The Institutional Evolution of Women’s Policy Agencies in Costa Rica and Chile: Promoting Gender Equality in Latin American States

Currently, over 75% of the world’s countries have instituted some form of gender equality machineries (including women’s ministries, women’s policy agencies and equality commissions) within the state bureaucracy charged with promoting women’s right and gender equality (McBride and Mazur 2012). However, in comparison to the sustained attention given to national legislature and women’s elected political positions, very little research has examined the institutional evolution of these agencies in the developing world and their broader effects on state policies in Latin America. In this paper, I compare the development of two women’s policy agencies in Latin America, the National Women’s Service (SERNAM) in Chile and INAMU (National Women’s Institute) in Costa Rica. SERNAM and INAMU represent both the longest-lasting and most powerful women’s policy agencies in Latin America. While the Chilean and Costa Rican state bureaucracies are quite different in terms of professionalization and autonomy, both have undergone a process of institutional strengthening designed to protect the political autonomy of the institutions and their role in overseeing the implementation of broader gender equality measures. Drawing on interviews in both Costa Rica and Chile, I argue that one key variable in this process was the political will and everyday action of civil servants committed to gender equality. The two institutions benefitted from an increasing number of civil servants, both within the agencies and in other ministries, who expressed a political commitment to gender equality, had experience with gender analysis, and were positioned throughout the state. This group of civil servants served as an important advocacy group within the state in promoting the increased institutionalization of gender equality measures and the slow, but steady progress towards changing the gender regime of the two states.