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.
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