One year into her mandate, Chile's first woman president has legislated the right to breast-feed in the workplace, offered greater protection against domestic violence, cracked down on alimony-dodgers and placed more women in positions of power.

The election in January 2006 of socialist Michelle Bachelet, a separated mother of three, gave women across Latin America cause for hope that the region's macho ways were changing. "Chile is no longer our fatherland - it's our motherland" became a popular refrain.

On Thursday, Bachelet celebrated International Women's Day by promising no return "to the days when the top jobs were filled with dark suits and neckties."

Women's Day coincided with the start of a weeklong Latin American tour by President Bush that takes him to Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. Chile isn't on his itinerary.

The latter, enacted by presidential decree, met stiff resistance from conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church. Chile is considered politically liberal but socially conservative. It flatly bans abortion and legalized divorce only in 2004.

Some conservative mayors have refused to let their city health services distribute the morning-after pill, including Pablo Zalaquet of La Florida, near Santiago, who called Bachelet's decree "a black day for our country, a slap to the institution of family."

Bachelet, the only South American woman to have won the presidency without riding the coattails of a powerful husband, seeks to improve women's standing in society in a permanent way, says Women's Affairs Minister Laura Albornoz.

Women have also targeted Chile's law on domestic violence. Soledad Granados, who is working on the campaign, estimates that the average domestic violence case takes seven years to reach a court.

Another goal is more jobs for women. Their average work participation in Chile is just 37.5 percent, compared with 47 percent for Latin America.

And women hold only 12 percent of seats in Congress. Bachelet is preparing a bill to make political parties reserve 30 percent of their slate of candidates in congressional and municipal elections for women.

Whether the bill will get through the male-dominated Congress remains to be seen. But already, the gains women have made in Bachelet's first year are undeniable, said Virginia Guzman, a psychologist and sociologist with the Center for Studies of Women Affairs.

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