WOMEN AT THE POLLS The Case of Chile, 1970-1971

rior to the September 11, 1973 military coup, Chile had a well- P deserved reputation a s a country with a tradition of peaceful, open, and fair elections. But Chile had one other, often unnoticed, characteristic which makes it potentially helpful t o our understanding of political behavior: men and women vote in different polling places and their respective totals are recorded separately. This, coupled with Chile’s reliable census data, frequent elections, and wide spectrum of political choices, provides a rare opportunity to isolate and discuss the voting patterns of women. This article identifies and analyzes the voting tendencies of women in terms of demographic variables that have been shown in other studies to be relevant in determining voting patterns in Chile. The first of the elections under consideration is the 1970 presidential contest in which Salvador Allende, representing a leftist coalition, managed a narrow victory (36.5 % t o 35.3%) over former President Jorge Alessandri. The Christian Democrat candiate, representing a centrist position, had 28.1%. Six months later Allende’s suporters received almost half of the total vote-and slightly more than half (50.86%) if null and blank votes are excluded. This demonstration of support for Allende reflected th