The extraordinary political action starring the Pro-Emancipation Movement of Women of Chile, (MEMCH): 1935-1949

Abstract

In the present text we will describe and analyze the political action of the MEMCH, as well as its influence on Chilean society, between the years 1935-1949. We will review its geographic scope; its massiveness and plurality in terms of adherents and its emancipatory and visionary program, with the multifaceted use of determined and effective strategies of action, on which historiography has not sufficiently repaired until the present. Among them: its organic, through the formation of local committees in various parts of the country, its relations with the Central Committee; the assiduous epistolary exchange, sustained between the members of these and the leadership; the train trips of its delegates with the purpose of deploying in the provinces, both in the North and South of the country, to approach and train women; the enlarged National Congresses, which heard the voice of leaders and militants; the emblematic leadership; public demonstrations; alliances with fraternal organizations, political parties, unions, unions and influential people in the political sphere; the creation and use of identity elements; the specific campaigns marked by the national and international contingency and the dissemination of its editorial line through the newspaper "La Mujer Nueva". It is also highlighted as articulating attributes of the MEMCH's political action: the fraternity among its militants, the plurality of ideas, creeds and social classes present in its ranks. Within a political context, they not only devoted themselves to the struggle to achieve the female vote, but they also developed communication and organizational strategies that were very effective, such as letter communication and the visits of their delegates to the north and south. As a hypothesis, we formulated that the MEMCH articulated its activities creating and using a plurality of strategies that made it possible to massify the movement. It established a strong and sustained link between sectors of enlightened and popular women, and in favor of an integral program of women's demands, whose efficiency was due, in spite of inter-class tensions, to the fact that the autonomy of the organization was the fundamental principle, as well as the construction of an own identity. Not only was it a political movement but it raised problems that are still current and are part of the demands of the current feminist movements.