Pioneers in Political Representation: The Role of Women through the Discourse of Chilean Parliamentarians (1953-1973)

The presence of women in Chilean politics following the establishment of universal suffrage (1949) transformed politics; however, the impact of women's discursive skills on the political process has been little studied. This work examines how the first female parliamentarians influenced a new vision of the role of women. Through a qualitative methodology that combines the premises of critical discourse analysis, discursive institutionalism, and gender studies, twenty-five speeches by Chilean female parliamentarians (1953-1973) are analyzed using a dynamic model of four dimensions: a) discursive, b) socio-historical, c) normative-constitutional, and d) interpretative. The results indicate a predominance of descriptive components, limited recognition of women in society, and a role of resistance, opposition, and protest against the prevailing social structure in the parliamentarians' speeches, demonstrating that their discursive skills are avant-garde as they contribute to institutional change.