Authoritarism, Democratization and Gender

Waylen G . Gender in Third World politics. Boulder, Colorado, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996. xi, 163 p. (Issues in Third World Politics) pp. 92-134

Waylen is set to tackle the gendered nature of authoritarianism, especially looking at the direct and indirect engagement of women both in military rule governments in Latin America in the 70's and 80's, and processes of democratization. Waylen argues that a gendered analysis of the military needs to go beyond the public/private sphere divide and include both, and their shifting boundaries. While the military is the actual institution, militarism is an ideology and a social process that penetrates a society as a whole. As Kirkwood noted, an authoritarian regime not only refers to a political or economic system, but to a patriarchal structure in the private sphere, particularly in the family. Militarism is gendered in many ways, for instance, by a gendered division of society between 'protectors' and 'protected'. Under the doctrine of 'national security', women in LA experienced gendered specific and sexualized repression. Thus, the relevance of challenging gender inequality to combat authoritarian regimes.

Pinochet spoke several times about the important role of mothers defending the 'spiritual values of the nation', and the junta altogether frequently relevated women's self-sacrificing and charitable role, such that “women were positioned as having a special role as defenders of the moral order.” (103) Women's participation in the right-women's organizations was reintegrated under dictatorship through two institutions (the Secretaría Nacional de la Mujer and the Centros de Madres or Cemas) and as a resullt of this process many women became militarized and lent material and ideological support to the military dictatorship.

Neoliberal policies and political repression had contradictory and paradoxical effects on women: in contradiction with the very discourse of the military regime that stressed women's role at home, women's participation in the labor market increased in the newly expanded financial and retailing sectors— the aggro-export industry also employed large numbers of women, who entered the job market underpaid and with reduced labor rights. Under severe hardship, many poor women became household heads and were pushed into informal work, such as street selling and domestic work. In tandem with wage reductions and state welfare decrease, the pressure on poor women was huge. In fact, the neoliberal economic policies relied on the unpaid and underpaid work of women, and was conveniently in agreement with the junta's discourse on self-sacrificing motherhood. Women experienced two effects of economic pressure: the reproduction of female poverty as daughters are often removed from school and put in charge of domestic work, and the increase of illegal abortion. As a response, many women started organizing to collectively face the hardships and help each other.

A gendered analysis of democratization in Chile shows that most cases women's social movements experienced tensions when transitioning into a democratic institutional representation, by the polarization of 'autonomous' versus 'institutional' feminists. Even though all major parties in Chile have adopted a 'gender equality' rhetoric in their discourse, they frequently place women's role only within the family and as bearers of moral (national) values. The creation of SERNAM was initially opposed by the right-wing and the Church. But SERNAM has also seen many of their initiatives boycotted from inside the Concertación: gender and sexuality issues divide the more conservative Christian Democrats from Socialists. Because of its dynamics, during times of transition, middle-class based feminist organizations have had a more meaningful influence (although limited) on politics than popular movements, that tend to become marginalized as the conventional political arena is reconfigured.