SOCIETY y

From the factory floor to the floor of Congress

Researchers or the last 100 years, the feminist strug- organizations play in achieving legal and social gle for equality and women’s rights has protection for women. Looking only at the pri- review the impacted the Brazilian political scene. vate realm, one sees essential victories, such as From strikes in 1917 to today’s political the elimination of a father’s rights over his adult history of the pressure groups, women have had to daughter and the criminalization of domestic Ffight hard to have some of their demands met. violence and sexual harassment. struggles of Recent surveys have deepened our understand- Despite this progress, Brazilian women are Brazil’s feminist ing of different periods in that history. Some of still underrepresented politically. According to those writings are found in the book 50 anos de the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Brazil stands movements : Argentina, Brasil, and Chile [50 years of 154th in a ranking of 190 countries with regard feminism: Argentina, Brazil, and Chile] (Edusp, to the female presence in their legislatures. 2017), which is the result of a project coordi- Only one of every 10 seats in the 513-member nated by sociologists Eva Blay, from the School Chamber of Representatives is held by women. Danilo Albergaria of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences In the Senate, that presence is 14% of the 81 at the University of São Paulo (FFLCH-USP), elected members. On this issue, Brazil ranks Published in june 2017 and Lúcia Avelar, from the Center for Studies below even Saudi Arabia, with its long history on Public Opinion at the University of Campi- of restricting women’s rights and freedoms. nas (CESOP-Unicamp). The book helps read- According to Lúcia Avelar, Brazil’s feminist ers understand the central role that feminist organizations serve as a sort of forum for extra-

78 z august 2018 From the factory floor to the floor ofCongress

parliamentary representation of women; their Unified Health System (SUS) in 1998, and the Protest March for activities are coordinated with small but active Maria da Penha Act (2006) against domestic Direct Elections Now! female delegations. and intra-family violence. in downtown São

apress lh Paulo in 1984 (left) o Political scientist Patrícia Rangel, a post- Avelar says that even with its low rate of fe-

/ F / and demonstrators

n a doctoral researcher at the Free University of male representation in the legislature, Brazil during the World A re Berlin in Germany and co-author of one of the stands out as a country with one of the best- March of Women on oto the Anhanguera

/ F / articles in the abovementioned book, argues organized feminist movements in the world. e Highway (SP) in 2010 n that this organized political maneuvering led “This mobilization has achieved a high degree

n An toi n to legal changes that ensured equal treatment of coordination among networks that form a so l under the law for both women and men, struck bridge between society and the State. Networks Ne 2 discriminatory terms from Brazil’s legislation, such as the Congress of Brazilian Women and and enabled women to legally serve as heads the World March of Women are internation- apress

lh of families. Rangel says that the fruits of that ally known,” she points out. She identified the o

a / F work include the expansion of paid maternity turning point in the degree of this organiza- uz

o leave (1988), the passage of the electoral quota tion: “the gradual entry of women into higher e S law in 1995 (which requires that 30% of candi- education and the formation of feminist non- aim d P dates be women), the availability of steriliza- governmental organizations (NGOs).” s 1 tion in public hospitals (1996), the regulation Feminist victories in Brazil, especially with

photo on the care available for legal abortions in the respect to activities in the public sphere, arrived

pESQUISA FAPESP z 79 with the 21st century. “One big especially in France. From there, and gain obtained from the govern- other Latin Americans who had also become ex- ment as of 2014 was the intro- patriates because of the military coups in Chile Exiles from duction of the Women’s Budget, (1973) and Argentina (1976) produced publica- which is unique among Latin tions that were intended to serve as a forum for dictatorships in American countries,” says Ave- feminist debates in exile. Brazil, Argentina lar. This is an item in the fed- Those groups have recently been studied by eral government’s budget that sociologist Maira Abreu, who has a PhD in social and Chile is used for actions that impact sciences from Unicamp and published the book the quality of life of Brazilian Feminism em exílio [Feminism in exile] (Alameda, made contact women, including things such 2016). The author shows how those groups con- as health care, dealing with vio- stituted an important presence in the Brazilian with feminist lence, and equality in the labor community in France and formed an arena for movements in market. The effort to achieve the dissemination of feminist thought. When they this special mention in the bud- returned to their countries of origin, many exiles Europe get was coordinated by the Cen- brought that experience back with them and, to ter for Women’s Studies and some extent, were able to influence the debates in the 1970s Advisory Services (CFEMEA) going on in Latin American feminist circles. “We to make it possible to monitor should not think of it as merely an importation of budgetary execution and ensure ideas,” Abreu warns, “but rather as an encounter that the appropriated funds are actually released among trends in feminist thinking that had been for use in implementing government policies as born in different realities.” defined in the Women’s Budget. Despite the growth in their organization, women continue to have little involvement in RESISTING AND EXILED political party structures. Lúcia Avelar points Some components of the feminist organization to the oligarchic nature of Brazilian parties and in Brazil emerged from women’s opposition to the centralization of power within them as the the military dictatorship (1964-1985). The inten- main causes of this exclusion. She believes that Bertha Lutz in 1925: sification of authoritarianism, which primarily the parties on the Left currently offer somewhat one of the founders of better political opportunities for women. “In the Brazilian Federation began in 1968, produced waves of exiles who for the Advancement were opponents of the regime. Many women parties that have roots in social movements, in- of Women in 1922 made contact with feminists in other countries, ternal disputes among different camps improve the status of women because those parties are usually open to the emergence of new factions,” she says. Patrícia Rangel notes that political par- ties do not seem to understand that the presence of women is synonymous with democracy. “This has negative effects for women in general, since it is the party officials at different levels who de- termine who obtains access to institutionalized politics; they play an important role in changing the political system,” says Rangel. For many years, politicians’ failures to under- stand the roles of women left women relegated to the status of supporting players and subordi- nates in political parties and labor unions, arenas in which they could have expected, for the sake of ideological consistency, a defense of egalitari- anism. “The idea of confronting the patriarchy usually took a back seat to the political priority, which was the criticism of capitalism,” Rangel says. Eva Blay points out that there had been a widespread belief that the modernization of so- ciety would produce equality between men and women. “That mechanistic view was questioned as people later realized that modernization it- self had retained the same patriarchal patterns, clothing them in new garments and reassembling 1 patterns of domination, violence against women,

80 z august 2018 2 entitled “Os direitos das mulheres: Organização social e legislação trabalhista no entreguerras brasileiro (1917-1937)” (Women’s rights: Social organization and labor legislation in Brazil during the interwar period (1917-1937) at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences at Unicamp. Fraccaro argues that the lack of attention paid to the history of working women is one of the fac- tors that helped confirm the general impression that Brazilian feminism originated in the upper classes. At the same time, the notion took root that the working class had been missing in action when the feminist movement was emerging. However, one of the sources of organized feminist activity in the pursuit of rights is found not in movements by women from the elite but in the protagonist role played by women laborers in the strike that brought São Paulo to a standstill 100 years ago. The general strike of 1917 was a reaction to a decline in purchasing power, a deterioration in working conditions, and an increase in the exploi- tation of child labor in industry. As a response to World War I, the acceleration in the manufacture of exports weighed heavily on worker families, who were impoverished and exhausted by lon- and inequalities in the workplace, including in The ger working hours. Women made up the largest terms of pay,” Blay argues. newspaper A Manhã share of the labor force in the textile industry and campaigned in favor represented about one-third of the urban work- Those questions came from the feminists of of women’s right the 1970s, but the first transformations promoted to vote in 1926 force. Furthermore, most of the minors exploited by Brazilian feminists have much older roots. by industry were girls. “When male and female workers rose up in a series of strikes starting in LABORERS AND INTELLECTUALS 1917, the concept emerged that social rights are In the Brazil of the 1920s, women had no politi- not neutral and should encompass the status of cal rights and could not vote or seek elected of- women,” Fraccaro says. fice. To pursue an occupation outside the home, This struggle led to victories during the first they needed their husbands’ authorization, and Getúlio Vargas administration (1930-1945). Dur- then they earned less than half what men were ing that period, the political actions of Bertha paid for performing the same duties. This situ- Lutz were indirectly influenced by demands from ation did not begin to change until after work- working women. “Women from the Brazilian ers began to protest, and organizations such as Communist Party denounced in the press the lack the Brazilian Federation for the Advancement of concern for female workers expressed by the of Women (FBPF), led by biologist Bertha Lutz FBPF,” Fraccaro recalls, “while the transnational (1894-1976), emerged. network that the Federation had joined imposed The daughter of bacteriologist an agenda that involved maternity leave, a prohibi- (1855-1940), Bertha was born in São Paulo and tion against night work for women, and the right l Library n a l studied in France, where she was influenced by to vote.” The pressures exerted by these move-

Natio the international explosion of feminism, which was ments led Vargas to approve a decree in 1932 that s 2 n centered on the campaign for universal suffrage. responded to those demands, including through Founded in 1922, the FBPF is generally seaen as an equal pay law that was never enforced. n ia commo d evidence that feminism’s first steps in Brazil were ime k taken only by women from economic and intellec- tually elite groups, that is, women who were dis- n / wi Project l b connected from the reality of most female workers.

ita 50 years of feminism (1965-2015): new paradigms, future challenges g i However, that was not exactly what happened. (No. 12/23065-8); Grant Mechanism Thematic Project; Principal A study by historian Glaucia Fraccaro points to Investigator Eva Alterman Blay (USP); Investment R$273,280.93. the importance of political actions by women Books BLAY, E. A. and AVELAR, L. (org). 50 anos de feminismo: Argentina, 1 Hemeroteca d from the working class and their indirect influ-

s Brasil e Chile: A construção das mulheres como atores políticos e ence on feminist leaders and organizations in democráticos. São Paulo: Edusp, 2017. hoto

P the 1930s. Fraccaro recently defended her thesis ABREU, M. Feminismo no exílio. São Paulo: Alameda Editorial, 2016.

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