Right-Wing Women in Chile: Feminine Power and the Struggle Against Allende, 1964-1973 / Edition 1

by Margaret Power

Overview

When over five thousand women took to the streets of Santiago to protest Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government on December 1, 1971, their March of the Empty Pots and Pans signaled the beginning of a mass opposition movement and prompted the later formation of Feminine Power, a multi-class organization that played a critical role in paving the way for the military coup in 1973. Drawing on extensive interviews with leaders and participants, Margaret Power tells the story of these right-wing women, examining their motives, the tactics they employed, and the impact of their ideas and activity on Chilean society and politics.

The ability of the right to exploit established ideas about gender, Power argues, was key to the opposition’s success, and she explores how conservatives appealed to women as wives and mothers to mobilize them. Power also pays attention to the earlier history of these efforts, including the formation of Women’s Action of Chile in 1963, and to the support provided by the U.S. government. The epilogue examines right-wing women’s reactions to the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in 1998 and their role in the elections of 2000. By focusing on the women who opposed Allende and supported Pinochet, this book offers a fresh look at the complex dynamics of Chilean politics in the last half of the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271021959
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.03(d)

About the Author

Margaret Power is Assistant Professor of History in the Lewis Department of Humanities at Armour College of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Table of Contents

	List of Figures, Tables, and Maps	VIII
	List of Abbreviations	IX
	Preface	XI
	Introduction	I
1	Economic, Political, and Social Change in Chile, 1938-1973	15
2	Women's Political Incorporation and the Right: A Success Story	45
3	Anticommunism and the Mobilization of Women: The 1964 Presidential Campaign	71
4	The Christian Democratic Party and Women, 1964-1970	99
5	From the Scare Campaign to the March of the Empty Pots and Pans: The Beginnings of the Anti-Allende Women's Movement	126
6	Poder Femenino and the Anti-Allende Women's Movement	169
7	Poder Femenino and the Working Class: Elite Women and Workers' Struggles	193
8	Allende Must Go! Anti-Allende Women and the Drive to Overthrow the UP Government	217
	Conclusion	248
	Epilogue	259
	Appendixes
Appendix A	List of Informants	264
Appendix B	Radio Advertisements Sponsored by Accion Mujeres de Chile	270
Appendix C	Radio Advertisements Sponsored by Chile Joven	272
Appendix D	The Call to the March of the Empty Pots and Pans	273
Appendix E	"Golpeando las puertas de los cuarteles"	275
	Bibliography	279
	Index	299

Editorial Reviews

“Margaret Power’s book is an essential contribution to the study of the fall of Chilean democracy in 1973.”

—Joan E. Supplee, The Americas

“The strength of this work lies in its attention to a subject that few Latin American scholars have broached.”

—Joan E. Supplee, The Americas

From the Publisher