Never again without us: The feminist struggles for gender parity in the Chilean constituent process (2019-2022)
Social unrest, neoliberalism, feminism, gender parity, constituent process, Chile, constitucionalism found in the street
This master's dissertation addresses the process of drafting the first gender-parity Constitution in history, written in Chile between 2021 and 2022, still under the effects of the fiery popular uprisings known as estallido social. The fundamental question of the research was: What political mechanisms and social practices contributed to Chile being able to write a gender-parity Constitution unprecedented in the political history of the world? The answer to this question was sought through analysis of the massive presence of female bodies on the streets of Chile, starting in 2019, and through the reflection on this analysis. Methodologically, the research was conducted through fieldwork in the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso, and took on an ethnographic character, based on participant observation. Theoretically, we maintained proximity both with authors who present a critical stance regarding Chile's political life over the past 30 years, as well as with feminist debates carried out by Chilean female authors, as well as female authors from other countries. As a result, the research concluded that the massive presence of women on the streets was fundamental to the drafting of the aforementioned Constitution, using various strategies to raise awareness in the country about their issues and to insert them in the Constitution. Despite the Constitution having undergone a plebiscite and having not been approved, the milestones that were consolidated throughout the process remain, leaving behind a legacy that results in an accumulation of experience for the continuity of struggles that may be capable of altering the social, political, and legal reality of Latin America