How the Feminist

Movement is Defying
Machismo Culture in Chile
Charis McGowan
Updated: 6 June 2018

Sexual harassment cases in Chile’s higher education

have sparked a feminist movement called
#EducaciónNoSexista (A Non-Sexist Education). What
began as strikes turned into a larger protest which has
evolved into an enormous movement across Chile
calling for an end to machismo culture.
Students at more than twenty universities have left classes and occupied
campuses over the past few months, demanding greater measures of
protection in the wake of numerous harassment claims against
professors. Last week, a larger central protest broke out in Santiago and
thousands marched for female rights.

They are demanding changes in policy, since universities in Chile are not
legally required to have sexual harassment policies in place. But what’s
really fueling the protests has roots that run much deeper than the college
campus issues.

“Machismo and Latin American countries go hand in hand,” reflects Jose

Luis Poblete, English Language lecturer at USACH. “Usually men are in
authoritative positions, and in the university we can really see this. All of
the Deans in Chile are men. They make the decisions that affect
everybody. This isn’t now only about feminism, but sexual orientation,
gender identities—things need to change.”

Machismo culture is also apparent in the current predominantly male,

conservative ruling class of Chile, which opposes progressive gender law
and LGBTQ rights. Women here had to fight one of the strictest abortion
policies in the world, which finally became only slightly more lenient last
year under the previous progressive administration. From government
policy to unwanted sexual harassment, women continue the need to
lobby and be heard.

No one anticipated the latest demonstration would come this far, but
student solidarity, frustration, and outrage have been building. Three
years ago, the Argentine-born #NiUnaMenos movement spread across
Latin America as women demanded an end to male violence and
femicide. Last year’s #MeToo encouraged millions of women worldwide to
share their stories of sexual abuse and take action against it.

Sofia Brito, a law student at Universidad de Chile, has been waiting for
nearly a year for her university to take action after she accused a
professor of unwanted and inappropriate advances in August of 2017.
Brito was involved in female rights campaigns throughout her entire
student career, and never expected to be subjected to the exact plights
she was fighting against.

“Many of us were involved with NiUnaMenos. It taught us what it was to

be a feminist—before that, feminism was something that we viewed as
outsiders,” Brito says. “We knew feminism from the 80s—it was more like
history for us than something we were actually living.” For her and many
others, history became a current, undeniable reality.
Law school students at the university have now gone on strike,
demanding to know why the professor is still teaching despite being under
investigation. “Without a resolution to this case,” Brito adds, “and to all the
other similar cases happening, other students just said, ‘That is enough.
This is a reason to protest.'”

The high profile of Brito’s unresolved case, against such a prominent

professor at a prestigious university, ignited the protest and resonated
throughout Chile. Since then, faculties and universities across the country
have begun to occupy their campuses to fight against machismo and
demand that sexual harassment complaints be taken seriously.

“Students need to be heard and, at a university level, striking is the only

way to create changes.” says Poblete. While striking is therefore not
uncommon in Chile, the magnitude and duration of this particular
movement is startling. Classes at USACH have been indefinitely
suspended for weeks.
Strikes are still happening throughout the country. Another protest is
planned in the port city Valparaiso on the June 1st, with another national
strike and demonstration the week after. Student organizations across the
country are working collectively to present a formal process for
universities that will effectively condemn and castigate incidents of
manipulation or abuse of power. They also submitted a letter to the
government requesting the resignation of Education Minister Gerardo
Varela, who referred to the students’ plights as “small humiliations.”

“The strike is not just about my case” says Brito, …”but all the cases
made by fellow students, who couldn’t report them because of the failures
in the current procedures.”