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Feminist Policymaking in Chile. By Liesl Haas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2011

Lee Ann Banaszak
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University

Extract

The election of Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile in January 2006 was heralded in the world press as an advancement of women's rights in Chile. Not only did Bachelet's election increase women's representation at the highest levels, but it also raised expectations that Chile would adopt more women-friendly policies as well. Although focused on the years between the democratic transition and the election of Bachelet, Liesl Haas's Feminist Policymaking in Chile speaks volumes to the questions of how and why such representation makes a difference. Although the women's movement and feminist policymaking in Chile have been well mined by gender scholars, Haas provides a different perspective, both in terms of time frame and of theoretical argument. The book is notable for its extensive documentation of the legislative process, church activism, and feminist policymaking in Chile in the posttransition era. This rich description will make it valuable to gender scholars wishing to understand the Chilean case and to Latin Americanists wishing to understand more about gender politics in Chile. But my particular interest, and my focus in this review, concerns what the book tells us about the reasons that feminist policies get adopted in a particular place at a particular point in time.

Type
Critical Dialogue
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2011

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