Puzzles of women's rights in Brazil

Social Research, Fall, 2002 by Mala Htun

Future Challenges

The challenge for Brazil and other Latin American countries is to turn women's abstract rights into concrete rights. Many of the advances in women's rights over the past decade and a half--domestic violence policies, quotas, legal changes, women's agencies in different levels of government--are more symbolic than substantive. In few cases have resources been allocated and institutions changed to guarantee implementation of new laws and policies. We have already discussed loopholes in the Brazilian quota law. Councils to represent women's rights in state and local governments also suffer from a lack of resources and low institutional status; women's police stations as well are underfunded. Moreover, although governments have adopted policies directed at women, a gender perspective has not been mainstreamed into all areas of state action. What is needed is a consciousness about gender and a commitment to advancing women's rights that penetrates all policy areas. Turning women's abstract rights into concrete rights thus requires deep institutional and political changes. It may be that these come only over the long term. It may also be that having more women in power now will contribute, perhaps in subtle ways, to bringing about these changes. Men may take the first steps toward change, but institutionalizing women's advancements over the long term requires that more women be present in power.

TABLE 1: WOMEN IN POLITICAL POWER IN BRAZIL

                           2002    1990    1980

Ministers                    0%     17%     n/d
Senate                       7%      0%      1%
Chamber of Deputies          6%      5%      1%
Governors *                  7%      0%      0%
State Legislatures          10%      5%      2%
Mayors                       6%      2%      1%
Municipal Councils          12%     n/d     n/d

* After April 2002, there were two women governors of Brazil's
26 states and 1 federal district.

Sources: Inter-American Dialogue (2001b); Htun (forthcoming).

TABLE 2: WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN THE 1988 BRAZILIAN CONSTITUTION

Area                  Rights

Basic Principles      Women and men have equal
                      rights and obligations

Family                Women and men have equal
                      rights and obligations in the family

                      Families are constituted by
                      marriage and stable unions

                      The state is obliged to take
                      measures to prevent intrafamily
                      violence

Health                All couples have the right to
                      decide the number and spacing
                      of their children, and the state is
                      obliged to furnish information on
                      family planning *

Work                  The state is obliged to protect
                      women's position in the labor
                      market

                      120 days of paid maternity leave

                      Sex discrimination in employ-
                      ment and wages is prohibited

Domestic Workers      Minimum wage

                      Weekly day of rest

                      Paid annual vacation

                      Maternity leave

                      Social security

* In addition, organized Brazilian women were able to block an effort
to include a constitutional clause protecting "life at conception."

Source: CFEMEA (1996).