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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).
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