Exploring Shifting Attitudes and Strategies Towards Gender-based Violence in Chile

• Project in Chile
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• Project Proposal:

  The rallying cry “Ni Una Menos” (“Not One Woman Less”) has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people, from the main plazas of Buenos Aires and Santiago to the busy roads of Mexico City. No country in the region has responded more quickly and favorably to these protests than Chile. Leadership of major political parties now refuses to endorse candidates accused of domestic violence, and–replacing the previous air of general apathy–blatantly sexist comments by public officials now provoke widespread public backlash.

  What, then, accounts for Chile’s recent, rapid, and unprecedented pivot toward legal and cultural gender equality? Where does this political will to address GBV come from? What might be the unintended consequences of mobilizing around extreme cases of GBV on societal attitudes, when the ultimate goal of feminists is to address GBV more broadly? These are the questions I will investigate during my Fulbright fellowship.

  My research will contextualize these remarkable legal successes in a larger socio-political context, allowing activists to better understand the impact of their new strategies on societal attitudes towards GBV.  I seek to investigate the feminist strategies and shifts in cultural attitudes that move Chilean law and society toward a more comprehensive understanding of the interconnected forms of violence that women face. Chile has the chance to be a leader to prevent, investigate, and punish all forms of GBV, both in Latin America and beyond; I hope my research would support Chile’s journey.

  In addition, I understand that my role as a Fulbright scholar extends beyond conducting research. I would greatly value the opportunity to be a cultural ambassador and to continue volunteering for the theatre program at “Mi Club Domingo Savio,” an afterschool club for disadvantaged youth. This immersive research and service experience would enable me to, as Senator J. William Fulbright put it, “bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion” into both my own world and the broader world of women’s rights advocacy which I hope to serve throughout my life.

• Proposal:

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