Carmen Miranda by Phoebe Myers, Margot Duffy, Anthony Genovesi and Emily Liao

Elza Soares, Brazil's Immortal Diva by Laura Megna, Violet Romanak, MOrgan Hoffman, Fall 2018

The Patriarchal Culture of Colonial Europe in Brazil by Reece Milton (writer) and Katie Buschle (editor)

Writer: Reece Milton

Editor: Katie Buschle

February 21, 2018

POR/BWS 383

The Patriarchal Culture of Colonial Europe in Brazil

The idea of a man based society, commonly found across Europe, was modeled after
the Roman Empire; where, over time, women were able to hold some liberties, but
almost all aspects of the state were controlled by men. After the fall of the Roman
Empire, this concept of a male dominated society stuck around, and formed into
the societal structure we know (and fight) today (Metcalf, 277). This patriarchal
social structure dictated the sexuality, activities, and lives of women--only to
become more oppressive once the culture combined with the views of the
Catholic Church, which emphasized virginal women who live chaste and moral lives.
Portugal aligned with these extensively prude expectations of women, and thus brought
the same concept of virtuosity and modesty to Brazil. Although Brazil adapted to these
concepts differently than Portugal had, Brazilian culture was significantly changed, and
is still affected by these ideas and
social norms today.

During colonial time, white women in Brazil had very strict, oppressive rules and
social structures which they were expected to follow. Many upper class women
were destined to remain inside the home. With a majority of them being illiterate,
due to lack of importance of female education, they were raised to be married off
in order to strengthen the family’s social ties, or, if the father so wished, sent to a
convent in order to keep their daughters away from wanton Brazilian men, and
uphold their honor. Usually the only education they could receive would be in the
form of domestic tasks and trades, such as cleaning or sewing (Mycofski, 334).
As discussed in Women and Society in Colonial Brazil as well as Bounded
Identities, women of the lower class still had to work outside the home, in areas
such as shopkeeping, baking, and seamstressing. In recent years, although
women have surpassed men in schooling, “female workers remain in traditionally
feminine sectors, occupations and fields of work” and are found to have “a higher
rate of unemployment and wage differentiation between sexes” (Bruschini, 33).
Since colonial time, tremendous strides have been made for women in the workplace,
with 42.9% of the Brazilian workforce being women (International Labor Organization).

The virginal preservation of white women was another expectation of the colonial
time. Embedded very heavily in Catholic ideals, they were expected to remain virgins
until their wedding night, and were deemed tainted or unfit to marry if they were not.
Men would even try to “test” their betrothed wife by attempting to seduce her, if she
was to give in, she was then considered loose, and the man would break up with her.

When explorers first arrived in Brazil around 1500, they quickly found that the natives
had a more open viewpoint of sexual activity, in which the women and men could
sleep with whomever they wished. Once Brazil began to become more populated by
colonists, a dichotomy began to form between the men and women. Black and
indigenous women, as well as the men, had little to no rules regarding their sexual
lives, whereas a white woman was deemed soiled, tainted, and inadequate for
marriage if she did not meet the social expectations thrust upon her.

As with many societies of the time, Portugal, and thus its colonies, were male
dominated, patriarchal societies; they dictated what women wore, how much
they were educated, and how they were to spend their lives. The lives of colonial
women in Brazil and Portugal, especially white women, were heavily scrutinized
by men in society, and remnants of this lead to the misogyny that can be found in
Brazil today, where the country experienced the highest rates of female homicide
in 2013 (Carless, 1).

As in many societies, black and indigenous women have become a symbol of
sexuality and arousal. This was often reflected in how they were treated by society.
Many black women who had household duties (slaves or servants), were idealized
as “playthings and objects of affection” (Russell-Wood, 1) for the males of a
household, and often became the victims of torment and abuse from envious
housewives. Enslaved women could get married; however, her husband would
be forced to join her in captivity as well, so this was often avoided. If a slave
woman had a particularly caring master, they might have had dowries left in their
possession so they could get married or even escape captivity (Russell-Wood, 25).

On the contrary, free black women may been able to live a more typical life; however,
because of the oversexualization of black women, and the biased standards for
marriage which mainly suited white women, they found a hard time getting married.
White women who were widows and prostitutes from Portugal had a better chance
at getting married, so to speak,  specifically because they were white. However, a
black woman could make a living for herself by selling goods in the street market,
or herself in the form of prostitution. Orphaned black girls were sometimes taken in
by wealthier white families, and given a dowry in hopes that she may be married,
giving her a better
chance at life.

While Amerindians could not be enslaved (in part because they refused to work)
they still had to be wary of being forced into slavery by insubordinate slave owners,
who chose to illegally capture indigenous peoples. They also ran the risk of being
part of a white woman’s dowry, in which they were forced into slavery; however,
there are several accounts of this situation being taken to court, and ultimately
resolved. Although they could hold jobs as being maids or servants, indigenous
women were mostly regarded and portrayed in Brazilian societies as “concubines
and lovers” (Russell-Wood, 1). Amerindian women were barred from being married,
but could participate in “consensual unions” (Myscofski, 334), which only further
increased the stereotype.

Ever since the first encounter between the white Portuguese and the indigenous
Brazilians, the native women were regarded as highly sexual beings with loose
morals. Young men had come to Brazil for adventure, and found they could live
relatively free lives with these women, and do whoever and whatever they pleased.
Both of these groups of women of colour had to deal with sexual advances of the
promiscuous white males, and it was believed that they could not possibly
resist any advances made on them, which resulted in numerous atrocities committed
against these women. Today we can see how these norms have affected the culture in
the sense that sexual harassment and abuse are common and constant--high levels of
domestic violence, rape, and forced prostitution are all issues still plaguing Brazil.

These colonial ideas and idealizations of women of diverse groups led to a tension
between these groups, and between men and women in general that is still found in
Brazil today. Men are expected to cheat on their partners, whether the woman is okay
with it or not. However, if a woman were to do that same, she would risk being
abandoned, abused, or even killed. In just 1991, Brazilian courts
outlawed the killing of a wife to defend her honor, and in 2006 Brazil enacted the
Maria da Penha law, which is mainly known for increasing the punishment of those
who practice domestic violence
against women.  

Although women have an increased influence in political and social spheres,
Brazilian women still face many inequalities, largely related to the societal norms
mentioned above, that women experienced during the colonial period. Women of
all classes still face violence and abuse by their partners, and it largely goes
unreported. However, in the recent years Brazil has implemented policies and
plans to curb domestic violence, and allow women to report it in a safe environment,
(James, 1). Women also face inequality in the labor market, making just
“71% of the man’s dollar,” and with the market dominated by white women
(Simoes and Matos, 99).
Brazilian women have not had an easy path to gender equality, and the increased
domestic violence and violence against women in Brazil have only made this path
more difficult. Although many measures have been put into place to protect women
and have given domestic abuse survivors shelter and an opportunity to safely report
their abuse, this deep rooted misogyny still runs rampant in Brazil. As far as
Brazilian women have come fighting for equality among themselves and their

male counterparts, they still have a long way to go until the ancient idea of patriarchal
society is flushed entirely from the system.

Works Cited

Brooke, James. “‘Honor’ Killing of Wives is Outlawed in Brazil”. The New York Times,
March 29, 1991.
Web. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/29/us/honor-killing-of-wives-is- outlawed
-in-brazil.html

Bruschini, Maria Cristina Aranha. “Work and Gender in Brazil in the Last Ten Years”,
Cadernos de Pesquisa, December, 2007. Vol. 37 No. 132. São Paulo.
Web. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-15742007000300003&script=sci_
arttext&tlng=en

Carless, W.  “Brazil's shocking violence against women, in five charts.” GlobalPost, 2015,

November 18. Retrieved February 20, 2018. Web. https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-11

-18/brazils-shocking-violence-against-women-five-charts

International Labor Organization. “Labor Force, Female (% of total labor force)”. The World

Bank, 2017. Web. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.FE.ZS

Metcalf, A. C.  “Women and Means: Women and Family Property in Colonial Brazil”.

Journal of Social History, 1990. 24(2), 277-298.

Myscofski, C. A. “Bounded Identities: Women and Religion in Colonial Brazil, 1550–1750”.

Religion, 1998. 28(4), 329-337.

Russell-Wood, A.J.R. “Women and Society in Colonial Brazil”. Journal of Latin American

Studies,May, 1977. Vol. 9, No. 1.  pp. 1-34. Print.

Simões, S., & Matos, M. “Modern Ideas, Traditional Behaviors, and the Persistence of

Gender Inequality in Brazil”. International Journal of Sociology, 2008. 38(4), 94-110.

The Evolution of Women’s Rights in Brazil, by Deborah Nwabude (Writer) and James Gristani (Editor)

Deborah Nwabude (Writer) and James Gristani (Editor)

Prof Paula Gandara

WGS 383

21 February 2018

The Evolution of Women’s Rights in Brazil

Introduction

During Brazil’s colonial era, women were known to live under extremely rigid and

unopposable restrictions. In a paper detailing the lives of women in colonial Brazil, author A. J.

R. Russell-Wood describes women as being not only forced to remain passive and unseen but

also as playing a very miniscule role in society beyond being married off and bearing children.

Due to their seemingly insignificant roles in society, a majority of the women in Brazil at the

time were left illiterate, uneducated, and fully dependent on a male figure to survive. Actions of

women, like as Carlota Joaquina, who tried to defy and overcome the unbending societal

structures of the times were often met with ridicule, mockery, or punishment (Lloyd).

Fortunately, the growing fight for women’s protection and equality has steered Brazil away from

its colonial practices and ideologies. Today, not only has Brazil witnessed its women

outperforming their male counterparts in education, but it has also opened doors for women in

politics and taken a stronger stance against gender fueled violence. However, even with such

immense social progress in these areas, more needs to be done to ensure an equal and safe

environment for women in Brazil.

Women in Education and the Workplace

For over a decade, women in Brazil have consistently outperformed their male

counterparts in several measures of educational achievement. A study conducted by the World

Bank in 2010 revealed that literacy rates among young females aged 15-24 is around 99%, 1%

higher than males and up from 84% in 1980 (Ceratti). Another report on educational

achievement taken in 2007 from various demographic reports of Brazilian universities showed

that women made up about 53.3% of new enrollees and 60% of the graduates at universities in

Brazil (Osava). These figures illustrate the tremendous progress Brazil has made in improving

women’s access to education. Prior to its fruitful efforts to educate women, Brazil’s society was

known to harbor negative views on the idea of educating women. The limited or in some cases

the complete lack of education for women like Carlota Joaquina and Joanna Baptista from our

class readings and discussions reflects the reluctant and patriarchal mindset of Brazil’s colonial

society on providing women with an education.

However, despite overcoming much of the gender educational achievement gap in the

classroom, Brazilian women still buckle under gender inequality present in the workplace. A

2017 labor report revealed that although a large number of Brazilian women graduated with

science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degrees that are typically associated

with high paying jobs and increased social mobility, women made up less than 40% of all

professionals in science or technology careers. Rather than pursuing jobs in the high paying

fields that they studied in college, a majority of highly educated women in Brazil end up taking

low paying and low growth jobs in the food, domestic, and education sectors. Brazilian men, on

the other hand, dominate a majority of the high paying STEM, manufacturing, and agriculture

related jobs (Ceratti). This phenomenon of women achieving less than their male counterparts

regardless of their qualifications and achievements can also be seen in our class research and

discussion of Carlota Joaquina. Although she was well qualified to rule over the Spanish

colonies after Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, Carlota was immediately denied any power beyond

her home simply because of the strict views on gender roles at the time (Lloyd). These views

seem to persist today as women struggle to translate their educational successes into meaningful

and relevant careers.

Although a recent study by IBOPE and the United Nations reveals that about 78% of

women and 71% of men in Brazil believe that it is important for managers and legislators to

develop policies to promote gender equality in the country, such widespread societal beliefs have

yet to trickle down into the archaic attitudes and practices of the Brazilian workplace (Forte).

Even today, women’s rights activists, legislators, and Brazilian women themselves argue that

very few Brazilian women end up pursuing careers in high paying jobs in the fields that they

initially studied because of the prevalent patriarchal workplace mindset that often makes them

feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed (Osava).

Women and Violence

Brazil has a long history of undermining and even dismissing the needs of its women to

favor its men. Historically, laws and courts in Brazil were known to frequently side with men in

instances of domestic disputes, regardless of the reasons surrounding the dispute. In his paper

Women and Society in Colonial Brazil, Russell-Wood depicts how “courts looked leniently on

crimes of passion where a husband had beaten or killed an adulterous wife, or a wife merely

suspected of infidelity” (Russell-Wood, 1977, p. 9). Furthermore, Brazil did not acknowledge

domestic violence against women to be a prosecutable crime until the passing of the "Maria da

Penha" law in 2006 (“Maria da Penha Law...”). Since the passing of the law, however, Brazil’s

government has made considerable progress in passing other laws to combat gender based

violence and create a safer environment for its women. A class discussion on the violence against

women revealed that Brazil formally criminalize the act of a man killing his wife in 2007 and in

2015, President Dilma Rousseff signed a femicide law that not only reflected the government’s

new zero-tolerance stance toward violence against women but also introduced a tougher sentence

of about 12 to 30 years in prison for those charged with such crimes (Regan). Unfortunately, the

government’s efforts to deter violence and crimes against women has done little to sway the

Brazilian public. According to a recent PRI report, violence against women climbed to an alltime

high in 2013 and has experienced little to no decline since (Velloso). A 2015 study

completed by Mapa da Violencia also revealed that in comparison to 83 other countries, Brazil

had the fifth highest rate of women and girls killed by a man mainly because of her gender

(Ceratti). With more than 50% of these crimes being committed by family members and 33.2%

at the hands of a current or past partner, it appears as though the Brazilian government has yet to

change the society’s persistent colonial attitudes towards violence against women (Carless).

Women in Politics

During the colonial era, women in Brazil were strictly forbidden from participating in

politics and were not “permitted to vote in municipal elections” (Russell-Wood, 1977, p. 9).

However, since the Brazilian government granted women’s suffrage in 1934 and the passing of a

law mandating that at least 30% of candidates in any given political party must be women in

1937, Brazil seemed to have made substantial progress regarding women in politics (Ceratti).

Moreover, the election of Dilma Rousseff as Brazil’s first female president in 2010 sparked a

renewed sense of enthusiasm towards women’s participation in politics. Unfortunately, such

positive and progressive attitudes in Brazil proved to be futile and short-lived as they failed to

lead to a significant rise in female participation in politics. A study completed by the World

Bank revealed that although they made up a majority of Brazil’s population, women occupied

only 13.6% of seats in Brazil’s Senate in 2017. This figure not only falls significantly short of

Brazil’s targeted 30% but is also drastically lower than the 26% average of women in the

parliaments of Latin American and Caribbean countries (Ceratti). Even the election of Dilma

Rousseff as Brazil’s first female president, that initially brought hope to many Brazilian women

seeking political representation, had a bitter ending. President Rousseff’s failure to successfully

carry out her fiscal policy and her multiple corruption allegations left the Brazilian public with

hostile feelings toward their first female president and maybe even went as far as hurting the

chances of future female presidential and congressional candidates (Kaplan). All in all, although

the Brazil has made steady improvements since the colonial era in passing legislations that

encourage women to participate in the political arena, it has failed to open the right doors to

increase the number of women holding positions within its government.

Women’s rights and opportunities in Brazil have grown significantly over the centuries

following the country’s colonial era. Today, Brazilian women are surpassing men in educational

achievement, experiencing greater protection against violence from the government, and

enjoying more opportunities in politics. However, despite these tremendous advancements,

women in Brazil still struggle to overcome the social barriers probed up by Brazil’s archaic and

patriarchal mindset adapted from its colonial times. This prevailing mindset not only impedes

women’s efforts to move ahead in society but also erodes the government’s efforts to provide a

safe and opportunity-rich environment for its female citizen. Brazil must find a way to eradicate

the traces of colonial thinking still present in its society before it can fully ensure that all its

women can be considered equal to their male counterparts and further progress as a society.

Bibliography

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International, 18 Nov. 2015, www.pri.org/stories/2015-11-18/brazils-shocking-violenceagainst-

women-five-charts

Ceratti, Mariana K. “What Does It Mean to Be a Woman in Brazil? The Answer Will Surprise

You.” World Bank, The World Bank, 8 Mar. 2017,

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