Summary

This paper presents a study of the evolving discourse surrounding women's sufragge from the time debate on the subject began in the 1860s to the time it was finally granted in 1949. The primary question is why did it take as long as it took for women to obtain the right to vote in Chile. We think that women had to wait so long because neither the political class nor public opinion considered women's sufragge of sufficient importance to de vote energy to it. In the 1930's, women 's vote was already a political issue but most of the political party's stance reflected their perception of whether or not they stood to benefit or lose from it. Thus, theCoservative Party advocated the vote for women because it thought that if women got the vote, they would strengthen the party. Following the same criterion, the Radical Party opposed to women's vote, at least until 1930's.Finally, the argument that convinced the political class that women sholud obtain the vote had to do more with the broader political context than the justice of women's electoral participation. In orden to counter the imagen of an anti-democratic government that González Videla's sponsorship of the 1948 Ley Maldita created, his government pushed the vote for women. The political became aware that its democratic image was at risk because 50% of the Chilean population didn 't have the right to vote only for a gender issue, and the pressure of that argument finaly obtained the vote for women.