Pobladoras, indígenas, and the state : conflicts over women's rights in Chile / Patricia Richards.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Richards, Patricia, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women's rights--Chile.

Women's rights.

Mapuche women.

Social conditions.

Working class women.

Poor women.

Chile.

Poor women--Chile--Social conditions.

Working class women--Chile--Social conditions.

Mapuche women--Chile--Social conditions.

Poor women--Political activity--Chile.

Poor women--Political activity.

Working class women--Political activity--Chile.

Working class women--Political activity.

Mapuche women--Political activity--Chile.

Political participation.

Mapuche women--Chile--Government relations.

Physical Description:

x, 254 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2004]

Summary:

Can laws, policies, and agencies that are designed to help women achieve equality with men accommodate differences among women themselves? In Pobladoras, Indigenas, and the State, Patricia Richards examines how Chilean state policy shapes the promotion of women's interests but at the same time limits the advancement of different classes and racial-ethnic groups in various ways.

Chile has made a public commitment to equality between women and men through the creation of a National Women's Service, SERNAM. Yet, indigenous Mapuche women and working-class pobladora activists assert that they have been excluded from programs implemented by SERNAM. Decisions about what constitutes "women's interests" are usually made by middle-class, educated, lighter-skinned women, and the priorities and concerns of poor, working-class, and indigenous women have not come to the fore.

Through critical analysis of the role of the state, the diversity of women's movements, and the social and political position of indigenous peoples in Latin America, Richards provides an illuminating discussion of the ways in which the state defines women's interests and constructs women's citizenship. This book makes important contributions to feminist studies, theories of citizenship, and studies of the intersections of class, gender, and race.

Contents:

Women's rights and representing difference

Women's activism and the Chilean state

National development, social policy, and the poor

Participation and the representation of pobladoras in the state

State goals, national identity, and the Mapuche

Visión de pueblo and the representation of Mapuche women in the state

Why difference matters.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-239) and index.

ISBN:

0813534224

0813534232

OCLC:

52929116