Protecting, Empowering, or Penalizing Motherhood? The Contradictory Treatment of Women in Chilean Social Policies

Abstract:This article contributes to the discussion of gendered social policy in Latin America. Despite considerable attention to the Chilean case, few studies have provided a comparative analysis of how the articulation of gender through motherhood differs across social sectors. We contrast the case of the health sector with the examples of housing and labor market policies to demonstrate that the framing of motherhood in Chilean social policies is not uniformly articulated. We note the diverse and contradictory nature of gendered narratives and practices across the sectors and argue that it still predominantly shapes women's access to social policy.