National Women's Service (Chile)
# National Women's Service (Chile)

The National Women's Service (Spanish: Servicio Nacional de la Mujer; SERNAM) is a public service in Chile, a functionally decentralized organization, with its own funding, which is part of the cabinet-level Ministry of Planning and Cooperation under the President of Chile, created January 3, 1991 by the Law N° 19,023, with the goal of promoting the equality of men and women.

SERNAM's founding mission was to collaborate with the executive in the study and proposal of general plans and measures in order that women may enjoy equality of rights and opportunities with men, in the process of political, social, economic, and cultural development of Chile.

## Organization

The upper-level direction, technical and administrative, of SERNAM is charged to the Director of Service, who has the rank of Minister of State, like an Interior Minister or Finance Minister. Its first Director was Soledad Alvear.

In each of the regions in which Chile is divided a Regional Directorship of the National Women's Service exists with its headquarters in the capital city of each respective region. There are 13 regional directorships.

## Minister Directors

| Minister-Director | Party | Period | President |
| - | - | - | - |
| Soledad Alvear Valenzuela | DC | 3 January 1991 | Patricio Aylwin Azócar |
| Josefina Bilbao | Ind | 11 March 1994 | Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle |
| Adriana Delpiano Puelma | PPD | 11 March 2000 | Ricardo Lagos Escobar |
| Cecilia Pérez Díaz | Ind | 11 March 2003 | Ricardo Lagos Escobar |
| Laura Albornoz Pollman | DC | 11 March 2006 | Michelle Bachelet Jeria |
| Carmen Andrade Lara | PS | 20 October 2009 | Michelle Bachelet Jeria |
| Carolina Schmidt Zaldívar | Ind | 11 March 2010 | Sebastián Piñera Echenique |
| Loreto Seguel King | Ind | 22 April 2013 | Sebastián Piñera Echenique |
| Claudia Pascual | PC | 11 March 2014 | Michelle Bachelet Jeria |

* DC: Christian Democrat Party of Chile
* PPD: Party for Democracy
* PS: Socialist Party of Chile
* PC: Communist Party of Chile
* Ind: Independent
