On Wednesday (6), the minister of the Special Secretarial of Policies for Women, Nilcéa Freire, stressed at the Chamber, that the adoption of measures to improve the political representativity of women is not only a feminine requirement, but a requirement of Brazilian democracy. “We live in a representative democracy and, therefore, that system should equally contemplate all segments of society. In the opposite case, we have a representativity deficit”, said the ministry.

Nilcéa Freire also participated in the first public hearing held by the Special Committee which is analyzing the Bill on a Constitutional Amendment 590/06, proposed by Deputy Luiza Erundina (PSB-SP), which guarantees the presence of at least one woman at the governing boards of the Chamber and of the Senate. PEC also ensures the feminine presence at the presidencies of the committees. That committee was installed on April 14th.

When the minister mentions a possible deficit of representativity in Brazilian democracy, she is referring to a fact that, despite they are more than 50% of the population of that country, women hold less than 10% of the seats in Congress. According to that minister, despite that, “in Legislative, the classic sexual sharing of work is reproduced, which attributes to women the committees more connected to them, according to the hegemonic majority of men – human rights, social security and family. We have only a few women at the Committees on the Constitution and Justice, and on the Budget, for instance.

Patriacharlism
According to the deputy Luiza Erundina, that poor feminine representativity in politics is due to factors such as patriarchalism, to the small experience in political militancy of women, and to the lack of encouragement by the parties. She defends that the best way of changing that reality is by implementing legal measures which will enforce the presence of women in important political positions. “There will only be full democracy when more than 50% of the power seats are occupied by women” she claims.

Also for the Minister of the Superior Court of Justice, Fátima Nancy Andrighi, “the adoption of rigid public policies constitutes the only option to put women in equal conditions in the instances of power”.
The representative of the National Instance Forum for Women from Political Parties, Tereza Vitale, also considers the feminine presence in the power as something crucial for democracy. “How is it that we, women, which are more than 50% of the population, can be represented by men?” she challenges. According to her, with the current distortions, men make politics for men, and nobody thinks about women.

For Deputy Alice Portugal (PCdoB-BA), the only way Brazilian Congress can overcome the legitimacy problems it faces is “to actually become the mirror of society”. That deputy claimed that, if political reform is performed with the adoption of a pre-ordained list, there will be the alternation between the two genders. If that list is not adopted, the deputy suggests the adoption of penalties for the parties which do not fulfill the legal determination to reserve at least 30% of their candidacies to women.

Favorable conditions
Erundina believes that there are political conditions to approve that PEC still this year. “There is a favorable conjuncture; we have a president who is sensitive to women’s demands. That will help us get the majority of votes, for us to approve that measure at the Chamber and, thereafter, in Senate. According to the deputy, their objective is to apply the new rule already during the next elections for the governing boards, in 2011.

Judiciary power
In Judiciary Power, the disproportion between genders holding higher positions is not different from what is observed in Congress. According to Fátima Nancy Andrighi, from 86 of the minister positions in higher courts (High Court, Superior Court of Justice, Superior Court of Labor and Superior Military Court), only 13 are occupied by women.

The difference regarding the other Powers, as she explains, is that the admission in the career is made by a public exam in Judiciary, which guarantees equality in the beginning of the career. The problems start during the dispute for a promotion to higher positions. In Justice, there are two criteria for promotion – time and merit. “What we have been observing is that women are just promoted because of time”, affirmed the minister.

Report - Maria Neves
Editing - Newton Araújo
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda