Acciari, Louisa

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Communicating bottom-up social developmentMarina Silva in 2010. Credit: Talita OliveiraCC BY 2.0.Where has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilianpresidential elections 2014This post first appeared on LSE Engenderings on 20 October 2014, and is reposted here withpermission.By Louisa Acciari.One could expect that having two woman candidates (Marina da Silva and Dilma Rousseff) leadingthe polls might have brought gender equality to the centre of the Brazilian presidential electionsdebates – especially when one of them is the current President of Brazil, and the first-ever womanto hold that office.Although feminist scholars have warned against essentialist arguments on representation, there isan expectation that women will be better represented by woman politicians in what could beconceived of as ‘women’s interests’, particularly on issues related to the right to chose, violenceand discrimination in the labour market.However, when analysing the propositions andmanifestos of the three main candidates (those withthe highest chances of reaching the second round,according to polls), candidates’ positions on theseissues were not easy to identify. The main nationalnewspapers summarising their propositionshighlighted education, health, economy, energy,environment, international affairs, but not genderequality.As the second round vote between Dilma (the current president, left-wing party) or Aécio(centre-right man candidate, now backed by Marina who did not get through) nears on October26th, the need for a feminist analysis appears even more pressing.AbortionNone of the candidates has declared themselves in favour of legalising abortion. In Brazil abortionis only legal if the pregnancy resulted from rape; if it directly endangers the life of the pregnantwoman; and since last year, if the foetus’ brain has no chance to develop. This recent change wasconsidered as a very positive step by pro-choice organisations.Dilma framed this issue in terms of public health, recalling that every year thousands of womendie from the consequences of abortion practiced in non-hygienic and unsafe conditions. In 2013,she approved a law to provide new services to victims of rape including access to medical care,emergency contraception and counselling. She was strongly criticised by evangelical andHome About Book Links News and Events Resources This site is supported byBookUndergroundSociabilities waspublished byUNESCO in 2013.Click on theimage for freedownload .Social media Where has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilian presidential elections 2014 | Favelas at LSE1 of 5conservative catholic media who accused her of legalising abortion, de facto. However, Dilma hasnot included the legalisation of abortion in her manifesto and has publicly said that she personally,was not in favour of this practice.Aécio does not mention the word ‘abortion’ in his manifesto either, and focuses instead on theprevention of teenage pregnancies. Like Dilma, he prefers to keep silent on this issue, as favouringor appearing to favour pro-choice policies could be detrimental to his alliance with religiouslobbies.LGBT rightsBoth Dilma and Aécio are in favour of the status quo regarding gay marriage. A decision by theSupreme Court of Justice recognised it as legal last year, but this was not translated into a law,therefore making this right very fragile.While Aécio’s proposals for LGBT people are quite vague (promoting more research and includingLGBT activists more systemically in consultation processes), Dilma has at least stood publicallyagainst homophobia. She proposes to recognise it as a crime and to have prevention programmesagainst hate crimes in schools. But this was only declared in an interview, and not written in hermanifesto. It was nonetheless enough for her to be called ‘defender of the gay cause’ by a religiousconservative politician, as if this were outrageous.LGBT activists have expressed their disappointment in both candidates, arguing that they are notoffering enough. The principal Brazilian LGBT organisations have asked for the recognition ofdiverse gender identities, the full recognition of gay marriage with its inclusion in the Constitution,better access to health services and HIV prevention programmes.Violence against womenDilma has made the fight against violence against women (VAW) one of her main priorities.Domestic violence has been recognised as a crime in Brazil since 2006 (the law is called Maria daPenha in homage to an activist who was shot by her husband); and Dilma has promised in hermanifesto to make it more effective. She proposes to build women’s refuges in every state and tolaunch a new helpline for victims of violence.Aécio wants states rather than the federal Government to be responsible for implementingprevention programmes, and he proposes to improve the protection of women and childrenvictims of violence. He has also offered to provide better access to reconstructive plastic surgeryfor women whose bodies were severely damaged by acts of domestic violence.Equal pay and women’s representation in politics are totally absent from the debate. Aécio has a‘women’ section in his manifesto, where he mentions Brazil’s poor ranking in terms of genderequality and affirms he wants to promote women’s access to education, employment and politics.Dilma on the contrary, has only one sentence on gender equality, encompassed within thebroader promotion of human rights. Her manifesto states that the promotion of human rights willcontinue until no one is discriminated against based on their “race, colour, belief, gender or sexualorientation”.‘Big politics’ vs. genderIn response to this year’s social protests, the presidential debate has mostly focused on issues ofcorruption and renewal of democratic institutions. Candidates have also argued about socialpolicies and the future of the famous Bolsa Familia implemented by Lula that took millions ofBrazilians out of poverty. Other important themes included the consequences of the globaleconomic crisis, national growth and inflation.LSE Latam is a joint effort of @lseargentinasoc @LSEsuColombia @LSESUMexicanSoc @CASAUK_org  Chile. Inviting Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and all!Retweeted by Favelas atLSELSE SU Latam @latamlseExpandThere is need for subsidised or free #healthcare for the growing population of older people living in #slums ow.ly/FUTrNFavelas at LSE @FavelasatLSE2h11hTweets FollowTweet to @FavelasatLSELike us on FacebookFavelas at LSE: Adialogue betweenthe UK and Brazil904 people like Favelas at LSE: Adialogue between the UK and Brazil.Facebook social pluginLikeArchiveSubscribe to Favelas at LSEvia EmailEnter your email address tosubscribe to this blog andreceive notifications of newposts by email.Where has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilian presidential elections 2014 | Favelas at LSE2 of 5Dilma Rousseff in 2010. Credit: Fotos GOVBA CC BY 2.0.All these ‘big politics’ themes were debated in complete disconnection from a gender analysis. Notonly were candidates’ programmes on specific ‘gender’ issues such as abortion and LGBT rights abit light, but they also fail to link these to the broader economic and political system. Poverty has acolour and a gender in Brazil – it is feminized, as is the informal sector and the most precariousjobs in the economy, such as domestic and care work.If democracy is imperfect, it is not only because of corrupt practices but also because of thedramatic underrepresentation of Afro-Brazilians and women in the Parliament and Senate. In fact,only 8% of elected members of the Parliament are women and 8.5% self-identify as Afro-Brazilian(over 50% of the population is ‘black’ or ‘mixed’ according to the national census). When discussingthe renewal of democratic life, politicians could certainly bring these inequalities intoconsideration.Gender politics must not only be reduced to tokenistic VAW, ticking the ‘women’ box of candidates’manifestos. Gender is present everywhere, it is produced and reproduced by political and culturalinstitutions, it has economic consequences and affects society as a whole. Consideration of gendershould be fully integrated into any politician’s plan of governance.In the meantime, we Brazilians still have a choice to make in a few days’ time. I would personallyadvise voters to choose the candidate who has the most concrete and progressive propositions forgender equality, but also a candidate whose economic and social programmes do not overtlycontradict feminist principles and politics. For example, promoting women’s empowermentwithout tackling poverty, access to health, and democratic representation more broadly.For this reason, I will vote for Dilma on Sunday, October 26th. And if you’re eligible to vote inBrazil or interested in following the election outcome, you’ll have to read more about candidates’takes on ‘big politics’ to determine whether a vote in their favour falls on the side of ‘contradiction’,transformation or somewhere in between.About the AuthorLouisa Acciari is a PhD student at the Gender Institute working on the mobilisations of domesticworkers in Brazil. Her research interests include social movements; feminist and post-colonialtheories; the intersections between gender, race and class; and Brazilian politics.Where has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilian presidential elections 2014 | Favelas at LSE3 of 5October 21st, 2014 | Brazil, English | 0 Comments Previous postLeave A CommentThe views expressed on this post belong solely to the author and should not be taken as theopinion of the Favelas@LSE Blog nor of the LSE. Please read our comments policy before commenting.Share this:Next post  Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.Popularity, political change,economic and socialdevelopment agenda andpotential for South Americanintegration: Four key pointsto consider in the BrazilianelectionsWho is worth being called a‘worker’? Domestic workers’struggle for recognition inBrazilSocial transformations inBrazil: Continuing a dialogueon bottom-up experiences ofsocial developmentWhere has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilian presidential elections 2014 | Favelas at LSE4 of 5CONTACTfavelas@lse.ac.ukCopyright © 2014 LSEWhere has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilian presidential elections 2014 | Favelas at LSE5 of 5

Where has gender gone? The big absence in Brazilian presidential elections 2014

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