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

by Margaret Power

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

311 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

Reviews

[Virtue · Rating 1 out of 5]

Military spouses incited riots, seeded intolerance and destabilized society, which eventually paved the road for their husbands armed with tanks and fighter aircraft to conduct a brutal coup d'etat. And these "ladies" are now trying to sell their active support for an illegal and brutal junta, which was condemned by almost every member of the United Nations, disguised as a movement for the advancement of women. This inflammatory agenda is particularly hard to swallow, considering the fact that the junta was known to be extremely brutal to men, women and children and was particularly infamous for raping and brutalizing women and girls in their torture centers and concentration camps. Furthermore, the junta had in fact overthrown those who adopted laws to promote women rights and implemented successful policies to support women health. Quite revealingly, the junta took an incredible hostility towards the public health. For instance, it quickly halted the national program to combat malnutrition, which distributed 2 cups of free milk per day to children under 15 years. These "ladies" did not like the fact that in time of shortage, the distribution system prioritized milk to children. And so, Pinochet and his repressive system has become a savior of their cake-and-latte parties and their mundane social lives of excessive and inconsiderate consumption. These days, when anything seems to be much more likely to pass as right just because it has been done by women, I found this book to be trying hard to use feminism as a venue to whitewash an oppressive regime that destroyed lives of so many men, women and children. It is rather disturbing that some individuals in Academia fell for this misrepresentation and use this book as a prescribed reading in their "women studies" college classes.