Belgium belongs to all adult Belgians. EU citizens can vote in European and municipal elections. Other foreigners have local voting rights when they have lived in the country for more than five years. Attendance is compulsory for Belgians in Belgium.

Herminia Aburto Colihueque was a Chilean activist and politician. She was one of the first Chilean women and the first woman from Mapuche ethnic group to run for public office in 1935 - the country's first election in which women participated as voters and candidates.

References

  1. ↑ Servel (2018). Participación de las mujeres en política. Algunos pasos históricos. ISBN   978-956-09147-1-2.
  2. ↑ "BND Visor : Crónica del sufragio femenino en Chile". www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  3. 1 2 Servel (2018). "Participación de mujeres en política. Algunos pasos históricos" (PDF).
  4. 1 2 Senado. "Mujeres en política: los derechos con corsé, el voto femenino y su participación en cargos de poder - Senado - República de Chile". Senado (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  5. 1 2 3 Nacional, Biblioteca del Congreso. "Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional | Ley Chile". www.bcn.cl/leychile. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  6. ↑ Archived January 21, 2021, at the Wayback Machine [ dead link ]
  7. ↑ Jiles Moreno, Rojas Mira, Ximena, Claudia Fedora (2017). "EPISTOLARIOEMANCIPADOR Catálogo histórico comentado (1935 - 1949)" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "FECHIF - Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile". www.memoriachilena.gob.cl. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.