sarti feminism brazil Nlr 16907

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Cynthia Sarti

The women’s movement in Brazil—of which feminism is one aspect—hasreflected the condition of women themselves, whose unity as a gender is

cut across by other fundamental references (ethnicity, social class, etc.) andhas above all been cross-class in character.* Its heterogeneous composi-tion stems directly from specific features of Brazilian society, its stronginternal pluralism and the broader political context in which it devel-oped.1 On the one hand, the marked inequality in the distribution of wealthand resources has created a modern, economically privileged sector open toinnovation whose demand for material and cultural consumption is similar tothat in any large city in the industrialized countries. On the other hand, the

majority of the population, living in the urban periphery and rural areas, isexcluded from the benefits of highly concentrated economic growth. To thesevery different realities correspond very different demands. In the urban peri-phery these concern the provision of basic needs: water, electricity, sewage,paved roads, health and education. The needy inhabitants of the major cities,although excluded from its comforts, are exposed to its modernity. They can

The Panorama of Feminism in Brazil

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make use of the networks of public services it offers. They are able, asresidents, to demand access to its benefits. Changes in patterns ofbehaviour propelled by the most modern and privileged sectors thus havetheir impact upon the different urban groups, rich and poor, peripheraland central, and are adapted to the specific situations of each. Feminismbegan to find fertile ground among the urban middle sectors as a radicalproposal to politicize the private, to rethink or reinvent the most funda-mental relationships in the family, in daily life, in habits which hadbecome ‘natural’. But it developed in accordance with local circum-stances, becoming a movement with its own characteristics and seeking totake account of the varied situation of women in Brazil.

Different material conditions, particularly with regard to paid work andhousehold life, provide foundations for very different political perspec-tives. For women from the popular classes the roles of mother and house-wife have a much greater weight than paid work in their definition ofthemselves and the constitution of their social identity. Their daily life isdemarcated by domestic activities, strongly linked to neighbourhood rela-tionships. For women of the middle sectors—who, though discriminatedagainst, have a higher level of education and some degree of professionaltraining—the choice of occupational activity is more likely to be a sourceof gratification. Moreover, the presence of domestic servants in mostmiddle and upper class homes decisively influences the options of thispart of the female population, as well as reducing the conflicts betweenmen and women which might arise from an overload of domesticlabour.2 Wage labour, then, clearly has diverse meanings for someone

who has ‘chosen’ her profession and lives it as the realization of an indi-vidual project, and for someone who simply works out her fate, underpressure from the limited options of a disadvantaged social condition.The different representations reflect structural class differences.

The ‘modernization’ of the Brazilian woman from the1960 s onwards—her attachment to modern individualistic values, including the use ofcontraception and recourse to psychoanalysis, access to higher education,and incorporation into the labour market3—took place in a strongly

* The first version of this text was written forUNIFEM (the United Nations Women’sFund), as part of a consultancy on women in Brazil.1 This analysis of the women’s movement considers only its contemporary manifesta-tions, from the1970 s onwards. This does not mean that it is the only period in whichwomen have mobilized in Brazil. Feminist demonstrations have been recorded in con-nection with the campaign for the abolition of slavery in the last century. Early in thetwentieth century the campaign for the vote brought women into the public arena,although the suffrage movement never achieved the mass character observable inBritain and the United States. (See B.M. Alves, J. Pitanguy,O que é feminismo, São Paulo1985 .) After it had been won in a number of states, female suffrage was confirmed inthe Electoral Code introduced by Getulio Vargas in1932 . As in other countries wheresuffrage movements developed, there was then a lull in the women’s movement. Norwas the political conjuncture conducive to its further development, as the dictatorialNew State banned all popular demonstrations in1937 .2 See C. Bruschini, Mulher e trabalho, São Paulo1985 ; and A. Candido, ‘The BrazilianFamily’, in L. Smith, A. Marchant, eds.,Brazil: Portrait of Half a Continent , New York1951 .3 The IBGE Census recorded a little over6 million women as economically active in1970 (equivalent to20 .7 per cent of the economically active population), and12 million(27 .4 per cent) in1980 .

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hierarchical society in terms of class, race and gender, and reproducedthese sources of differentiation. Female independence bears the mark ofclass and of race. The resources and opportunities offered to womenbrought benefits primarily to the most developed regions of the country,the south-east, ‘whiter’ and more urban. The existence of the domesticservant is an integral part of this hierarchical context. It is worth stressingthat domestic servants tend to be black. It is a legacy of slavery that thereis a direct association between being black, and working in low-statusareas of employment.

The maids who have eased the process of ‘liberation’ lived by otherwomen, their employers, have not remained immune to the process.Domestic service is still the leading form of employment for Brazilianwomen.4 But times have changed. Neither maids nor employers are thesame, at least in the major urban centres (this qualification is alwaysnecessary in so heterogeneous a country). The woman who employs themaid works outside the home and does not run the household with thesame efficiency as her grandmother, but in accordance with new patternsof domestic organization. Nor does the maid behave as she once did; sheacts more as a professional. She defines herself more as a worker than asan additional member of the traditional Brazilian family.5 She demandsher rights as a worker, which under Brazilian law are not the same asthose of other workers. Inequality, today, is reproduced in new ways.

A Distinctive Trajectory

Beginning among the middle sectors, feminism spread through a particu-lar form of reciprocal articulation with popular sectors. The feministswho organized themselves in the country, linked for the most part toorganizations and parties of the Left, acted politically across the wholerange of mobilizations in which women were involved, giving their ownactivity a distinctive note of its own. They influenced and were influencedby the demands of the popular classes, which were also related to changesin the sexual behaviour and patterns of fertility and reproduction.

The link between feminism and the popular sectors gave rise to a delicaterelationship with the Catholic Church,6 an important source of opposi-tion in the political vacuum created by the military regime. The CatholicChurch remains dominant throughout the country, despite the steadily

4 The 1970 Census showed that domestic service accounted for31 .3 per cent of thetotal of economically active women. Ten years on, however, this was the category of female employment which had suffered the most significant relative decline, down to20 per cent of the economically active female population (Bruschini, op. cit.).5 G. Freyre,Casa Grance e Senzala, Rio de Janeiro/Brasilia1980 ; Candido, op. cit.6 The theme of women and religion is analysed in M.L.Q. Moraes, ‘Familia e femi-nismo: reflexões sobre papéis femininos na imprensa para mulheres’, doctoral thesis,mimeo, University of São Paulo1982 . S.E. Alvarez (‘The Politics of Gender in LatinAmerica: Comparative Perspectives on Women in the Brazilian Transition to Democ-racy’, PhD dissertation, Yale1986 ) also emphasizes the intricate relationship betweenfeminism and the Catholic Church. Within the Church, there is the discordant voice ofthe nun, Maria Jose Fonteneles Rosado Nunes (Sister Zeca), whose work has been sys-tematically orientated towards the analysis and questioning of the role of women in theChurch. See, for example, M.J.F.R. Nunes,Vida religiosa nos meios populares, Petrópolis1985 .

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increasing expansion of the non-Catholic sects, particularly Pentecostal,but also those of African origin such ascandomble, and the tendency tosyncretism in the sects. Yet the Church is far from being monolithic. Itsconservative wing co-exists with a progressive wing, influenced by Libera-tion Theology. Under the inspiration of this theology a substantialamount of community work was carried out among the poor from the1970 s on, through the Base Ecclesiastical Communities (CEBs), whichbecame a focal point of resistance to the authoritarian regime ruling thecountry.

The women’s organizations in the poor neighbourhoods emerged andgrew in strength as part of this tradition of pastoral work. This lockedfeminism and the Church in constant struggle for hegemony over populargroups. The predominant tone, however, was one of a politics of alliancebetween feminism, the Left and the Church, all three swimming againstthe current of the authoritarian regime. Conflictual issues such as abor-tion, sexuality or family planning continued to be discussed privately insmall groups, but were not brought into public debate. The activity of theChurch, from a feminist perspective, always had clear limits. The linkscommon to its various factions—in particular obedience to the ecclesias-tical hierarchy, with the Pope as its highest authority—led to a politics ofadvance and retreat, in which a rigidity of principles, not always visiblein daily practice, ultimately prevailed in the ‘burrowing away’ of its mostprogressive representatives. This explains the unanimity on issues relat-ing to sexual morality, with the outright condemnation of abortion,divorce and family planning.

Analyses made by the women’s base organizations reveal the possibilitiesand limits of the strong influence of the Catholic Church in the daily livesof women, who make up the major clientele of the religious communitiesof the country. Chiriac and Padilha have demonstrated that the interestsof the Church as an institution are placed above those of women, makingdifficult discussions which go against its conception of relations betweenthe sexes. Alvarez has shown how the hegemony of the Church in popularorganizations circumscribes the content and the political direction of the‘consciousness raising’ of women from the popular sectors.7 And Moraesmakes these limits explicit when she comments that the Mothers’ Clubsreflect both the evangelical conceptions of Liberation Theology and theprecepts of orthodox Catholicism with respect to the family, promotingthe participation of women in the life of the community but at the sametime reinforcing their continued adherence to traditional family roles.8

Another relevant difference between Brazilian and at least European femi-nism lies in the character of social movements.9 The social movementswhich have arisen in Europe since the late1960 s have a strong cultural

connotation, questioning the values of industrial society and seeking toshow that not all is well when basic needs are guaranteed. In their actionsthey oppose themselves to the state, questioning the notion of social7 Alvarez, op. cit.8 M.L.Q. Moraes, Mulheres em movimento, São Paulo 1985 .9 See A.O. Costa, C. Barraso, C. Sarti, ‘Pesquisa sobre mulher: do limbo ao gueto?’,Cadernos de Pesquisa54 , 1985 .

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welfare. In Brazil urban social movements are organized on a local basisand are rooted in the daily experience of their protagonists, the inhabit-ants of the urban periphery. Demanding a better distribution of urbaninfrastructural provision and collective consumption goods, they directtheir activity at the state, as an agent which should promote social wel-fare. Paving, electricity, water and sewage are watchwords without mean-ing in societies with an assured minimum of social well-being. Here theyare the fundamental object of women’s demands. This form of women’sparticipation in neighbourhood movements has as its reference point theworld of reproduction, including the family and its conditions of life.

Feminism made its presence felt within this general framework, seekingto live with diversity without denying its own particularity. This requireda great deal of caution. Initially, feminism had a negative connotation.One was caught in cross-fire. For the Right it was a dangerous, immoralmovement, while for the Left it was bourgeois reformism. For manywomen and men, moreover, independently of their ideology, it had a defi-nite anti-feminine connotation. Feminism was associated with an opposi-tion between man and woman, whose manifestations in Brazil never tookon a radical form. The image of ‘feminism against femininity’ even hadstrong repercussions internally in the women’s movement, dividing itsgroups with exclusive self-denominations. To call oneself a feministimplies the conviction that problems specific to women will not beresolved as social structures change, but will need special treatment.Brazilian feminism developed by fusing together groups from the middlesectors and the popular movements, not least because of their close links

with democratic struggles in opposition to the military regime.In the context of authoritarianism which marked the beginning of themovement, the ‘general’ problems of society were given priority over the‘specific’ problems facing women. Feminist issues gained their own spaceas the process of political ‘opening’ was consolidated and a large numberof groups declared themselves openly feminist. Conflicts and disagree-ments with the Catholic Church and with some sectors of the Left, conser-vative as regards sexual morals, began to surface more clearly. Withinthis multiplicity of forms and orientations, Brazilian feminism became

distinctive as some of its sectors attempted to influence public policy notonly as pressure groups, but also through the use of institutional channelscreated within the state itself.

The First Steps

International Women’s Year,1975 , as decreed by the United Nations,was the starting point for the present mobilization of women in the coun-try. After1968 —when Institutional Act No.5 abolished indefinitely theconstitutional limits to government action, closed Congress and granted

exceptional powers to the executive authority—Brazilian society hadlived through a most dramatic period of kidnappings, exile, disappear-ances and torture, in which the delegates from the Censor’s Office and theagents of the secret services haunted us daily, and every citizen was, inprinciple, suspected of some crime against national security. The opposi-tion struggle had withered away, with the space for resistance confinedonly to clandestine action. From1974 , with the presidential succession,

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there began a period of change, albeit partial and limited, known asGeneral Geisel’s project of ‘slow and gradual reduction of tension’. Theconsequences of the ‘economic miracle’ became acute as inflation and theconcentration of income dulled the euphoria of the earlier years. Populardiscontent was made manifest by the only means available, the Congres-sional elections of1974 . The desire for change was revealed in theemphatic victory of the oppositionMDB over the government party(ARENA), in the two-party system which had been imposed in1965 andwould last until the reorganization of the parties in1980 .In this period, when the feminist movement was developing at a broadinternational level, we took our first steps in Brazil despite the continuingclimate of censorship and political repression. The issue aroused curiosityand interest, mainly expressed in interviews and articles in the so-called‘alternative’ press. Discussion groups began to form. However, feminismwas generally seen at the time as something alien to our reality, a petty-bourgeois preoccupation.International Women’s Year,1975 , was particularly important because itserved as a pretext for women to discuss and organize, in a context inwhich the channels of political participation were closed. Activitiesduring the year opened the way for the first collective women’s groups,linked in most cases to the still-clandestine parties and organizations ofthe Left. They gave birth to the Centre for the Development of BrazilianWomen in São Paulo and the Brazilian Women’s Centre in Rio de Janeiro,which brought together mainly professional women. The women’s move-ment began to become visible. The founding of the Women’s AmnestyMovement, also in1975 , made a significant contribution to its expansion.Arising in the state of Parana and then moving to São Paulo, its journal,Brasil Mulher (from 1975 to 1980 ), raised the banner of struggle foramnesty and democracy, and later turned to issues associated with femin-ism. In1976 (until 1978 ) another journal appeared, Nos Mulheres, whichdefined itself as feminist from the start. From1975 we began to celebratethe 8th of May, Women’s Day, and commemorative events had a signifi-cant impact, particularly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, in bringingwomen’s issues to the fore and drawing all the women’s groups together,although there were always cleavages which permeated the movement.As we have seen, the feminist groups acted alongside women’s neighbour-hood associations which had been in existence since the1960 s: Mothers’Clubs or Housewives’ Associations, organized in the poor districts andlinked in most cases to the Church through the base communities. Theywere social groups whose participants carried out typically feminine acti-vities, working with their hands (at knitting, crochet, etc.) or engaging inreligious activities (such as catechism). But from the middle of the1970 sthese groups took on a more demand-oriented character, focusing on theconditions in which they lived in accordance with the pastoral option ofdefending the poor and oppressed. One of these Mothers’ Clubs, in thesouthern zone of the city of São Paulo, was the birthplace in1973 of theCost of Living Movement—a protest against high prices which was tohave considerable national impact.The feminist groups also had links with occupational associations (ofmaids, for example), or with unionized women. By1978 , although women

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still only accounted for20.5 per cent of unionized workers (against36 .1 percent of the economically active population), the number who belonged tounions had increased by176 per cent since1970 , while the urban femalelabour force had grown by123 per cent, according to figures given byGitahy et al.10 These authors argue that these trends help to explain theinitiatives directed at women by union leaders from1978 on. In recent years,women have been playing a growing role even in union leadership.11 Inaddition, Brazilian trade unionism is developing a concern for thesituation of working women, above all in the wake of the organization ofmeetings and congresses of women in specific occupational categories.12

Feminism Makes Its Entrance

Although the groups calling themselves feminist—by which they meantconcerned specifically with women’s issues—had a leading presence inthe unified celebrations of8 March, the feminist accent was hardly heard.

This trend was further strengthened by a definition of the woman workeras the main subject for feminism. Discussion revolved around unequalwages, the ‘double shift’, and the level of labour market discrimination ingeneral. Partly this was a question of strategy: women’s work was a themepermitted and accepted by all women, and unity was a major considera-tion in joint events. But the emphasis also came from a dominant ten-dency in the movement which believed that since women workers werethe object of a double oppression, of class and of gender, they would bethe principal agent of feminist transformation. This is explained by thefact that the Brazilian feminist movement had traced out its path withreference to the Marxist ideology of the Brazilian Left, and to the idea,also present in liberal feminism, that paid work was a fundamentalinstrument of liberation of the housewife.

At this time the political situation favoured the alliance of democraticwomen against the ruling authoritarian regime. One of the major unify-ing issues, which gave rise to an intensive collective mobilization (thoughin fact it did no more than group together separate initiatives), was themovement for creches. It was a demand which arose out of various

motives and from a variety of groups: women workers, women on theurban periphery, and feminists (who came primarily from the educatedmiddle classes). The demand for creches sought to create conditions inwhich women could participate in the labour market—particularlywomen who lacked the resources to pay for replacements to carry outtheir domestic and maternal duties.10 L. Gitahy, H. Hirata, E. Lobo, R. Moyses, ‘Operárias: sindicalizacão e reivindica-ções (1970 –80 )’, Revista Cultura e Política, Rio de Janeiro1982 .11 M.V.J. Pena, ‘A participação das mulheres na luta dos trabalhadores e no movi-mento sindical’, in Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher, Mulher Trabalhadora ,Brasilia1986 .12 Worthy of note, among others, are the Women Metalworkers Congresses held inSão Paulo and São Bernardo in1979 , as a result of the strikes of1978 which began inthe ABC industrial region on the outskirts of São Paulo City. The Second Congress ofWomen Metalworkers took place in São Paulo in1985 , and in 1986 CONCLAT (theNational Coordinator of the Working Classes) organized the First National Congressof Women Workers, with the participation of more than four thousand rural andurban delegates from all over the country.

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For the feminists, the creche movement was part of a broader effort toredefine family roles and women’s struggle for autonomy,13 while forwomen on the urban periphery it tended to be part of a more generalparticipation in neighbourhood social movements, where the ‘womanquestion’ was not posed so explicitly. The very act of involvement, how-ever, placed them in a new, public space, and exposed them to new exper-iences which transcended the domestic space. It is worth emphasizingthat in the São Paulo periphery, the protagonists were essentially house-wives who did not work for wages, although many—not all—of them hadit in mind to do so. This reveals the primordial character of the neigh-bourhood struggle for improvements in the conditions of local life.

While the feminists engage in such struggle as a form of opposition totheir traditional role as ‘mother’, in the sense of redefining it throughpublic institutions that take upon themselves the education of children, itis precisely as a fulfilment of the role of ‘mother’ that women participate

in these movements. They seek improvement in the conditions of life oftheir family, better opportunities for education and nutrition for theirchildren, through struggles for better urban infrastructure in their neigh-bourhoods in the form of creches, health posts, and so on. The role ofmother motivates and legitimates their leaving the home for the publicsphere, whether in paid work or in political activity.14 The feministsleave the home with the deliberate intention of transforming this role.

Unity, without these differences made clearly explicit, was the mark of thewomen’s movement until the beginning of the1980 s at least, when thevarious groups remained united around particular issues and the oppo-sition struggle for democracy. Motives and perspectives varied, in accord-ance with different social conditions, and feminism was restricted, as anideology and a practice, to one sector only of the women’s movement.Alleging the priority of the fight against authoritarianism and the inequal-ities which existed in Brazilian society, some tendencies relegated thefeminist problem to a secondary plane. There was the usual oppositionbetween tendencies—linked to organized political groups—which gavepriority to general struggles, seeking to impose their programme and to

relegate the woman question to insignificance, and the tendency whichtook feminism as its banner, defending the autonomy of the women’smovement.

Even within the sector which defined itself as feminist, divisions remainedbetween two principal tendencies. The first, more concerned with thepublic activity of women, directed its energies to their political organiz-ation, concentrating upon issues relating to work, the law, and theredistribution of power between the sexes. This tendency worked aboveall through pressure groups. The other tendency was primarily concernedwith the fluid terrain of subjectivity, with inter-personal relations, and13 F. Rosemberg, ‘O movimento de mulheres e a abertura politica no Brasil: o caso dacreche’,Cadernos de Pesquisa51 , 1984 .14 C. Sarti, ‘É sina que a gente traz (ser mulher na periferia urbana)’, mimeographeddissertation, University of São Paulo,1985 . On the participation of women in socialmovements, see T.P.R. Caldeira, ‘Mujeres, cotidianeidad y política’, in E. Jelin, org.,Ciudadanía y identidad: la mujer en los movimientos sociales en América Latina, Geneva 1987 .

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saw the private world as its privileged sphere of action. It made itspresence felt principally in study, discussion or shared living groups.

Consolidation of the Movement

From1978 onwards, as the women’s movement consolidated its positionwithin the emerging array of political forces, new paths were presentingthemselves, and differences were becoming more apparent. New spaceswere opened up for political discussions of general interest, and the oldopposition between general and specific struggles lost much of itsstrength, making it possible for women to focus more on their own prob-lems. An explicitly feminist discourse emerged, in which gender relationswere the point at issue.15 Feminist ideas permeated the social arena, notonly through the activity of particular groups but also in response to thereceptive climate of demands of a modernizing society. In the attempt toaddress innumerable concerns—above all, those of a female populationwhich, in going out to occupy public spaces and to work for wages,lacked new points of personal and social reference—the media opened upspace for the woman question, and thus conferred, albeit indirectly,greater visibility and credibility upon the social movement. Feministgroups spread through the country; the feminist movement achievedsignificant penetration in occupational associations, parties and unions,giving legitimacy to women as a specific social subject. In the congres-sional elections of1978 , in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, groups ofwomen involved themselves for the first time in electoral campaigns,retaining their own distinctive propaganda and making support for a

candidate conditional upon his or her commitment to their demands.Nineteen-eighty was the year of the most intense mobilization of women’sgroups as a collective movement, bringing together women in verydifferent situations. São Paulo was the site of the Second Congress ofPaulista Women, attended by more than four thousand women. Thishigh-point, however, was also the moment at which internal conflictswithin the women’s movement began to be revealed more clearly.16 Themovement was being radicalized by the appearance of themes whichtouched more openly and directly upon the issue of gender relations, as inthe marches and protests against cases where women had been beaten ormurdered by their husband. In Belo Horizonte (in the state of MinasGerais) feminist groups organized in August1980 the Centre for theDefence of Women’s Rights, a pioneer initiative repeated in other cities.

15 The range of issues that have been raised is reflected in the book Mulheres em Movi-mento, organized by the Women’s Project of the Cultural Action Institute (IDAC) in Riode Janeiro, as well as in the feminist press whose principal organ since1980 has beenthe São Paulo journal Mulherio. With varied weight in different parts of the movement,discussion has concerned education, law, work, health, means of communication,sexuality, abortion, creches, and sexual violence, in addition to such questions as newknowledge, new forms of expression and new interpersonal relationships.16 Wide-ranging discussions of the internal contradictions and conflicts in thewomen’s movement can be found in the analysis of Moraes (op. cit.,1982 and1985 ); A.Goldberg, ‘Feminismo em regime autoritário: a experiências do movimento de mul-heres no Rio de Janeiro’,12 th World Congress ofIPSA, 1982 ; M. Schmink, ‘Women inBrazilian “Abertura” Politics’, Signs 7/1 , 1981 ; H. Pontes, ‘Do palco aos bastidores: oSOS Mulher e as práticas feministas contemporâneas’, mimeographed dissertation,IFCH da UNICAMP, 1986 .

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In São Paulo the issue of violence against women was broached at theSecond Congress of Paulista Women, and taken up again in the Women’sMeeting at Valinhos, from which there arose the idea for the creation of

SOS Mulher (SOSWomen), brought to fruition in October1980 . In Rio de Janeiro a Committee against Violence was formed, and in October1981 SOS Mulher opened in Porto Alegre in the southern state of Rio Grande doSul. These bodies sought to give legal and psychological support towomen who were the victims of violence.Unity Undone

The 1979 amnesty and the return of women exiles, often influenced intheir personal life and political activity by direct experience of Europeanfeminism, also contributed to the strengthening of the feminist tendencywithin the movement. But while the issue of violence kept the flame of themovement alive during1980 , the year1981 might be called the year of‘internal violence’,17 on account of the explosive tensions which had beenbuilding up. The difficulties of coping with unity in diversity—particu-larly as differences were not made perfectly explicit—led to the erosion ofthe relationship between feminist groups and the others (‘women’sgroups’). Unity had been established in a vacuum and could not besustained when the mere fact of being an opposition no longer sufficed tobond the movement together. It was precisely the fundamentally ‘politi-cal’ character of the women’s movement, to the detriment of issues relat-ing specifically to women as such, which was the motive for the growingdiscontent of the current identified with feminism as a struggle against

sexual oppression.In addition there were conflicts within feminism itself. Differencesbetween the groups, and their social heterogeneity, were accentuated withthe rise of the gay and lesbian movement; the interconnections with theblack movement also highlighted the difficulty of coping with differencewithin feminism. These cleavages were faced by the women’s movement,to a greater or lesser extent, in all the states in the country where feminismhad taken hold. As feminist groups began to demand space for their spe-cificity, it became impossible to continue with united actions; the idea ofa Women’s Federation, which had gone the rounds in the movement,seemed further than ever from realization. The splitting of the8th ofMarch celebrations in São Paulo in1981 was a sign of things to come. AsMoraes noted, ‘the women’s movement was in pieces, and time hadshown that feminism had to appear in new forms.’18

In the 1980 s, at the same time that social consciousness of the oppressionof women was spreading through the country, the feminist groups andtheir activities were fragmenting. The nuclei lost their generic character,and organized themselves around specific issues. The groups which hadformed around the banner of women’s oppression melted away, andmore specialized activities, with more technical and professional per-spectives, gained ground. Particular mention should be made of groupswhich developed around problems in the areas of health, sexuality and17 The expression is taken from Moraes, op. cit.,1985 .18 Ibid.

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reproduction, offering medical services and psychological assistance, andputting feminist demands into practice. This was the case with theSOSCorps of Recife (in the state of Pernambuco), the São Paulo Women’sRefuge, the Grajau Women’s Refuge (also in the state of São Paulo), andthe Sexuality and Health Collective (São Paulo). These groups werecreated out of the critique of government policy in the area of health,which until recently ignored women, or simply sought to impose pro-grammes of control, without any attempt to consult the people affected.They represented an advance in that they showed ‘the maturity of a move-ment, which, without abdicating its authority, conducts a dialogue withthe state, proposing courses of action to it’.19

There was also a broad development of research on women, particularlyin the social sciences, demography, psychology, literature, communica-tions, and history. From a picture of individual initiatives in an academicatmosphere at first unreceptive or even hostile, a movement took placetowards a phase of growing expansion and institutionalization. Centres ofWomen’s Studies have now been created in universities in eight differentstates, and their presence is increasingly felt in scientific associations andmeetings. Although women’s studies are now recognized as legitimate,problems remain, particularly as regards their isolation, and the lack ofdialogue with the human sciences as a whole—the tendency to ‘ghettoiza-tion’—persists.20 In terms of publishing, there has been a veritable explo-sion of books, articles and journals on the condition of women. Finally, anumber of documentation centres have been founded, among them theCIM (Women’s Information Centre) in São Paulo, which has accumulated

a mass of material particularly relating to feminist organizations and thewomen’s movement in the country.

The events of1982 gave evidence of a movement which was still an activeforce, but whose forms of manifesting itself had diversified. The BerthaLutz Tribunal was held in São Paulo, a spectacle organized by a group offeminists which put on trial the discrimination to which the workingwoman is subjected, along with drama, music and dance on the sametheme. The intention was to seek a new language, to give a culturalexpression to the political struggle through an innovative aesthetic ven-ture. In September of the same year the First National Festival of Womenin the Arts was organized in São Paulo, coordinated by Ruth Escobar andfinanced by Nova magazine from the Abril publishing house. In additionto displaying women’s creativity in the arts (cinema, theatre, literature,music, dance, and plastic arts), the festival was an event in itself, withwomen’s delegations present from various parts of the world. It providedspace for the presentation of feminist works from different parts of thecountry, using varied audiovisual and theatrical techniques and resour-ces. The festival was all the more animated by the climate of effervescence

which preceded the November elections.The 1982 Elections

At the end of1982 elections took place for Congress, and, for the first time19 C. Barraso, A saúde da mulher , São Paulo 1985 .20 Costa et al., op. cit.

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since1965 , for state governors. The two-party system imposed in1965 hadbeen abolished, and the opposition now divided into three parties: theParty of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), the heir of the pre-vious opposition party, theMDB, which retained its character as an oppo-sition front, and contained within its ranks the orthodox Communists ofthe PCB; the Workers’ Party (PT), organized around the union leaderswho appeared at the end of the1970 s and had as their principal repre-sentative Luis Inacio da Silva (Lula), alongside intellectuals and the rem-nants of leftist groups in the country; and the Democratic Labour Party(PDT), whose legacy of populisttrabalhismowent back to Getulio Vargas,and whose leader, Leonel Brizola, exiled during the years of the dictator-ship, was elected governor of Rio de Janeiro after his return underamnesty.

These elections were particularly important because of the changes theybrought about in the structures of power. The majority support for theopposition parties gave them the government of the economically mostimportant states, reducing the power of the pro-regimePDS to the poorstates of the north-east, dominated by old-fashioned clientelism.

In view of the internal division of the women’s movement and the frag-mented character of feminism, the women who participated in theelectoral campaign organized themselves in accordance with their sup-port for different opposition candidates, particularly from thePT and thePMDB. This division then defined their future relationship with theauthorities who took power. Feminist demands were included in thedebate over the questions of party reorganization and the election cam-paign, involving all the issues under discussion in the country. Some can-didates, in thePT andPMDB, identified themselves with feminism, withina general context of launching new initiatives on ecology, the drugs prob-lem, and the Indian, homosexual and black issues.

After the1982 elections the trend to more specialized and less generalforms of activity grew stronger. A number of women took up positions inpublic administration, and the shift in the balance of power fuelled hopesthat more space would become available for demands to be met. With

greater penetration in the fabric of society, feminist activity took on a sec-toral pattern. Feminists in public administration, in their politicalgroups, or in their specific professional activities are active in the sensethat they have incorporated their perspectives on life and work into theseareas. This more sectoral pattern of activity, in place of the unity aroundgeneral principles which marked the early phase, characterizes thewomen’s movement today.

Women Workers in the Countryside

A new development which merits attention concerns the mobilization ofwomen workers in the countryside. In1978 the Third Congress ofCONTAG(the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers) took place at atime when echoes of the demands of urban workers were being heard inits affiliated unions and professional associations. A programme for theredistribution of land was proposed, with women not even mentioned aspossible beneficiaries: ‘In speaking of the advantage of family plots, they

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disregard the woman’s efforts, although all their arguments would beinvalid were it not for the presence of this figure in the family’, in view ofthe significance of the woman’s role in production of this type.21 Herwork is not recognized as such, but is considered as part of her domesticresponsibilities.

Politically active women are not a novelty in the countryside. It is a recur-rent feature of our history that women whose husbands become peasantleaders and are killed at the landowners’ behest take their place in thestruggle. What is unusual is that meetings should have been held to dis-cuss the specific situation of the rural woman worker. First regional andthen state-level meetings took place, culminating in1986 with the firstNational Congress of Rural Women, attended by350 delegates from allover the country. Goals shared by all rural women, regardless of theirconditions of work, are the struggle for the unionization of women andthe demand that title to the land be granted to women, whether they have

families or are single, as well as to men. This last demand was a con-stant feature in discussions over the National Agrarian Reform Plan pro-posed by the present government, and an issue which, along with theincreasingly severe tensions over land conflicts, has fired the spirits ofrural workers in recent years.

The creation of a top-level government organization to stimulate, pro-mote and guarantee equality between the sexes was a recommendation ofthe World Plan for the Decade, confirmed in1980 at the CopenhagenConference, primarily on the basis of an evaluation of existing nationalexperiences.22 Largely as a result of the authoritarian character of theregime, however, this proposal was discussed neither at government norat non-government level, neither among the parties nor among the socialmovement. With the issue of its own autonomy always on its agenda, thewomen’s movement ran a course parallel to official institutional policy;there was no dialogue or exchange. Only with the establishment of ademocratic government in1982 did debate really begin about such anofficial agency. The shift in the balance of power, with the election ofopposition candidates in the most developed states, opened the way for

Councils on the Condition of Women, concerned with the definition ofpolicy with respect to women, within the adminsitrative structure of stategovernment. The pioneer states were São Paulo and Minas Gerais. InAugust1985 , on the initiative of the São Paulo State Council and the StateSecretary for Public Security, five reception posts (delegacias de defesa demulher ) were set up in São Paulo City and some towns in the interior toassist women who had been the victims of rape, beatings or any otherform of violence. This initiative was designed to overcome the restraintswhich inhibit women from reporting crimes of a sexual nature, and forthis reason the posts are staffed exclusively by women. The São PauloCouncil has made it a priority to train and equip police and legal officersfor work of this kind, and the thirty-three posts now spread across eight-een states enjoy great popular Surport.

21 C. Spindel, ‘A “invisibilidade social” do trabalho da mulher na agricultura’, mimeo-graphed paper,9th Annual Meeting ofANPOCS.22 A.O. Costa, A política governamental e a mulher , São Paulo1985 .

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The range of activity of the Councils on the Condition of Women is sur-prising, particularly in view of their relative lack of access to publicresources. From a primarily symbolic activity, allowing the disseminationof social consciousness of sexual inequalities, the Councils have been ableto go further and gradually break down the impenetrable structure ofstate administrations, providing a steadily growing space for effectivepolicies directed to the needs of women. Today these Councils exist infour more states, and have also been set up, at municipal level, in twelvecities in Brazil.

The National Council for Women’s Rights

In 1984 , by which time Brazilian women had accumulated nearly tenyears of experience and developed many demands, the National Cam-paign for Direct Elections Now, calling for direct election of the Presidentof the Republic, set in motion a broad process of mobilization across thecountry. Hundreds of thousands of people marched on the streets of thelargest cities bearing witness to strong popular pressure for effective par-ticipation. Although an amendment providing for direct elections wasdefeated in Congress, the struggle over the succession was able to build onthe existing momentum. The Democratic Alliance—a heterogeneouscoalition formed by the Party of the Liberal Front (PFL), a dissidentfaction of the governmentPDS, and thePMDB—launched the candidacy ofTancredo Neves for the presidency against the official candidate, PauloMaluf. As a result of the strength of the opposition revealed in the cam-paign for direct elections, Neves was elected by official Electoral College

based on the National Congress. He died, however, before he could takeoffice, an episode which moved the entire country. The New Republic,installed by indirect election, had as its first President a civilian, JoseSarney, Tancredo’s running mate for vice-president. Twenty-one years ofmilitary rule had come to an end.

The accumulated organizational experience of women forced the govern-ment to recognize the discrimination to which they were subjected in oursociety. From the period of Tancredo’s candidacy discussions had beentaking place on the creation of a Council on the Condition of Women at

national level, and in September1985 a Council for Women’s Rightscame into being. It constituted a historic watershed, the first time that thefederal government had recognized the existence of sexual inequality andthe importance of the activity of Brazilian women. The country thusbegan to take the first steps, at federal level, to guarantee women full citi-zenship within a global strategy for the construction of democracy. Themulti-party character of the Council contributes to the range of its activi-ties, which have passed from merely formal declarations to the terrain ofconcrete action.

The 1986 Elections and the Constituent Assembly

To the effervescence which generally precedes congressional electionsthere was added in1986 the contest over the choice of a new ConstituentAssembly, composed of the federal deputies and senators elected byeach state, and responsible for writing a constitution for the consolida-tion of a still fragile democracy. Although Brazil at present has a civilian

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government, the remnants of the authoritarianism imposed on thecountry by military governments from1964 onwards still make them-selves felt. It is sufficient to remember that the president of the countrywas chosen not in a direct election but through an indirect processcentred on Congress. In this context, the new Magna Carta represents thedecisive step towards an effective transformation at the institutional level.

The efforts of political groups and economic interests active in the coun-try are concentrated at present on guaranteeing their representation inthe new order. Women who have been politically active over the lastdecade are among them, and the559 -member Constituent Assembly con-tains a substantial group of twenty-six women. This has no historical pre-cedent in Brazil. In1933 Carlota Pereira de Queiroz was the only womandeputy to enter the Constituent Assembly,23 and in1946 no woman waselected. Indeed, the women elected to the Constituent Assembly in1986outnumber the cumulative total of women elected to Congress in thewhole history of the Republic. A further advance is the presence of ablack woman among them.

The composition of the bloc of women members is heterogeneous. Interms of party affiliation, the Left elected a higher proportion of womenthan the Right. Thus the right-wingPDSelected6 per cent of membersbut only4 per cent of women members; the centre-rightPFLelected26per cent and27 per cent respectively, and the centristPMDB 53 per centand38 per cent; the Left, including the Communists (both pro-Soviet andpro-Chinese, now legalized), the Socialists and the Workers’ Party (PT),took 5 per cent of the seats but elected15 per cent of the women. Thewomen’s bloc has a different composition from that of Congress, with thebalance tilted a little more to the left, and a probable tendency to moreprogressive action. The regional balance is less favourable, as the lessinfluential states account for the bulk of the women elected.

The election of women was not directly linked to their activity in thepolitical arena. Some are political militants or feminists of long standing;others owe their election to the political prestige of their father or hus-band. One thing, however, appears certain. The significant weight of thewomen’s movement among the social struggles in the country in recentyears has put onto the Congress agenda such issues as equal wages, equal-ity in the civil code, and the provision of creches.

After a period of fragmentation, then, feminism has become institution-alized, above all through participation in the apparatus of the state,reflecting its recognition and legitimacy and providing an effective chan-nel for pressure on the decision-making process. But it also expresses itsloss of ground as a social movement, at the level of civil society. The

23 Another woman, Almerinda Gama, was present in the Constituent Assembly as oneof the forty ‘class’ representatives (twenty from the employers’ union and twenty fromthe workers’ unions) who also participated in the writing of the1934 Constitution. SeeConselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher, Mulher e Constituinte, Brasilia1985 .

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women’s social movement made one thing clear, and this is its mostevident gain. Its impact has given the problem of gender identity a socialpresence of which account must now be taken. For this reason, althoughthe final shape of the constitution has not yet been clearly delineated,everything indicates that the recent social struggles of Brazilian womenwill echo through the new institutional order.

sarti feminism brazil Nlr 16907

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