Blessing in Disguise? How the Gendered Division of Labor in Political Science Helped Achieved Gender Parity in the Chilean Constitutional Assembly

Lessons from a Late Adopter: Feminist Advocacy, Democratizing Reforms, and Gender Quotas in Chile

“…Their members did not include a woman president this time around, but they did include prominent voices within civil society and the women's movement. Women academics—convened as the Red de Politólogas (Network of Women Political Scientists)—collaborated with women deputies to design, present, and lobby for a revision to the special election law that would choose the constitutional assembly delegates (Suárez Cao, 2022). The proposal improved upon the 40-percent quota by requiring parity among candidates and winners, with gender balance at the district level and women candidates in the first position on all electoral lists.…”

“…The latter would be ensured via a “best loser” system: after tallying the preference votes at the district level, any gender imbalance in results would be rectified by bumping the worst-winning candidate of the overrepresented sex for the best-losing candidate of the underrepresented sex. Opponents initially claimed that the best-loser system was undemocratic, but quota advocates argued that open-list systems already distort voter preferences by using all co-partisans’ personal votes—including those received by the worst performers—to determine parties’ seat allocation (Suárez Cao, 2022). With high-profile spokeswomen from the parties and the Red de Politólogas appearing in the media to defend the link between gender parity and democratic outcomes, unsupportive men party members felt compelled to vote "yes" (Suárez Cao, 2022).…”

“…Opponents initially claimed that the best-loser system was undemocratic, but quota advocates argued that open-list systems already distort voter preferences by using all co-partisans’ personal votes—including those received by the worst performers—to determine parties’ seat allocation (Suárez Cao, 2022). With high-profile spokeswomen from the parties and the Red de Politólogas appearing in the media to defend the link between gender parity and democratic outcomes, unsupportive men party members felt compelled to vote "yes" (Suárez Cao, 2022).…”

Los aportes de la ciencia política en los procesos de cambio político: El caso de Chile

“…Un aspecto importante en el siglo xxi ha sido el desarrollo del rol de las mujeres politólogas. La perspectiva de género ha emergido con fuerza dentro de una disciplina donde el género ha sido un factor para el estatus académico, y en el caso de su contribución a la sociedad ha sido notoria la especificidad y el conocimiento experto (Suárez-Cao, 2023;.…”

The Puzzle of Chile’s Resilient Support for Gender Parity

“…This was not an easy win. Feminist activists and women politicians pushed for gender parity in 2020-21 in a country that had adopted gender quotas relatively late (Figueroa 2021;Reyes-Housholder, Suárez-Cao, and Le Foulon 2023;Suárez-Cao 2023;personal interview #1, April 21, 2023). Reserving seats for Indigenous groups and using other mechanisms to allow space for independent constituents further broadened the convention's ostensible inclusiveness.…”