When are women's movements feminist? Framing and movement cycles in Chile since the 1930s

Why are women's movements only sometimes framed as feminist struggles? What factors favor or inhibit the convergence of feminism as a political goal and the mobilization of women based on their gender identity? This investigation answers these queries through an analysis of three distinct historical moments in Chile---a country with a distinctive feminist tradition. Two moments when feminist women's movements developed (the suffragist struggle of 1930s through the 1940s and the struggle to restore democracy in the 1980s) and one where feminism flourishes in the absence of women's mobilization (post-transition starting in 1990).;I explain the convergence of feminism with women's movements as the interaction between political opportunities and the agency feminist activists and intellectuals. Dimensions of the political opportunity structure that allow for a convergence include: the existence of broad societal mobilization for the expansion of democracy and partisan realignment that results in broad alliances between the political left and center. The positive impact of these conditions is contingent on the availability of feminist ideas and activism prior to broader cycles of societal mobilization, and on the capacity of feminist movement entrepreneurs to bridge between these feminist ideas and organizational structures and women's organizations mobilized through democratization struggles.