Numbers are not enough: gender parity and substantive representation in the Chilean constitutional process

Authors

Keywords:

Gender, Parity, Constitution, Descriptive Representation, Substantive Representation

Abstract

Despite the failed constitutional process in Chile and the divided expectations around the second call, parity in the bodies continues to be an innovation of the Chilean process. However, the context conditions have varied and the Draft of the Political Constitution written by the Expert Commission generates uncertainty about the gender perspective in the future Constitution, since it provides, mainly, only for the political participation of women. Why hasn't a pro-woman perspective been crossed, despite the existence of a parity structure? Based on a descriptive and exploratory investigation, focused on the systematic review of the documents of the Expert Commission, we demonstrate that, under a new political environment and new institutional rules, the failures in the coordination capacity of the feminist representatives with other decision-makers and the almost non-existent active participation of civil society could explain the results of the first stage of the constituent process of 2023.

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Published

2023-07-01

Issue

Section

Investigaciones