Democracy and Rights: a relationship challenged by gender resistance in Chile

Abstract

The political sphere continues to be a highly masculinized space, not only in terms of women's access to representative positions of power, but also in the relational modes in which women encounter multiple resistances to participate and influence decision-making and political negotiation processes. This paper critically examines the discursive strategies in which gender resistance was expressed in the socio-historical process in Chile regarding to affirmative action. Firstly, the parity cabinet's first establishment (in 2006) was examined. Thereafter the discussion process of Law 20,840 (in 2015), which established a quota system in parliamentary elections, and, in 2020, the debate regarding the approval of Law 21,216 which established Gender Parity in the Constituent Process. In the end, it is analytically demonstrated how an ideological-discursive matrix is set, in which gender resistances operate to maintain a female political underrepresentation in positions of power.