From Policy of Representation to Policy of Coalition? Possibilities of Feminist Mobilization in Post-Dictatorship Chile

Abstract

The history of the Chilean feminist movement shows that regardless of the permanency of gender inequality collective action emerges when both, the opening of political opportunity structures and the agency of activists converge.  Women’s movements in Chile have materialized when both of these conditions are present, ceasing to exist after achieving their immediate unifying goal.  In this work, we propose that opportunity structures for feminist action have opened under the Bachelet administration but that the politics of representation, historically characteristic of social movements, is no longer the only –or more effective- way to move forward gender demands.  An analysis of the fragmentation of women movements points to the need to think about the issue of identity politics in social movements.  In this article we suggest that a politics of representation should give way to a politics of coalition, not only for its democratic possibilities but also because in the new socio-cultural context, the articulation of coalitions around gender issues is the most effective alternative to affect the transformation of the gender order.