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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Extended-family life has occupied an important place
in Chilean
society. Although couples are expected to set up their own
households, they remain in close contact with the members
of their
larger families. Children generally get to know their
cousins well,
as much adult leisure time, generally on weekends and
holidays, is
spent in the company of relatives. It is also common to
find
children living for extended periods of time for
educational or
other reasons in households headed by relatives, sometimes
even
cousins of their parents. These extended-family ties
provide a
network of support in times of nuclear family crises. It
is also
common for close friendships among adults to lead to links
that are
family-like. For example, children often refer to their
parents'
friends as "uncle" or "aunt."
Traditional definitions of gender roles have broken
down
considerably as women have won access to more education
and have
entered the labor force in larger numbers. By 1990 about
half the
students in the nation's primary and secondary schools
were female;
the proportion of women was lower, about 44 percent of the
total
enrollment in all forms of higher education. The
University of
Chile graduated Latin America's first female lawyers and
physicians
in the 1880s. However, women made faster progress in
traditionally
female professions than in other professions. Thus, by
1910 there
were 3,980 women teachers, but there were only seven
physicians,
ten dentists, and three lawyers. By the 1930s, female
enrollments
reached significant numbers in these fields. The
University of
Chile in 1932 had 124 female students enrolled in law (17
percent
of the total), ninety-six in medicine (9.5 percent), and
108 in
dentistry (38 percent), although 55 percent of all women
students
at the university were enrolled in education.
Attitudes regarding the proper roles of men and women
in
society seemingly no longer follow a fully traditional
pattern. A
1984 survey conducted in Santiago by the Diagnos polling
firm found
widespread support among men (more than 80 percent) and
women (more
than 90 percent) of high, medium, and low socioeconomic
status for
the notion that women benefit as individuals if they work
outside
the home. When asked if they agreed or disagreed with the
notion
that "it is better for women to concentrate on the home
and men on
their jobs," 43 percent of the national sample in the CERC
July
1991 survey agreed, even though the term "concentrate"
does not
imply a denial of the right of women to work outside the
home.
There were some differences between the genders over this
question,
with 49 percent of men and 38 percent of women in
agreement. The
percentage in favor of this notion increased with age.
Only 30
percent of those under age twenty-five agreed, while 61
percent of
those over age sixty-one did so.
Men and women in the same CERC study were considerably
divided
over whether "women should obey their husbands." This is a
sentence
included in family law that is supposed to be read
(although it is
frequently omitted) to Chileans when they take their
marriage vows
in the civil registry's ceremony; 55 percent of men
agreed, while
only 40 percent of women did so. Again, men held the more
traditional views, but considering the nature of the
proposition
and its long-established status in civil law, the fact
that only
slightly more than half of them agreed can be considered a
sign of
changing times.
Surveys of working-class respondents can usually be
counted on
to capture the more traditional views of urban society
toward male
and female roles because such attitudes are usually
associated with
lower levels of educational attainment. But working-class
Chileans
are in general not as traditionally minded as could be
expected
about the issue of women working outside the home. In a
1988 survey
of workers, 70 percent of the men and 85 percent of the
women
agreed with the notion that "even if there is no economic
necessity, it is still convenient for women to work." The
notion
that "men should participate more actively in housework so
that
women are able to work" was accepted by 70 percent of men
and 92
percent of women. Forty-five percent of men believed that
"women
who work gravely neglect their home obligations," while 21
percent
of women did so. However, male support for the notion of
women
working outside the home varied depending on the way the
question
was phrased. When interviewers presented the idea that "if
men were
to make more money, then women should return to the home,"
63
percent of men agreed, while only 33 percent of women did.
Nonetheless, popular beliefs hold very strongly to the
notion
that women reach full self-realization primarily through
motherhood. This generates strong pressures on women to
have
children, although most take the necessary measures to
have fewer
than did their mothers and especially their grandmothers.
Employed
working-class women usually are able to find preschools
and day
care for their small children, as these programs are
broadly
established throughout the country. The extended family
also
provides a means of obtaining child care.
Middle-class to upper-class households usually hire
female
domestic servants to do housework and take care of
children. This
practice facilitates the work life of the women of such
households.
Women can frequently be found in the professions even
outside such
traditionally female-dominated areas as primary and
secondary
education, nursing, and social work. For example, among
the
nation's 14,334 physicians in 1990, there were 3,811
women, or 27
percent of the total. This percentage has been increasing
in recent
years. Among the 7,616 physicians less than thirty-five
years of
age, there were 2,778 women, or 37 percent of the total.
In 1991
about 48 percent of the nation's 748 judges were women;
although
there were none on the Supreme Court, 24.2 percent of the
appellate
court judges were women. A slight majority of the roughly
4,200
journalists in the country were women.
Data as of March 1994
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