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On March 14, it was announced that the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity –formed as a ministry only in 2015– would integrate the Political Committee in the government of Gabriel Boric.
The decision-making and unprecedented act -never before in history had it been part of said Committee, usually made up of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, the General Secretariat of the Government, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Development and Family and the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security – became one of the first to give a concrete and material reduction to the feminist discourse already characteristic of the president. And it is that now, as the specialists explain, an opportunity opens up; policies that seek equal rights for women and sexual dissidence will have priority. And more than that, they will be seen as part of an integral whole, having the possibility of permeating the different ministries and political dimensions, in an articulated manner and not as if they were sectoral policies that correspond to a certain portfolio or segment of the population.
As Claudia Heiss, PhD in Political Science and head of the program at the University of Chile, explains, the fact that the Ministry of Women enters the Political Committee contributes to making the gender approach transversal to all political actions and to becoming a central axis of government. “If the gender perspective is not applied equally to health, education, housing and the exercise of general political power, it ends up being something sectoral and circumscribed, rather testimonial. And that does not allow progress in the gender agenda”, explains the specialist.
This has happened in the past, deepens, and that is why this act, following a feminist May and a subsequent social outbreak, is of the utmost relevance; because it sets the standard and emphasizes the legitimacy and greater validity of the actions articulated in pursuit of gender equality. Now all branches of the state will have to be aligned on that. What does it mean then that the Ministry of Women integrates the Political Committee?
In Chile, the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity is one of the most recent. Its creation at the institutional level dates back to 1991, the year in which it acquired ministerial rank under the name of the National Service for Women (today SERNAMEG). It was not until 2015, in the second government of Michelle Bachelet, that it was founded as a Ministry and that SERNAMEG became an institution dependent on it. As the lawyer from Corporación Humanas, Camila Maturana Kesten, explains, acquiring the category of ministry in 2015 was a great advance, but that from 2022 it is understood that it must also be part of the Political Committee is truly historic. “This places the discussion of policies on gender equality in the government definition at the highest level, and this is an unprecedented situation that we are not aware of. For the same reason, we are expectant regarding the scope that it might have, ”she explains. “That gender issues are no longer understood as something secondary and become central in the political definition of a country has great repercussions; that means that if we talk regarding gender violence, it is not only seen by the Ministry of Women, but is discussed on a par with the discussion of the security policies of the Ministry of the Interior”.
And it is that the Political Committee is an instance of strategic coordination that seeks, through the congregation of certain ministries, to determine the focus of the decision-making of the government in question. It is the core that marks the imprint of that management, and for this reason, the fact that the Ministry of Women is part of the committee is so relevant. As the Doctor in Political Science and member of the Network of Political Scientists, Carolina Guerrero, explains, this means that the government is going to give a feminist look to its general program but also that each ministry is going to consider women and dissidence within their policies.
The Political Committee, in other words, accounts for the directional emphasis, and that is never entirely neutral. In this case, being there has a double function, explains Guerrero; On the one hand, to institutionalize and legitimize the participation of women in politics, so that we finally have a symbolic and substantive representation in decision-making. And on the other, to mainstream the gender perspective in all government areas.
To this, the academic of the Catholic University and member of the Network of Political Scientists, Julieta Suárez-Cao, adds that all areas of the State have a bias that favors men; “They are institutions that were originated, interpreted and dominated by them. It is important that we can now see them through gender lenses to disarm those biases that come by design”, she reflects. “In that sense – she continues – it is necessary to have a gender approach in health, education, finances, housing and work, and being in the Committee allows this in a society in which this approach has been late. To ensure that it is truly transversal to all public policies, political will is required, an institutional framework, but also a civil society that is present and capable of monitoring the action of the State”.