Feminist Discussions for Education in the Chilean Constitution

• In Event: The Constitution as Curriculum and Public Pedagogy

Abstract

Paper 2
Feminist discussions for education in the Chilean Constitution
There are plenty discussion on the feminist hallmark in the Constitution about those norms related to gender parity, gender violence and reproductive rights. However, there are little discussion on the feminist knowledge that inform the norms on education. This common omission that underlies the discussion about the New Constitution invites us to wonder how the feminist movement and knowledge are informing the discussion on education declared in the Constitution, as the maximum expression of a social and political agreement. Based on a study on gender and knowledge from a feminist perspective and the analysis of the discussion positioned by the Commissions of Education that worked during its creation, this paper is an invitation to understand the feminist knowledge that are embedded in the articles related to education norms and its relationship with other sections of the constitution that may affect the educational system, such as principles and general provisions on substantive equality, parity, representation and gender. A feminism articulated from the new materialism gave us tools to analyze the material conditions the ways feminist knowledges are informing the conversation on gender and education in the constitution and the new social and political agreement that reflects.
As a product of the feminist movement, one of the main characteristics of the Constitutional Convention has been gender parity. For the first time in the history of the country and in the world, a Constitution was written with an equal composition between men and women. When analyzing the document, around 35 regulations - issued from the different thematic commissions - highlighted gender issues in different areas such as: the democratic system, the political and the justice system, and fundamental rights such as sexual and guaranteed reproduction as well as the mainstreaming of the gender perpectives in the State. As an example, it is established as a principle that the Constitution must ensure gender equality in all its expressions: “The State promotes a society where women, men, diversities, and sexual and gender dissidents participate in conditions of substantive equality, recognizing that their effective representation it is a principle and minimum condition for the full and substantive exercise of democracy and citizenship.” (Article 6, p. 6). More specifically, one of the feminists demands of May 2018 is translated into Article 40 where fundamental aspects of gender in education, sex-affective responsibility and consent are part of the concepts promoted by the proposal. This article mentions that this Constitution will promote a comprehensive sexual education “the full and free enjoyment of sexuality; sexual-affective responsibility; autonomy, self-care and consent; recognition of diverse identities and expressions of gender and sexuality”. If the text emanating from the Constitutional Convention is approved, the Magna Carta will safeguard for the first time the right to comprehensive sexual education (ESI). This paper contribute to the discussion on the ways feminist knowledges inform the norms related to education and gender in the main document that will govern the history of the country for the next decades.

Authors

• Ana Luisa Muñoz, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
  Presenting Author

• Carolina Munoz Rojas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
  Presenting Author