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ANALYSIS | BRAZIL João Berchmans Correia Serra, Sen. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, Sen. Raimundo Lira, and Miguel Reale Júnior converse during Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment hearings. THE PATRIARCHY’S REVENGE: HOW RETRO-MACHO hen Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female POLITICS DOOMED president, took the stand in August 2016 at the conclusion of the impeach- Wment trial that removed her from office, DILMA ROUSSEFF she minced no words about the role gender played in her downfall: “There are certain ele- OMAR G. ENCARNACIÓN ments of machismo and misogyny in this im- peachment … I have always been described as a hard woman. Yet I have never heard a man GERALDO MAGELA/AGÊNCIA SENADO MAGELA/AGÊNCIA GERALDO described as a hard man.” 82 Vol. XXXIV, No. 1, Spring 2017 © 2017 World Policy Institute DOI: 10.1215/07402775-3903724 Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/world-policy-journal/article-pdf/34/1/82/505928/0340082.pdf by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY user on 23 May 2020 THE PATRIARCHY Brazilian politicians and media drowned the case in Brazil, a country that is more so- out Rousseff’s accusations of sexism with other cially conservative than its international repu- explanations for her predicament. She presid- tation for freewheeling sexuality would lead ed over the worst economy in Brazil since the one to believe. The same can be said about the 1930s, with 7.5 percent GDP growth in 2010 United States, where Donald J. Trump, a no- plummeting to a 3.8 percent contraction in torious misogynist, was elected president run- 2015. Her Workers’ Party, or PT, was mired in ning against former Secretary of State Hillary corruption scandals, many of them involving Clinton, the first female major-party presiden- Petrobras, the semi-state-owned oil company. tial nominee in U.S. history. In addition, Rousseff’s foes in Congress accused her of breaking budgetary laws. Her approval PATRIARCHAL VESTIGES ratings dropped to single digits, the lowest on It may seem strange to suggest Rousseff’s gen- record since the last time Brazil impeached a der as a primary cause for her political demise president, Fernando Collor de Mello, in 1992. given the success of women in politics in Lat- Yet a compelling case can be made for in America. After all, the first woman to rise Rousseff becoming a victim of “retro-macho to the presidency of any country was a Latin politics.” Deeply rooted in Latin American his- American woman, Isabel Martínez de Perón, tory, the notion of retro-macho politics evokes who in 1974 became the president of Argen- the enduring influence of a patriarchal social tina, following the death of her husband, Presi- order shaped by such male-dominated bas- dent Juan Domingo Perón. Since then, Latin tions of political and economic power as the America has had eight women presidents— Catholic Church, the landed oligarchy, the mil- four of them since 2006. Moreover, according itary, and, most prominently, the so-called cau- to the U.N.’s Women in Politics Survey, 27.7 dillos, or the strongmen that, since the end of percent of all Latin American parliamentarians Iberian colonial rule, have so often dominated are women, the second-highest percentage of the region’s politics. any region, behind only Northern Europe. The A backlash against the empowerment of recent surge in female legislators is largely due women and people of color in recent years, retro- to gender quota systems, pioneered by Argen- macho politics is characterized by swashbuck- tina in the early 1990s. ling masculinity, overt sexism, and misogyny. But the advances that female politicians In the short term, retro-macho politics seeks to have made in the region are not reflected in curry favor with a segment of the electorate that Brazil, which shows more patriarchal vestiges professes to be fed up with political correctness. than any other major Latin American coun- In the long term, the intention is to roll back the try. Despite a 2009 gender quota law requiring progress that women have already made and to that 30 percent of all political candidates be undo the policies that female leaders tend to female, only 10 percent of seats in the Brazil- champion in areas such as reproductive health, ian Congress are occupied by women, accord- affirmative action, and human rights. ing to the World Bank. This ratio places Brazil Retro-macho politics plays well with the dead last in Latin America and well behind the public because sexism and misogyny still reso- region’s leaders: Bolivia (53 percent), Cuba (49 nate within the culture at large. This is clearly percent), Mexico (42 percent), Ecuador (42 OMAR G. ENCARNACIÓN is a professor of political studies at Bard College and the author of “Out in the Periph- ery: Latin America’s Gay Rights Revolution” (Oxford University Press, 2016). SPRING 2017 83 Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/world-policy-journal/article-pdf/34/1/82/505928/0340082.pdf by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY user on 23 May 2020 ANALYSIS | BRAZIL percent), and Argentina (36 percent). In fact, the current president of Chile. Instead, Rousseff, Brazil ranks among the worst nations in the the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant and a world when it comes to female representation Brazilian school teacher raised in a middle-class in politics—155th, according to the Inter-Parlia- family in Belo Horizonte, followed a route to mentary Union, behind the likes of Saudi Ara- power more typical of male presidents in Latin bia and North Korea. America. She began as a left-wing radical and Not surprisingly, Brazilian social laws are political prisoner and then had a high-profile among the most conservative in Latin America. career in government—not that bootstrapping While abortion laws have recently been liber- her way to the presidency spared Rousseff from alized in several Latin American countries—in- the patriarchy’s wrath. cluding Uruguay, Argentina, and Mexico—this While in her early 20s, Rousseff joined the is not the case in Brazil. Abortion remains Comandos de Libertação Nacional, or the Na- largely illegal, but about 1 million procedures tional Liberation Command, a Marxist guerilla are still performed each year. Women who dare organization that tried to topple the military to break the law are subject to jail terms rang- dictatorship in place from 1964 to 1985. The ing from one to three years, and doctors who precise role Rousseff played within the group perform abortions can face 20-year sentences. is disputed, with some accounts depicting her Prosecutions are uncommon, but reports of as the organization’s mastermind while others women being interrogated by the police from downplay her leadership role. But she was im- a hospital bed after a botched abortion are not. plicated in the 1969 theft of a safe belonging Brazil also lags behind its neighbors when to Ademar de Barros, the former governor of it comes to gay rights. Unlike Mexico, Argen- São Paulo. The heist netted the National Lib- tina, and Chile, there are no federal laws or eration Command some $3 million. For her constitutional provisions protecting against “subversive activities,” Rousseff was captured anti-gay discrimination in Brazil. Indeed, rare in 1970, sent to prison, and tortured. Accord- among Latin American nations, Brazil has yet ing to state records, military officers applied to pass a single gay rights bill at the federal lev- electric shocks to her breasts, forced her into el. Where progress has been made, it has been the parrot’s perch (an excruciating position in imposed by the judiciary; same-sex marriage, which the victim is suspended between two for instance, was legalized in 2011 by the Fed- metal platforms), and punched her in the face eral Supreme Court in a decision currently be- with enough force to cause permanent damage ing challenged by Congress. to her teeth. Rousseff was released in 1972, and, a year BOOTSTRAPPING HER WAY TO POWER later, she attended Rio Grande do Sul Federal Despite male dominance in the political sphere, University, earning a degree in economics. Soon Rousseff rose to the highest office in Brazil, and thereafter, she entered politics in the state of she did so without some of the advantages of Rio Grande do Sul, eventually becoming the other female presidents in Latin America. She city of Porto Alegre’s secretary of the treasury was not a presidential widow, like Martínez de and later Rio Grande do Sul’s secretary of en- Perón, or a former first lady, like Cristina Fernán- ergy. In 2003, she joined the administration of dez de Kirchner, Argentina’s second female pres- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the energy minister, ident. Nor did Rousseff hail from a political dy- and, after a series of corruption scandals led to nasty, like Nicaragua’s Violeta de Chamorro, or the resignation of several Cabinet members, be- from a prominent family, like Michelle Bachelet, came Lula’s chief of staff in 2005. 84 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from https://read.dukeupress.edu/world-policy-journal/article-pdf/34/1/82/505928/0340082.pdf by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY user on 23 May 2020 THE PATRIARCHY Unable to run for a third consecutive term, future, free of authoritarian threats,” she said Lula handpicked Rousseff to be his successor. in her remarks. The audience responded with a Her candidacy benefited from Lula’s popular- standing ovation. ity—he left office in 2011 with an almost 80 The second law was a freedom of infor- percent approval rating. As far as the patriar- mation act that created tools to unearth and chy is concerned, capitalizing on Lula’s success tackle corruption. The Federal Police’s ongoing was Rousseff’s original sin.

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