Chilean Women Make Notable Gains Under President Bachelet

Country's first woman President promises no return 'to the days when the top jobs were filled with dark suits and neckties'

EDUARDO GALLARDO

Associated Press

SANTIAGO — One year into her mandate, Chile's first woman president has legislated the right to breast-feed in the workplace, offered greater protection against domestic violence, cracked down on alimony-dodgers and placed more women in positions of power.

But there's more to be done in this conservative country where women often earn up to 30 per cent less than men, administration officials say.

The election in January, 2006 of socialist Michelle Bachelet, a separated mother of three, gave women across Latin America cause for hope that the region's macho ways were changing. “Chile is no longer our fatherland — it's our motherland” became a popular refrain.

On Thursday, Ms. Bachelet celebrated International Women's Day by promising no return “to the days when the top jobs were filled with dark suits and neckties.”

Women's Day coincided with the start of a week-long Latin American tour by U.S. President George W. Bush that takes him to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. Chile isn't on his itinerary.

A physician by training, Ms. Bachelet embraced gender issues from the start of her administration a year ago Sunday and can point to a number of gains:

-- A law she called “just and beautiful” gave women the right to breast-feed at work.

-- Penalties were stiffened for men who fail to pay alimony.

-- Hundreds of nurseries have been established nationwide, as well as domestic violence shelters for women and children.

-- Equal numbers of women and men now hold top administration jobs, including in her Cabinet.

-- Women were for the first time admitted at the naval academy.

-- Girls as young as 14 can get free morning-after contraceptive pills.

The latter, enacted by presidential decree, met stiff resistance from conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church. Chile is considered politically liberal but socially conservative. It flatly bans abortion and legalized divorce only in 2004.

Some conservative mayors have refused to let their city health services distribute the morning-after pill, including Pablo Zalaquet of La Florida, near Santiago, who called Ms. Bachelet's decree “a black day for our country, a slap to the institution of family.”

Ms. Bachelet, the only South American woman to have won the presidency without riding the coattails of a powerful husband, seeks to improve women's standing in society in a permanent way, says Women's Affairs Minister Laura Albornoz.

“We are undertaking changes that will probably not be totally apparent during this government, but later on,” she told The Associated Press.

Ms. Albornoz acknowledged that Chilean women still face domestic violence and discrimination at work.

Lydia Alvarez, who works at homes for the elderly, said she has been turned down twice for jobs because she refused to have a pregnancy test.

Such a request is illegal but common, women say.

“They tell you they are not supposed to ask for the test, but they do anyway,” Ms. Alvarez said. “If you're pregnant, goodbye!”

Women have also targeted Chile's law on domestic violence. Soledad Granados, who is working on the campaign, estimates that the average domestic violence case takes seven years to reach a court.

Another goal is more jobs for women. Their average work participation in Chile is just 37.5 per cent, compared with 47 per cent for Latin America.

And women hold only 12 per cent of seats in Congress. Ms. Bachelet is preparing a bill to make political parties reserve 30 per cent of their slate of candidates in congressional and municipal elections for women.

Whether the bill will get through the male-dominated Congress remains to be seen. But already, the gains women have made in Ms. Bachelet's first year are undeniable, said Virginia Guzman, a psychologist and sociologist with the Center for Studies of Women Affairs.

“There is general feeling among women of having developed a greater personal value,” she said.