How do institutions work? What are the rules of engagement for social actors trying to influence the state, in particular women’s groups and feminists? Are these mostly formal or informal? How do these rules impact on policy initiatives and processes? These are the type of questions feminist institutionalism is trying to answer. The first presidency of Michelle Bachelet (2006 -1010) provides an interesting ground to look at these issues. First, because Bachelet was Chile’s first female president and this created expectations for gender change, especially among feminists. Second, because the Bachelet administration had a clear gender agenda and rhetoric that emphasised the importance of gender equality in policymaking. Third, because existing research seems to indicate that the use of gender rhetoric and the gender of the President herself predisposed people to specific hopes and led in some cases to a strong opposition to the gender agenda (such as with reproductive health and rights’ issues).
This paper will map the current state of knowledge on formal and informal rules in policymaking and state engagement with social and political actors during president Bachelet’s first term in office. It will review the most recent research on the right-wing Piñera administration to see how it can complement the knowledge on the role of formal and informal institutions and gender change. The aim is to see what this scholarship can tell us about whether the pre-existing formal and informal rules changed, or were transformed by the creation of new ones during Bachelet’s mandate and then develop an agenda for future research.
