Feminine Party

Founded in 1946 by María de la Cruz, this party joined the umbrella group FECHIF (Federación Chilena de Instituciones Femeninas) the same year. De la Cruz was influenced by Juan and Eva Perón, and the Feminine Party platform stressed "justice and social harmony." The party reflected de la Cruz's beliefs about women's moral superiority, defended traditional gender roles and femininity, and argued that female "emotionality" was a necessary counterweight to male "rationality." Journalist Georgina Durand and lawyer Felícitas Klimpel were on the Feminine Party board of directors. In 1951 the party split over de la Cruz's personalist leadership, but both factions supported the successful independent presidential candidacy of Carlos Ibáñez in 1952. Running as the Feminine Party candidate, de la Cruz was the first woman to be elected to the Chilean Senate in 1952; the party disintegrated following her expulsion from the Senate in 1953.

See alsoFeminism and Feminist Organizations .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Felícitas Klimpel, La mujer chilena (el aporte femenino al progreso de Chile) 1910–1960 (1962).

Corinne Antezana-Pernet, "Peace in the World and Democracy at Home: The Chilean Women's Movement in the 1940s," in Latin America in the 1940s, edited by David Rock (1994).

Additional Bibliography

Rosemblatt, Karin Alejandra. Gendered Compromises: Political Cultures and the State in Chile, 1920–1950. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

                                Corinne Antezana-Pernet