Movimiento Pro-Emancipación De Las Mujeres De Chile
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Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women () (often known as MEMCh or MEMCH) was both a historic women's rights organization, which pressed for equality between 1935 and 1953 and a current
umbrella organization An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and iden ...
reorganized in 1983 to organize other women's organizations to provide unity in the struggle for the country to return to democracy. Once the dictatorship was overturned the
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
turned their focus to uniting organizations which pursue a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to women's rights and development.


History

Pro-Emancipation Movement of Chilean Women or MEMCh was created on 28 May 1935 by a group of mostly working class women, many of whom were members of or sympathizers with the
Chilean Communist Party The Communist Party of Chile (, ) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party () and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth of Chile (, JJ.CC), in 1932. ...
; however, their goal was to have broad membership representing all aspects of the nation. It was the first women's group formed in Chile with specific political goals and an organizational strategy to become a national organization, rather than a local club. The journal, ' () was created by the organization as a means of publishing their views on feminist issues. Its leadership was composed of some of Chile's pioneering feminists and include Elena Caffarena, Graciela Mandujano,
Olga Poblete Olga Poblete de Espinosa (May 21, 1908 – July 17, 1999) was a long-time women's rights activist and feminist in Chile. She was a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962. Poblete and Elena Caffarena were later honored as "founding matriarchs" ...
,
Marta Vergara Marta Vergara Varas (2 January 1898 – 1995) was a Chilean author, editor, journalist and women's rights activist. Introduced to international feminism in 1930, she became instrumental in the development of the Inter-American Commission of Wome ...
, and Laura Rodig among others. Its first General Secretary and founder was Caffarena, who served in that capacity from 1935 to 1941. The organization was considered radical for its era, in that the women wanted full emancipation of their economic, civic and political spheres, recognizing that to attain those goals, radical changes must occur in all structures of society. Because the organization was heavily joined by working class women, they stressed the importance of equal pay and elimination of segregation which barred women's participation in certain jobs based on marital or other status. Related concerns were state-sponsored child care and maternity benefits, as well as the right of women to choose whether they would become mothers. Support for
contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...
and regulation of clandestine abortions, since
therapeutic abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnanc ...
was already legal, caused some parts of society to accuse MEMCh members of wanting to destroy the traditions of family. In ''memchistas'' (MEMCh members) view, they saw controlling one's biology as a part of women's family rights, including child support, inheritance, legitimacy, pension rights and others. While they strove for
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
, attaining the vote was only one step toward increasing women's participation in the public sphere. MEMCh members focused their efforts on women's issues throughout the social spectrum including the families of the urban poor, middle classes and educated elites. Social issues MEMCh supported were the availability of sanitary, affordable housing; assistance for alcoholism; reform of women's prisons; and equal access to education. MEMCh was the first women's group to use mass mobilization through public events, held not only in Santiago but also in the provinces. They held rallies for votes and political freedom, and in favor of regulations dealing with the high unemployment and subsistence living; and others against a military pact between Chile and the United States, and sending Chilean troops to participate in the
Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
. MEMch developed an educational work, hosting schools for workers and job training courses, and created social service facilities to provide health care and legal advice. In the 1940s, the organization strongly opposed
fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
, but rumors and actual links with communism of some of the feminists led to public defamation of several members and press which was critical of their objectives. MEMch joined the Popular Front and held two congresses (1937, 1940) to gather information from various sectors to create a platform which would address the issues that women faced. When
Pedro Aguirre Cerda Pedro Abelino Aguirre Cerda (; February 6, 1879 – November 25, 1941) was a Chilean political figure, educator, and lawyer who served as the 22nd president of Chile from 1938 until his death in 1941. He was Political moderate, moderate. A me ...
was elected as president, he agreed to introduce the issue of women's right to vote. In 1941, Caffarena and Flor Heredia drafted a proposal for consideration, but Cerda died before it was introduced. In 1944, MEMCh organized a meeting held at the
University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.
in celebration of
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...
and that was followed by another congress, organized by Felisa Vergara. She brought together women from 200 different women's organizations, who agreed to align in an organization, Chilean Federation of Women's Institutions (). FECHIF in turn backed the candidacy of
María de la Cruz María de la Cruz Toledo (September 18, 1912 – September 1, 1995) was a Chilean political activist for women's suffrage, a journalist, a writer, and a political commentator. In 1953, she became the first woman ever elected to the Chilean Senate ...
in 1946, but MEMCh adhered to the Popular Front candidate,
Gabriel González Videla Gabriel Enrique González Videla (; 22 November 1898 – 22 August 1980) was a Chilean politician and lawyer who served as the 24th president of Chile from 1946 to 1952. He had previously been a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1930 ...
, believing that though charismatic, de la Cruz's vision was too narrow to support the needs of a wide constituency of women. After González Videla's election to the presidency in 1946, moderate members' relationships were strained by the anti-communist policies ushered in by the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
and the leftist leanings of many MEMch members. In 1949, having survived the government decision to outlaw the Communist Party and state harassment aimed at curtailing its activities, Chilean women gained universal suffrage. Membership turned their attention to
pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...
and campaigns to protect children. The organization survived until 1953, when it was dissolved. Though specific reasons for the dissolution are unknown, the political polarization and MEMCh's refusal to exclude anyone for their political views and factionalism dividing the focus to interest groups were contributing factors.


Current Organization

In 1983, MEMCh83, named after the original organization, was founded by a broad spectrum of women's groups, some with
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
aims and others without feminist goals. The
umbrella organization An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and iden ...
's purpose was to unite women's efforts in the restoration of democracy during the
Chilean dictatorship An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. The dictatorship was established after the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in ...
of
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...
. Initially the organization made no demands for women's rights, but when MEMCh83 organized its first mass mobilization on 28 November 1983, they expressed opposition to Pinochet and demanded peace and women's equality. In 1985, the organization was established as MEMch, under a non-governmental organizational structure. Since democracy was restored in 1988, the organization has focused on joining a broad coalition of Chilean NGOs in the advocacy of women's equality, which includes their reproductive and sexual rights, as well as all aspects of development.


References


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* * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control 1935 establishments in Chile Feminist organisations in Chile Women's suffrage in Chile