Negotiating Gender

Family and Legislation in Chile

Bibliographic Data

ID5854233
AuthorsVerónica Edith Gómez Urrutia
Year2014
Volume29
Issue82
Pages465-479
Publication date2014-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Feminist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1321-7568 • E-ISSN: 1465-3303
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08164649.2014.976897
OpenAlexW2318432164
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited6

This paper analyses the parliamentary debates over two key pieces of legislation on family law approved in Chile between 1994 and 2004. The aim is to identify the discursive representations on gender and family predominant in these debates. These representations and the way in which they were negotiated in Congress, it will be argued, were a key factor in determining the approval and final text of each of the bills examined. When women's demands for greater autonomy were in tension with prevalent ideas on the traditional, hetero-normative family, such tension was resolved in favour of the latter as the discursive category that allowed negotiations to progress. As a result, although the new legislation brought about positive change, it did retain the ideal of the traditional, sanctioned-by-marriage family at its basis, and as the one the State should protect. Methodologically, this paper is based on the qualitative analysis of 4000 pages of parliamentary debate and in-depth interviews with legislators and government officials directly involved in the debate on each of the laws examined here. Notes1. Data according to the National Labour Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Empleo) 1989. Figures from previous decades, however, must be seen with caution, since studies on female employment have revealed a tendency to underestimate female engagement in ‘productive’ activities. See Valdés (Citation2007).2. An exception being the first law on domestic violence, see Araujo, Guzmán, and Mauro (Citation2000).3. Approved under the military regime and currently in force in Chile with some modifications of the original text.4. A legislative proposal having the same purpose was presented almost twenty years before, in 1972, during Salvador Allende's government. Article 12 of this proposal gave legal standing to consensual unions if they lasted more than two years. The September 1973 coup d'etat put a stop to Parliamentary debate, however, as both Chambers were closed until 1990.5. Bilbao was Minister of SERNAM under Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle's administration.6. The Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia is the centre-left party coalition that overthrew Pinochet's regime and that was in power from 1990 until 2010.7. A group of nine senators that according to the 1980 Constitution should be appointed by state powers, not elected.8. According to Carla Lehmann's national study, three out of four Chileans considered that divorce should be allowed in some cases. Among practicing Catholics, this proportion was of 66 per cent (Lehmann Citation1995).9. The Bill was presented by a group of Deputies belonging to different parties: from the left, socialists Isabel Allende Bussi and José Antonio Viera-Gallo Quesney; María Antonieta Saa and Víctor Jeame Barrueto, both from the centre-left Partido por la Democracia (PPD). Representing the centre were the Christian-Democrats Mariana Aylwin Oyarzún, Sergio Elgueta Barrientos and Ignacio Walker Prieto. From the right-wing Renovación Nacional Party, Carlos Cantero Ojeda, Arturo Longton Guerrero and Eugenio Munizaga Rodríguez. Informe de la Comisión de Constitución Bulletin No 1759-18. November 28, 1995. Session 27, 332th Legislature.10. Debate on the bill started in the Upper Chamber on March 13, 2002. During 2003, a total of 18 sessions were devoted to the issue, the last one on December 16.11. The Council of Evangelical Churches had manifested its support to a law on divorce, accepted by their doctrine.12. Jorge del Picó was a consultant for the Ministry of Justice between 2000 and 2003.13. See also Informe de la Comisión de Constitución, Bulletin N°1.759-18.14. A significant part of these were modified or eliminated in 2008 by law 20.286 on Family Courts.15. This idea found expression in the final text of the bill (article number 20) by allowing couples to marry first in the Church -provided that such a Church was recognised by the State- and then ratifying the marriage before the civil registry.Additional informationFundingThis paper was funded by the Chilean National Committee on Science and Technology through the FONDECYT Project No. 11080121, ‘Modelos de Ciudadanía y perspectiva de género: discursos sobre la ciudadanía femenina en la legislación chilena’.Notes on contributorsVerónica Edith Gómez UrrutiaVerónica Edith Gómez Urrutia is Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidad Autónoma de Chile. Her current research focuses on two projects: one on representations of family and motherhood/parenthood in national legislation and the other on work–family balance policies and their implications for gender equality and children's rights

Autonomy · Government (linguistics · Ideal (ethics · Legislation · Negotiation · Normative · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Gender Politics and Representation · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Gender Studies · Law

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