The premise of this essay, therefore, is that Chilean right-wing women supported Pinochet’s dictatorship that appeared to subordinate them because it secured their privileged position within Chile’s existing gender and class hierarchies that may have otherwise been disturbed by left-wing government policies. Their practical interests are distinct from left-wing women’s strategic interests in explicitly organising to counter systems of patriarchy. As scholar Maxine Molyneux has identified , right-wing women organise to meet their basic needs that are the result of a gendered division of labour, such as childcare. They did so by rejecting feminist claims. Accordingly, Chilean right-wing women mobilised on the basis of their identities as women, specifically their role as mothers. Both function as a source of collective identity. Additionally, the right-wing supports distinct gender roles for men and women, embracing an essentialised version of gender and conventional norms. They generally opposed the imposition of equality by the state, favouring individual justice over social justice. The right in Chile was characterised by their anticommunist stance, opposition to class struggle, and the favouring of hierarchical survival strategies like patron-clientelism. They are radicals but not necessarily extremists. This essay asks why Chilean right-wing women actively supported and empowered Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1974-1990), even though it was characterised by strongly patriarchal authority structures that seemed to denigrate them or assign them to subordinate social and symbolic roles within their society.įor the purposes of this essay, the “right-wing ” (both centre and far) are defined as groups that “presuppose tradition as an essentialist, ahistorical entity and… preserving or reviving it”. Augusto Pinochet’s (1974-1990) Most Loyal Supporters: The Case of Chilean Right-Wing Women
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