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Seizing a Window of Opportunity: The Election of President Bachelet in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2008

Marcela Ríos Tobar
Marcela Ríos Tobar
Affiliation:
United Nations Development Program, Santiago, Chile
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Abstract

The election of Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile on January 15, 2006, was an historical milestone for women and gender equity, both in her own country and for Latin America in general, where women have made significant gains in terms of parliamentary representation but continue to confront great difficulties in being elected as heads of state. Bachelet's election as the first female president was astonishing and surprising in many respects. In contrast to the experiences of other societies where women have been competing for high-ranking offices for quite some time (see Holli in this issue), Bachelet was only the second woman ever to run for president in Chile, following Gladys Marin, a longtime Communist Party leader who ran for president in the 1999 election and won less than 4% of the vote.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 509 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2008

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References

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