Fluid Coalitions: Gendered Debates and Political Alliances in the Chilean Constitutional Assembly

The 2021-2022 Constitutional Assembly in Chile made worldwide headlines for being the first of such instances composed of equal numbers of men and women. Some claim that, as a direct result, the constitutional draft had gender issues mainstreamed over many constitutional provisions. However, this was not a straightforward product of gender parity. First, although 50% of delegates were women, not all of them identified as feminists. Second, pre-agreement provisions established that each article had to be approved by ⅔ of the delegates; therefore, feminist delegates could not unilaterally impose gender mainstreaming. Using a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative text analysis and interviews, we investigate the voting coalitions that supported those feminist articles. As political parties did not dominate the Constitutional Assembly and independent delegates exercised key influence, fluid voting coalitions emerged among different constitutional articles. Our main findings show that the coalitions created around feminist issues were distinct and specific, and that the debates on these topics followed different dynamics than other issues.