Defining a Democracy: Reforming the Laws on Women's Rights in Chile, 1990-2002

Religion and intimate partner violence in Chile: Macro- and micro-level influences

“…Subsequently it was able to use its heightened strength to shape the legal and social landscape in ways that ironically were often deleterious to women--victims of gender-based violence in particular. The Catholic Church has succeeded in keeping abortion illegal in the country to this date even in cases of rape or when the woman's life is at risk, and was also able to block efforts to legalize divorce until just five years ago (Blofield 2001;Htun 2003;Blofield and Haas 2005).…”

“…Emphasizing the goal of family unity, the law requires a one-year separation period before divorce can be filed, followed by a three-year period in which the parties must go through a mandatory mediation process (Blofield and Haas 2005).…”

The Rules of the Game: Feminist Policymaking in Chile.

“…In the case of women's rights legislation, the Left is largely unified in support of most feminist proposals, but this support must be balanced against divisions on these issues within the PDC. The Christian Democratic Party is reluctant to promote policy reforms on issues that will bring it into conflict with the Catholic Church (Blofield and Haas, 2005;Haas, 2000) 7 . The obstacles to reform are greater in the Senate, where the institutional Senators and the Left's overall lower representation in the upper house have served to block or stall many feminist proposals that managed to pass the Chamber of Deputies.…”

“…In addition, informal rules of procedure allow members of the Executive to participate in congressional committee meetings (Siavelis, 2000;Baldez and Carey, 1999). In the case of women's rights legislation, this allows Sernam to craft a persuasive proposal and to monitor it closely throughout the review process, while the authors of congressional bills are often shut out from the relevant review committees (Blofield and Haas, 2005).…”

“…In their analysis of the class and gender cleavages in women's rights legislation in Chile, Blofield and Haas (2005: 2-3) explain:…”