About

Welcome! I am a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University, specializing in comparative politics. My research interests include democratization, gender, and religion and politics, with a focus on historical and contemporary Latin America. I have also written on qualitative methodology.

 

My dissertation seeks to explain the timing of female enfranchisement in Latin America. To explain variation between early and late reformers, I propose a novel macro-micro framework of analysis that links cleavages, actors’ motivations, and outcomes. I argue that decision-makers have two main type of motivations – strategic and normative – and for reform to occur, both motivations need to align. These motivations are largely determined by the cleavage structure reflected in the party system. The nature of the class and religious cleavages before WWII put strategic and motivations at odds, making early women’s suffrage reform rare in Latin America. The post-war scenario introduced new cleavages – mainly the communist/anti-communist one – that facilitated reform.

 

I hold B.A.s in History and Political Science from the Universidad Católica de Chile. Before graduate school, I worked as a research assistant at the Universidad Católica de Chile, Diego Portales University, and Equitas Foundation.

 

Contact:

icastillo@u.northwestern.edu

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