Berkley Center

Any new arrival to Santiago is quickly directed to the cerro San Cristóbal. As the second highest point in the city, San Cristóbal provides the best view of Chile’s capital and its incredible backdrop, the Andes mountains. At the top of the almost 920-foot hill sits a massive statue of the Virgin Mary. Although it struggles with smog like many large cities, on clearer days the white figure is visible from many places throughout Santiago. During my five months living with a Chilean family and studying at the country’s top two universities, I have discovered that this symbol of the virgin sets the tone for gender relations in Chile, in particular the expectations for women.

Like most Latin American countries, Chile’s citizens overwhelmingly identify themselves as Catholic. A distinctive feature of Chilean Catholicism is its particularly close relationship with the Virgin Mary, one I have not seen as a practicing Catholic in the United States.

During a trip I took with my program to Iquique in northern Chile, we stopped one evening in La Tirana, a town about an hour from the port. Every July, this tiny desert town hosts a massive religious celebration in Mary’s name. For more than a week straight, La Tirana’s residents and the thousands of visitors that come to participate in the event dance 24 hours per day in elaborate costumes. This annual celebration exemplifies Chilean Catholics’ special devotion to the virgin, which is also revealed by prayer petitions addressed specifically to Mary in Masses on my Catholic university’s campus.

As a result of this close relationship, the general society holds up Mary’s example of pure and ideal motherhood as of the highest importance. Simply stated, women are valued for being mothers. As a result, girls are expected to grow up, get married, and have children. This fact is certainly not unique to Chile, but the Catholic Church’s influence in the country makes the definition of ideal motherhood distinct.

In order to be a good mother, a woman must closely follow Mary’s example. Simply marrying and having children is not enough; Chilean mothers are meant to be particularly sacrificing and suffering in the way that the virgin is depicted in the Bible. The common expectation is that women will give up personal or individual success in order to provide the best possible life for their husband and children.

During my semester in Santiago I am studying at the University of Chile (La Universidad de Chile) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (La Pontífica Universidad Católica de Chile), the two undisputed best universities in the country. Despite the fact that roughly equal numbers of male and female students study at both schools, the Chilean society overwhelmingly anticipates that marriage and motherhood will eventually become the first priority of these smart, motivated students.

Perhaps as a result of this expectation, young couples are everywhere on la Católica’s campus and the city in general. Their presence might be more notable because of the Chilean tendency to be openly affectionate no matter who is nearby, but based on my experience in both Chile and the United States, more Chilean young people are in serious relationships.

A few Chilean women, like one of my professors, choose not to follow this traditional path. As a 30-something young woman who is a successful, unmarried college professor, she is unusual to say the least. Although her family has supported her studies, she told me that when she finished graduate school there was a general sigh of relief; now she could finally get married and start a family.

Other Chileans pursue both a career and motherhood. When people learn of a woman’s professional success, my professor said that one question inevitably follows: “But what about the children?” It is accepted as obvious that a woman cannot achieve high levels of personal success while at the same time living up to the expectations for motherhood. Since a good mother must embody the suffering and sacrifice that Mary displayed, a personal career just does not fit into that image.

Many people and societies throughout the world maintain the traditional view that a woman’s place is in the home, but the religious culture of Chile makes the expectations for girls and women even more difficult to live up to or attempt to renegotiate. During my time in Santiago I have realized that the United States has more progressive views on gender roles and the opportunities women can pursue.

Still, many smart, motivated young women that I know at Georgetown and as well as other universities struggle with the question of how they will balance aspirations for a successful career and a family. Given Chileans’ stricter definition of what being a good mother requires, based on the Virgin Mary as the ideal, Chilean women have an even more difficult job in negotiating their possible futures.