Brazil celebrates 90 years of women's suffrage
The 90th anniversary of women’s vote in Brazil, instituted on February 24, 1932, was celebrated on Thursday (Feb. 24) in a special remote session at Brazil's Senate. Several authorities spoke during the ceremony.
“Since the remarkable legal act that grants women the right to vote, Brazil has gone further with legal measures, such as gender quotas, changes in electoral legislation, aimed at introducing incentives for political parties to include women as politicians on party lists, the right to have a longer TV broadcasting time and more funding,” said UN Women's representative in Brazil Anastasia Divinskaya. For her, all these measures have led into an increase in the number of women in the National Congress in the last elections.
Anastasia Divinskaya mentioned nowadays there are more black women in the Brazilian political scene, and that the first indigenous woman has been elected, “bringing diversity and a fairer representation of Brazilian democracy to the Legislative Power”. UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to promoting women's empowerment and gender equality.
Senator Leila Barros chaired the session and spoke about the importance that the right to vote brought to the exercise of so many other rights by women, and stressed this achievement can be considered something recent. “It is also a reminder that Brazil's short-lived democracy still lacks many devices that can ensure political equity between genders,” she said.
For Senator Lídice da Mata, transforming women's right to vote in Brazil into the right to political participation and the effective right to be elected is a central task of women's movements and of all those who occupy a space of power in Brazilian society, especially in the Brazilian Parliament.
Political scientist Juliana Fratini said although the law determines that 30 percent of candidates in Brazilian elections shall be women, and that 30 percent of electoral fund resources shall be allocated for them, much progress is still needed. “Of the total number of parliamentarians currently at the Federal Legislative Chamber, only 15 percent are women, which means a great progress, since this is twice the number in the last legislature.”
Quotas
Senator Eliziane Gama pointed out another recent achievement of women in 2021 in the Senate: the creation of the women's bench.
The group is very active and has a seat in the college of leaders having the right to speak in Senate plenary sessions to defend proposals.
Gama is the current leader of the bench. She recently presented a proposal that establishes women quotas in the political parties, following examples of Latin American countries such as Argentina and Chile, and European nations as Germany and England. She also stressed the importance of women occupying command functions in the parties.
In her speech, Senator Simone Tebet asked for support in the Chamber of Deputies with the purpose of approving her proposal that establishes that salaries of men and women in the private sector shall be equal. “The Senate has already approved it, since this is the most important point in the institutional policy agenda project,” reiterated Tebet.
