The Brazilian Left in the 21st Century by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030032883
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Feminist Movements and the Making of Democracy, 1980s

The masculine character of politics in Brazil certainly endures, but underrepresentation should not be confused with an absence of political action. A closer look reveals a more complex situation and electoral politics could be misleading in understanding women’s engagement in politics in Brazil (Pinto 2003). Political participation does not occur despite underrepresentation, but in a context of imbalanced influence. That also does not imply an absence of political effect, although it means that feminist agenda was kept within rigid limits—that have been certainly pressed by feminist movements, as is discussed later.

Politically organized in the face of the dictatorship inaugurated with the 1964 coup and its restrictions on political participation, feminist movements valued autonomy and mistrusted a transition that preserved a central position for the civil elites from the regime. At the same time, many feminists already acted within the scope of center-left parties and saw the new regime’s institutionalization as an opportunity to “engender” Brazilian democracy (Alvarez 1990).

The themes that had priority in their political engagement at the time were violence against women and women’s health, due to the importance they had on the movement’s agenda, but also because there was not a strong resistance to them among parties and politicians, creating a possibility to have allies among parties and recently elected state and municipal governments in the transition process. It is important to keep in mind, though, that even these themes had to be pushed into democratic debate and the state’s arena, a role that was assumed by feminist women and movements at the time (Pinto 2003; Teles 2017). The creation of police stations focused on women’s needs and complaints, starting in 1985, was a direct consequence of the activism that created public campaigns that spread significantly at the time (Bandeira 2009). At the same period, the creation of focused public health policy with a comprehensive approach, the Programa Integral de Assistência à Saúde da Mulher (the Comprehensive Program for Women’s Healthcare—PAISM), in 1983, was the starting point for achievements and disputes in the following decades.

Significant efforts to build political institutions focused on women’s needs and interests also took place in the 1980s. Councils for women’s rights were created at local, state, and national levels. The National Council for Women’s Rights (CNDM), created in 1985, would lead the political lobby for women’s rights in the Constituent Assembly, in a process that exemplifies the relationship that was then established between feminist movements, political parties, and the state. Although women were only 5% of the elected for the Assembly, their organization produced important results. In addition to the achievement of equal constitutional status for men and women, they were also responsible for constitutional amendments prohibiting wage differentials due to sex, age, skin color, or marital status; making maternity and paternity leaves mandatory; including rural workers in Social Security; guaranteeing the right for female prisoners to keep their children during the breast-feeding period; and guaranteeing equal property rights for women regardless of their marital status.

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