"Solidarity between women was nice": gender, resistance and political prison in Chile during the dictatorship"

Abstract

In this article we will use gender theory to analyze the oral histories of female political prisoners in Chile during the dictatorship. Of particular concern to us is the way in which these women were able to use gendered strategies of resistance and solidarity, although we recognize that these same strategies could prove to be insufficient due to the extreme nature of torture and political imprisonment itself, which promoted the instinct to survive at all costs. Finally, we also conclude that these women´s memories of political prison have been deeply influenced, in many cases, by later contacts with feminism.

Gender; political prison; resistance; memory; feminism