Re-configuring citizenship with a gender perspective. Analysis of the political practices of the current feminist movements in Chile

This research investigates the political practices of the current feminist movements in Chile and their ability to challenge the dominant notions of citizenship with a gender perspective. The central argument is that feminist practices account for a transformation of the role and position of women as subjects of rights, the state’s role and responsibility and, therefore, the principles that guide the social contract. By doing this, feminist practices account for a redefinition of the dominant notions of citizenship, pointing out historical gender-blind and limited approaches to the political. This research orients its analysis to three specific practices of the current Chilean feminist movements. The first practice is related to the processes of negotiation and dialogue between feminist movements and the state, specifically in the case of the gender parity rule for the constitutional convention. In this practice, feminist movements articulated an institutional strategy integrating street protests and direct negotiations with authorities, triggering a consciousness process and bringing the question regarding women’s role in formal politics into the public debate. The analysis critically reflects on the movement’s insider strategy and the resulting gender parity, exploring its advances, tensions, and limitations. The research interrogates this practice’s ability to address women’s political representation and influence the reshaping process of the citizen-state relationship with a feminist perspective. The second practice analysed in this research is related to artistic performance -focusing on the case of Un violador en tu Camino- where feminist movements challenge the state, re-signifying the social approach to gender violence and the role of public institutions in it. The analysis explores the symbolic transformation of the performance and its capacity to expand the approaches to feminism using the body in the public space. It examines the performance’s ability to challenge the state, interpreting the historical passivity of public institutions as active responsibility, incorporating a feminist perspective into the social problem of gender violence. While recognising the contributions to broadening the notion of violence and, therefore, politics, the analysis points out the possible limitations of this practice’s ability to reshape citizenship and project a transformation over time. The third practice is about funas (online public shaming). In this practice, feminist movements use social networks as a space to share personal experiences of violence and publicly shame (funar) their perpetrators, denouncing the failure of the state and seeking alternative means to obtain justice. The analysis offers a critical reflection on funa (online public shaming) as one of the most massive political practices of the current feminist movements, exploring its uses, dilemmas, tensions, and possible contributions to feminist transformation. The research questions this practice’s capacity to address gender violence and obtain justice, and therefore its ability to challenge the dominant notions of citizenship in Chile with a feminist perspective. Through analysing the institutional notions of citizenship in Chile and exploring these three feminist practices in terms of their ability to challenge those institutional notions of the citizen-state relationships, this research contributes to the reflection on feminist movements in Latin America through a critical exploration of citizenship, as a dynamic construct, and the expansion of politics with a feminist perspective