Abstract This article analyzes the role of gender identity in the political and professional trajectory of the lawyer Madariaga Gutiérrez (1942-2009), legal advisor, minister and ambassador of the Military Junta lead by General Augusto Pinochet between 1974 and 1985. Through a critical discourse analysis of her memoirs, interviews, and interventions in the sessions of the Junta, we argue that a key to her professional and political success in a male-dominated military world was the practice of a masculinized and subordinated gender performance, which simultaneously reproduced and challenged the patriarchal ideology of the military dictatorship. This analysis contributes to re-evaluate the political and legal history of Latin American authoritarian regimes from a gender perspective and adds complexity to the narratives about the inclusion of women in the legal profession.