La Mujer Nueva

In the time of pan-American women’s rights movement arose the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women (MEMCh), the most influential feminist group at the time. This is an organization dedicated to gaining civil rights and liberties to the women of Chile. Founded in 1935, MEMCh started a newsletter titled La Mujer Nueva (The New Woman). The goal was to bring awareness to the kinds of rights women in Chile deserved — similar to the kind of movements that North America had just gone through. The front page of La Mujer Nueva has incredible significance for the movement at the time.  Marta Vergara, Graciela Mandujano, and Aida Parada joined together to create this organization in hopes of bringing awareness and gaining support from others in Chile. They were fighting for reproductive rights, economic freedom, reproductive emancipation, and better social conditions. This can contrast to the Neoliberal movement that was occurring all around the world, as there was movement towards open markets and individual freedom. There was also a comparison to fascism. The identification of fascism is made in La Mujer Nueva, as they claim Chile is fascist, because women do not have the rights they deserve. However, eventually the right to vote was made available in 1949.

Works Cited:

Pernet, Corinne A. “Chilean Feminists, the International Women’s Movement, and Suffrage, 1915-1950.” Pacific Historical Review69, no. 4 (2000): 663-88. Accessed February 12, 2020. doi:10.2307/3641229.

The new woman / bulletin of the Pro-Emancipation Movement of Women of Chile. Santiago: The Movement, 1935-1941 (Santiago: Impr. Gutenberg) 27 nos., Year 3, n ° 26, (Nov. 1940), p. 1-2

By Lily Walters