User:Luiza Coulaud/Feminism in Brazil

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The Brazilian feminist movement was heavily influenced by the feminist movements in the United States and Europe.

19th Century
The Brazilian feminist movement began midst 19th century, when women from several parts of the country started to aim for more political and cultural participation in society, in which, at that time, was patriarcally dominated. During that time, women were perceived in an overall negative manner. If they weren’t workers or service providers, women were confined to a domestic bubble – taking care of the house and children, complying with the social constructs that were expected from them. In addition, the possibilities women had to enter an educational system were limited, the possibilities women had to aim for higher education were not possible, since they were seen as beings with questionable intellectual capacity and they had no access to political activities. Women in higher social classes could participate in certain activities in the cultural and artistic fields, such as painting, literature, and music, the same were considered tolerable as long as further specialization didn’t occur. Teaching was seen as an honorable profession, however, it was also surrounded by prejudice and limitations. As said by Regina Zilberman,"'Destining women to teaching solved several problems: it justified the need to educate them; it solved the problem of the lack of workers for teaching, a profession that was little sought after because it was poorly paid; there was no need to improve earnings, because the salary of the woman should not be superior to man, but additional. These reasons were covered by others, of an ideological nature: the teacher was idealized, calling them mothers and, thus, suggesting that, in teaching, she remained faithful to her nature maternal; the professional element of teaching was denied, because the classroom became a second home; teaching would not be a problem, because it was not work, but an extension of domestic tasks, which stopped the eventual emancipatory tendency that this activity could contain and did not contradict the sexist nature of Brazilian patriarchal society; and the woman-wife-mother association remained untouched, and also idealized, even when she was away from home, earning modest gain.”"It was through the dedication of certain women to the press and literature that feminist ideas started to gain notice. According to Zahidé Muzart, "“in the 19th century, women who wrote, and who wished to have a career as writers, were feminists, since only the desire of leaving the domestic bubble indicated a thoughtful thinking. So, in its origins, the feminist literature in Brazil was always linked to a feminist emancipation.”"The feminist achievements in the 19th century were small, and favoured, in a general sense, only white women from middle and higher classes, but still, in the eyes of Silva & Pedro, “already demonstrated the union in regards to common goals of the feminine sex that would come to influence the next generations of feminists.”

20th century
In a national level, the fact that received most attention from all women was having writer, lawyer, and feminist Miêtta Santiago, in 1928, noticing that the prohibition of women’s vote contradicted the First Brazilian Republic Contitution(February 24, 1891), already effective at the time. The article states, simply, that “citizens over 21 years old…” with no discrimination of gender. With this in mind, Miêtta filed, as a lawyer, a security mandate and obtained a sentence, which allowed her to vote herself for a federal deputy mandate.

The electoral code elaborated in 1933 finally extended the right to vote and the political representation to women; in the constituent of 1934, there was a woman representative, the first woman deputy of Brazil: Carlota Pereira de Queiroz. In 1947, with the help of Bertha Lutz, Pereira de Queiroz founded the Soroptimist Club in Rio de Janeiro, an international association of women who aimed to improve the quality of life of women in their local life conditions.

1960's and 1970s
During the military dictatorship, women organized themselves, regardless of political parties, age and social class, to form militancy against the military regime. In 1975 the UN organized the "International Year of Women". The issue of women became a topic of discussion in universities and among liberal professionals. In the same year, the International Women's Congress took place in Mexico and simultaneously in Brazil, which sent Berta Lutz to Mexico as a representative. In Brazil, the movement organized the Research Week on the Role and Behavior of Brazilian Women..  

As a result of this movement, in September 1975, the Centro da Mulher Brasileira was created, an institutionalized body responsible for intermediating and articulating feminist goals in the form of collective action. The Centro da Mulher Brasileira proposed a study center that promoted major seminars and major discussions and research on the condition of women. From there emerged several publications in newspapers and magazines in addition to the production of books.  

A very striking fact for feminists was the death of Ângela Diniz, in 1976, by Doca Street, who in 1979 was acquitted. The indignation of feminists brought about the movement that created SOS Mulher. From then on, there was greater protection for women, including those who worked and suffered sexual exploitation and blackmail by employers.  

1980's
From 1980 onwards, a definition of the situation of women also became essential among political discourses. In 1983, through official decrees, the Conselho Estadual da Condição Feminina in São Paulo was created and in 1985 the Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher. It was also in that year that women from various parties came together and, hand in hand, occupied 26 seats as constituent deputies, giving greater and more significant representation to women's rights.  

21st Century
In the first years of the 21st century, Brazilian feminists celebrated the repeal of the article in the Penal Code dealing with the crime of "rape" as a victory, since in this provision there was the expression "honest woman", considered offensive by the feminist movement.

The feminist movement currently has as its main banners, in Brazil, the fight against domestic violence, which reaches high levels in the country; combating discrimination at work. It also gives importance to the study of gender and the contribution, until today somewhat forgotten, of women in the various historical and cultural movements in the country. The legalization of abortion (which is currently only allowed under exceptional conditions) and the adoption of independent lifestyles are goals of some groups.

In the feminist thought of the 21st century, Magda Guadalupe, director of the Simone de Beauvoir Societ, to apply Simone de Beauvoir's thinking in Brazil, understands feminism as a plural movement, which involves several waves and must be understood as feminisms, as it goes beyond the simplicity of the struggle for equal rights between men and women, emphasizing that it proposes to present alternatives in terms of analyses, practices and discourses, with a view to deconstructing the social and binary roles between sexes and genders that feed patriarchy.