Market society: a socio-political economy of women’s reproductive healthcare in Chile.

• In Event: The Politics of Health, Science and Gender in late 20th and 21st Century Chile

Abstract

From the 1990s onwards, Chile has undergone an expansion of market values and a consolidation of ‘market society’. Drawing on a review of literature and on empirical data, this paper considers the nature of this process as it has been expressed in the Chilean health sector and in Chilean society’s relationship with healthcare during this period. Using the lens of reproductive healthcare for women, it reflects on ways that social, economic and political institutions contribute to shaping the specific trajectory of commercialisation, and to the nature and limits of the market expression of gender roles in health.

Author

• Susan F Murray, King's College London