Abstract

TAGLE, Javiera Errázuriz. Discourses on women's suffrage in Chile 1865-1949.Translated byDaniela Joana Rubens Flatow. Historia (Santiago) [online]. 2006, vol.1Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0717-7194.

Women's suffrage was not a subject that interested women only but involved all sectors of national political life, becoming a milestone of Chilean political history. This work analyzes feminine and masculine speeches over the subject since the end of the 19^th century until midst 20^th century (1865-1949). We can verify that the vote of women became a matter of real importance for feminine organizations when they realized that, without participating in the political sphere, little could be done for their civil vindications. In that sense, the feminine discourse evolves from a clear rejection of suffrage, expressed around 1865 in the El eco de las Señoras de Santiago, to its passionate vindication, in the 1930's and 1940's. The masculine discourse also evolves from silence (which can be considered as a refusal to discuss the subject) along the 19^th century and the first decades of the 20^th, to an unanimous acceptance around the decade of 1940, when the problem of women's suffrage seems to be threatening Chilean democratic image by excluding half of the population from politics for gender reasons. This is why we consider that the speeches are important sources of analysis, since theyallow the analysis of the evolution of Chilean society in that period. The arguments favoring or rejecting women's suffrage show us certain points of view about the world, women and politics in the Chile on those years, points of view to be redefined and thought over in light of the modernization and democratization processes.

Keywords : Vote; femenine; movements; political theory.

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