Will Chile Have the First Constitution With a Gender Perspective?

Chile begins the process of drafting its new constitution. For this, the role of women and the feminist movement will be vital. This new Magna Carta will have several gender approaches.

Elisa Loncón, leader of the Constitutional Convention in Chile

Elisa Loncón is the first indigenous woman elected to lead the Chilean Constitutional Convention. She studied teaching English at the University of La Frontera, has a Master's degree in Linguistics from the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico, and has a Doctorate in Humanities from the University of Leidin in the Netherlands and finally a Doctorate in Literature from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Also read: How Old are the Constitutions of South America?

On the other hand , she is the organizer and leader of various projects, programs and workshops, specifically the improvement of the Plan for the Social and Political Bases of Intercultural and Bilingual Education. In addition, she achieved the distinction and merit of being the President of the indigenous peoples' seat process in Chile, to promote a multinational and intercultural country.

In short, the role she will play is extremely transcendental for Chile, since it stated that it is possible to re-found this country, establishing relationships between peoples and nations, making them more participatory. She also emphasized the claim of indigenous peoples and represents the new Chile: women and indigenous.

Feminist regulations for the new Constitution in Chile

The fact of shaping the new Constitution in Chile is to offer proposals in the future with a different vision, considering content based on inequality, but emphasizing the structural discrimination of women, to achieve the complete eradication of gender violence. However, this requires identity and solid protection of women's rights to achieve equality. That is why this Regulation establishes a challenge to ensure the equal voice of the citizenry.

In this sense, the Gender and Equity Observatory (OGE) has a deep-rooted commitment to this political process, that is, to the proposed Feminist Regulation, carried out by the Elena Caffarena Feminist Territorial Articulation, which guarantees the joint exercise of the word, In addition, it recognizes the sexual division of labor and protection from violence.

Precisely, several feminist groups wrote an 11-page document called "For a feminist regulation" in which they collect several feminist proposals to be reflected in the new Magna Carta. Among several proposals for the drafting of the text are the incorporation of the gender approach in commissions and committees, the use of inclusive language, gender quotas in commissions, and national days of citizen discussion on specific issues.

Groups with feminist thoughts

The disposition of these leading groups is a stark reality of the failure of institutional discourses that defend gender inequalities. Furthermore, feminist organizations were precisely one of the main flags that took to the streets in the 2019 protests. Even groups such as Las Tesis (known for their choreography, "a rapist on your way") gained international visibility. This evidenced the need for the new constitution to take up several of the claims that at the time were protest flags.