ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there are five factors which adversely affect women's organizations after re-democratization and which may lead to their eventual disbanding: the youth and rigidity of their groups, a few ill-chosen strategies, the relationship of democracy to women, the state's institutionalization of women's issues, and an acute lack of funding. The implications of this phenomenon of demobilization are profound for women and feminism, for civil society, and for the re-emergence of the democratic regime itself. The development of Chilean civil society in general, and among women's organizations in particular, was erratic under the prior democracy, with periods of stagnation interspersed with spurts of great momentum. Women's empowerment groups also de-mobilize for reasons external to the organizations. The institutionalization of women by the state is another exogenous factor which has contributed to the de-mobilization of feminist groups.
