Political violence against women in Brazil: expressions and definitions/ Violencia politica contra as mulheres no Brasil: manifestacoes e definicoes.

AutorBiroli, Flavia
CargoTexto en ingl

The present context of political violence against women in Brazil

Women's relative position has significantly changed in Brazil in the last decades (1). As in other countries in the Western World, this change is due to access to education and professional opportunities, laws criminalizing violence, as well as more qualified political participation.

The law that establishes a 30% quota for women in legislative elections in Brazil (9.504/1997 (2)) will be soon twenty years old, but the country has never had more than 10% of women in the Chamber of Deputies. That does not mean, though, that women have not been active in politics, even within the limits of the State. There have been, also, qualitative changes in women's presence in politics in Brazil. Having a woman elected for the highest political post might be considered one of them. Dilma Rousseff was elected president in 2010 and is being deposed right now after the approval of a process of impeachment in both houses of Congress in April and May 2016 (3). Reactions to Rousseff and stigmas related to femininity will be part of the discussion presented here. This is, though, only one aspect--and I suspect it is not the main one--in the actual context of political violence against women in Brazil.

When the Worker's Party (PT) won 2002's Presidential Election, a not very expressive federal government department for women's policy became a Ministry (Secretaria de Politicas para Mulheres). It has been led by feminists whose experiences were built in social movements, party politics and academic careers. At the same time, because of PT's historical basis, men and women coming from social movements have been placed in other ministries and federal organisms as well, especially the ones related to social policies, human rights, racial equality, education, and health policies (4). One turning point in conservative reactions, the National Plan of Human Rights (known as PNDH 3), presented in 2009, is expressive of the potentialities of the action of feminist movements in the State and in National Conferences that took place along the time PT was in charge.

It is also important to bring to consideration the spread of feminism in Brazil. Feminist movements and organizations have gone through different patterns of action and relationships with the State since 1970s (Alvarez, 1990 e 2014; Pinto, 2003). In recent years, feminism has become more popular than ever in the country. This social phenomenon can be seen as a result of many factors: changes in women's position in Brazilian society, cumulative action of feminist movements and organizations in the country, the growth of feminist values in international media, the role of internet in young people sociability, as well as the political context that I have mentioned above. Feminist movements and organizations, magazines, blogs and websites have multiplied.

Although research on feminist activism within the State and the growth of feminist movements and organizations in Brazil in recent years in still an ongoing endeavor, recognizing these patterns of action, as well as its results and its limits, is key to understanding present backlash in the country. We have not really advanced in the number of elected women, quotas have not been successful, but female's participation in politics in recent years has become larger and more qualified. If we consider political violence against women (or violence against women in politics) as a kind of reaction or backlash, Brazilian case might help us to understand that this is not only "an emerging tact to deter women's political participation as candidates and elected officials" (Krook and Sanin, 2016), but also an emerging tact to deter feminist activism (specially feminist struggles within the State to redefine policies concerning women) and to block ongoing changes in gender patterns that are directly connected to changes in women's relative position in the public sphere.

There has been a considerable growth of conservatism recently, which is manifest in many legislative proposals that, if approved, will signify a backward step in women's rights. I will explain some of them below, but briefly they concern a return to family entity rights, reaffirming traditional family as "natural" relationship between men and women focused on reproduction, as well as the regression of actual laws on abortion for the complete prohibition of voluntary interruption of pregnancy by women, including the cases currently allowed by Brazilian Law since 1940 (pregnancy resulting from rape and risk of death for the pregnant woman). It is also manifest in proposals and actions that have been taking place since May 2015, which have already had some success in excluding and prohibiting "gender perspective" and "gender ideology" in public policy, education plans and programs, as well as classroom discussions.

At the same time, the first woman elected President has been suspended, the Ministry of Women, Racial Equity, and Human Rights, which replaced the Ministry for Women's Policies (the already mentioned Secretaria de Politicas para Mulheres), after a cabinet reform in 2015, has been disintegrated and the the interim government leaded by Michel Temer has announced a whole male and white cabinet.

On one hand, the protests against the whole male cabinet have shown how much the presence of women in politics is now seen as a regular characteristic of present Western societies, although Brazil is far from having parity in representation--the exclusion of women (as well as black men and women) has been interpreted as a "return to the past" in public debate, even in newspapers and organizations that have supported the impeachment of Rousseff. On the other hand, we now have a radically shortened presence of feminists in the State and more support from the Executive to groups in Congress that have been acting against women's and LGBT rights.

The reforms implemented by the Worker's Party since Luis Inacio Lula da Silva became president in 2003 have been advanced and limited by a project that tried to balance the agenda of social movements which have been historically the basis of the party and the agenda of traditional sectors in Brazilian politics (Singer, 2012 e 2013). That meant real limits for the advance of women's rights, especially sexual and reproductive rights, because of agreements with conservative actors (Machado, 2016). But it also meant an exceptional possibility for feminist movements to be part of the government, having representatives in cabinets, committees, policy planning. Policies and laws concerning women have been worked from this tension, and feminist networks have been limited, as well as have benefited from acting within the State. With the suspension of Rousseff, a new arrangement has taken place. Concerning "morality", women's and social rights, it represents a shutdown: presently, only traditional sectors have actual voice. For women, that means at the time a shutoff of the State to gender policies and to women's movements and organizations.

This paper has, as its environment, the tension between those trends the growth of feminist movements and organizations and women's qualified presence in Brazilian society and politics and the growth of conservatism, which has as a key component the institutional closure to women's rights and feminist agenda.

The main hypothesis is that the greater access of women and, which is considerably relevant in this case, feminist women and organizations to the structures of federal government, associated to the election of Brazilian's first woman president and the spreading of feminism, has activated a conservative backlash against gender equality. This reaction is expressed as political violence against particular women and against women (and especially feminist women) more generally.

There is no definition of political violence in Brazilian law, nor has this definition been, in Brazil, part of government documents or academic debate so far. Other Latin American countries have typified this kind of violence Bolivia, Mexico and Peru--or assumed a broader concept of violence in national laws--Argentina and Venezuela. Brazil has, though, ratified international treaties, as the "Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women", known as Convention of Belem do Para, from 1994 (Decree 1.973/1996). That means a compromise to consider violence against women as "any act or conduct, based on gender, which causes death or physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public or the private sphere" (Article 1). From then, Brazil has advanced in specific laws focusing on domestic violence against women (11.340/2006), on sexual harassment (10.224/2001) and women's assassination (13.104/2015), and has developed strategies to implement them, dealing with material, institutional and cultural difficulties and obstacles (Bandeira e Almeida, 2015). There has been no special concern for political violence.

This is an exploratory analysis that takes into account varied events that expose political violence against women in Brazil, understood as violence against specific women as well as reactions to women's presence in politics and to changes in gender roles. Conceptual discussion is anchored in present literature on violence, and political violence more specifically, against women.

The following section presents conservative reactions against women in politics in Brazil, characterizing different expressions of what I understand that could be considered as political violence against women in the country today. Later, I will discuss some theoretical approaches to violence against women as a group, as well as the definition of political violence against women in recent studies, laws and international documents. Based on the theoretical debate and empirical events presented, the last section...

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