Gabriel Boric has today been sworn in as President of Chile. A joyful gathering of progressives from across Latin America and Europe marked the day, including Jeremy Corbyn, former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, Spanish Minister for Equality Irene Montero and Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro.

As expected, Boric’s inauguration signalled the tone for the new government. After swearing his commitment to the people of Chile, he said, ‘I’m very proud of this cabinet, I’m proud that there are more women than men,’ and thanked the feminist movement. He also made mention of los pueblos of Chile, a gesture at the diversity of nations that exist in the country.

The character of the new government was set when the Ministers of Justice and the Interior dropped the 139 lawsuits that, under Piñera’s administration, the state had been pursuing against protestors detained and charged during the 2019 uprising. As the first official act of the new government, this was certainly welcome.

The inauguration comes the same week as International Women’s Day, which in Chile is unofficially marked by the Women’s Strike. One of Boric’s campaign promises involved making his the first feminist government in Chilean history. In a recent public event, he called on all men to ‘take feminism seriously’ and indicated that his feminist government would aim to ‘change the ways we relate with one another, and the ways in which we see the world’.

But what does having a feminist government actually mean? This question is particularly acute in the context of the resurgence of the feminist movement in Chile since 2018, and its role in Boric’s election.

This week, over 300,000 people gathered in Santiago to mark International Women’s Day, the largest march since the beginning of the pandemic. The theme was a farewell to Sebastian Piñera’s government, and the demonstration served as a reminder of the violation of human rights that his government committed during the social uprising.

At its front, the female ministers of the new government said goodbye to the reactionary politics of the past four years, and again signalled a new era for Chilean politics. This, however, was not an unusual International Women’s Day for Chilean feminists.

Since 2018, feminism has taken an increasingly central role in Chilean politics. In 2020, the Women’s Strike brought together more than a million people, mostly women and LGBTQ+ people, in Santiago, in one of the largest demonstrations since the return to democracy. And feminism’s role has not been confined to street mobilisations: it was also a crucial force in shaping national politics and decision-making in the aftermath of the uprising.

During Boric’s campaign, and particularly in the second round, feminist organisations such as Coordinadora 8M were essential in organising against Kast. The results were a testimony to their effectiveness: more women under thirty voted than ever before.

There is a majority of women in Boric’s new cabinet, with the appointment of Antonia Orellana to Minister for Women and Gender Equality one of the most significant among them. Orellana is a feminist, a member of Convergencia Social—Boric’s party—and a leading activist in the Red Chilena contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres, or the Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women. She will join Boric in the President’s Political Committee, the first time this ministerial brief is included in the president’s inner circle.

The political committee is a select group of ministers that supports the president in political decision-making. It sets the priorities, direction, and type of mandate the government will have. As such, including the Minister for Women and Gender Equality sends a clear message about the role feminism is set to play.

The alignment between feminists-in-movement and feminists-in-government will itself be something to examine over the coming four years. For now, both sides of the feminist movement share the principles that should guide Boric’s government.

These principles are not simply those of a narrow liberal notion of representation, in which women will be able to reach positions of power and participation; nor are they limited to policy reforms. Instead, the political intention of the feminist movement is to fundamentally reshape the role that women play in society, and to put feminism at the heart of its politics.

One expected change is the recognition of reproductive labour. Boric’s campaign programme responded to this historical feminist demand by promising the creation of a National Care System (Sistema Nacional de Cuidados) that transfers the sole responsibility of care from the family, and particularly women, to the state and communities.

The elected government also committed itself to dealing with the issue of violence against women, girls, and the LGBTQ+ community, expanding its narrow definition of ‘interpersonal’ violence to include structural and intersectional dimensions.

The recognition that the fight against this violence starts from the point of recognising and critiquing institutional violence (such as in the juridical system and in police repression) is a major step forward for the feminist agenda.

The language, narratives, and inclusion of activists in the setting of Boric’s programme demonstrate how his new government has been influenced by this new wave of feminism—one whose advocates have repeatedly occupied the streets of Chile, adorned with the characteristic purple and green scarf.

A feminist government is possible. The fight for feminism, however, will not end there. The Constitutional Convention, for example, has just passed a motion on the inclusion of constitutional protections for sexual and reproductive rights, including access to abortion.

Across all these fronts, feminist influence has intervened to help restructure and reimagine Chilean society. Now is Boric’s chance to keep the promise alive beyond the symbolism of today’s inauguration.