Women's suffrage was introduced in two steps in Chile: first for local elections in 1934 and later extended to all elections in 1949. This article analyzes the legislative process and the effects of women's enfranchisement in Chile from a temporal perspective through a documentary and quantitative analysis, by means of ecological inference. Firstly, we argue that the political parties' strategic calculations about the possible consequences of the women's vote were fundamental for explaining the Chilean route to women's suffrage. Secondly, we maintain that the incorporation of women into the electorate did not cause any significant electoral instability. Thirdly, our study of the gender gap shows that even though it favored right-wing and reformist-center parties for a long time, this effect has diminished considerably with the passing of time.