Cracking the “glass ceiling”. Camila Vallejo and the new political leadership of women in Chile (2010-2018)

Abstract

This article explores the political leadership developed by Camila Vallejo since 2010 until 2018. It examines the strategies developed by Vallejo to crack the “glass ceiling”, that is, the barriers she had to overcome as a woman, first as student leader and later as congresswoman. It suggests that while being a student leader, Vallejo tried to tightly circumscribe her speech to her political position regarding the demands of the student movement. Forced to deal with repeated sexist and machista attacks, her strategy at this stage was to try as much as possible to ignore or silence the fact of being a woman. Later on, as she settled herself as a political leader in parliament, Vallejo increasingly adopted an openly feminist position, speaking of and making visible the main women’s struggles against sexist violence and for gender equality. Through this path, she managed to subvert the margins imposed on her, building a new feminist leadership within the institutional political system.

Keywords

• women
• chile
• feminism
• political leadership
• gender equality