By Democratic Socialists of America

Fotolog.com

By Margaret Power

One of the most enduring myths about the Popular Unity government headed by Salvador Allende in Chile is that it had the support of a united working class. It had the support of the united, male working class, but not of working-class women. Working-class women, unlike their male counterparts, did not cast the majority of their votes for the Popular Unity candidates. (In Chile, men and women vote separately, so it is possible to tabulate how each gender votes.) Instead, many working-class women identified with the program and propaganda of the centrist Christian Democrats and the right-wing Nationalist Party, which I refer to as “the opposition.” Indeed, the majority of Chilean women, across all classes, voted for the anti-Allende opposition in March 1973, the last elections before the September 11, 1973, coup that overthrew the Popular Unity government and installed the Pinochet military dictatorship in power. Why was this the case?

Source: Women and Pots and Pans: Chile Then and Venezuela Today