Chile

Gabriel Boric, Chile’s left-wing president-elect, has announced his first cabinet, giving a majority of the posts to women and several to former student protest leaders.

Fourteen of the 24 new ministers announced on Friday are women, including Defence Minister Maya Fernandez — a granddaughter of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by a military coup in 1973.

Constitutional assembly picks academic Elisa Loncon to lead body drafting new text to replace Pinochet-era constitution.

The architects of Chile’s new constitution have chosen an Indigenous Mapuche woman to lead the process, as the country’s constitutional assembly was inaugurated on Sunday in the capital, Santiago.

Chilean women made such a strong showing in elections to pick candidates to draft the country's new constitution that adjustments to ensure the body was equally split between genders had to be made in favor of more men, elections body Servel said on Monday.

Chileans to elect 155-strong assembly made up of equivalent men and women to set out new framework and enshrine equal rights

Women’s rights activists in Chile say that the country’s new constitution will catalyze progress for women in the country – and could set a new global standard for gender equality in politics.

A few days ago, Chile held a historical plebiscite to decide whether the country should draft a new constitution, and through which mechanism; a fully elected constitutional convention, with gender parity, or a mixed convention integrated by current members of congress and elected citizens. This was the first national referendum since the ones that initiated the transition to democracy in 1988 and 1989.

Latin America has some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. Yet it also leads the world in electing female presidents — including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.