Gender Ideology

5 ways Brazil can #EmbraceEquity

2023 has been politically significant for Brazil. We celebrated the inauguration of President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva but were left reeling from the devastating coup attempt in Brasília on 8 January by Jair Bolsonaro supporters. After four years of a neofascist government, his supporters vandalised symbols of Brazilian democracy.

Shortly after the attempted coup, a humanitarian crisis shot onto the news. 570 Yanomami children – one of the remaining indigenous groups in the Amazon – have died in the last four years. Malnutrition and preventable diseases were blamed but the Yanomami’s region had suffered almost total neglect from the local, state, and federal governments. Coupled with illegal mining, the Yanomami people’s land had been completely devastated. According to Flávio Dino, Minister of Justice, this crisis had a “strong materiality of genocide”. There is also an ongoing investigation by the Ministry of Human Rights into the alleged rape of more than 30 young Yanomami girls by miners.

This recent crisis is one of many that has afflicted Brazil over the past eight years. Gender justice defenders and organisations have been fighting to counter gender backlash. With a new government now in charge, and for International Women’s Day 2023, here are five ways Brazil can better #EmbraceEquity.

1.    Our democracy must expand based on gender equity

Women’s rights must be part of the basis of government policies in Brazil across all policies. Public policies should be written in a way that guarantees the reduction and/or elimination of gender inequalities.

Existing policies and laws in Brazil must be strengthened, used, and monitored in a way that furthers gender rights. The government must guarantee the equipment of Maria da Penha Law, which combats domestic violence in Brazil, and Feminicide Law, which qualifies the crime of homicide based on gender. The Brazilian government must guarantee reproductive justice in Brazil, especially regarding abortion provided by law.

2.    The Government needs to work with feminist movements

In 2022, Brazilian feminist movements occupied the National Congress to demand change. This was led by two groups: ‘Frente Nacional contra a Criminalização de Mulheres and Legalização do Aborto’ and ‘Frente Parlamentar Feminista Antirracista com Participação Popular’.

This feminist movement was central to pressuring Congress to guarantee rights provided for by law for women and against setbacks. The action had the support of feminist parliamentarians, showing that alliances and networks between parliament and movements can happen and do work.

Their movement wasn’t realised until Brazil’s new government withdrew from the oppressive Geneva Consensus and revoked an ordinance that created obstacles for women and girls to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape. They also joined the Commitment of Santiago and the Declaration of Panama – two gender-progressive policies. The new government must ensure that these rights are protected and deliver on its promises for women.

3.    Cash-transfer programmes must be strengthened

In recent years Brazil has seen a massive reduction in State services which were already marked with inequalities. This has led to millions of families going hungry – 33 million according to Rede PESSAN in a survey carried out in 2022.

In 2020 and 2021, more than 300 civil society organisations successfully pressured Bolsonaro’s government into increasing cash transfers to those most in need. Women who were single mothers were awarded double the amount, signifying a victory for the Brazilian women’s and feminist movements.

The fight for emergency income was so strong that, later, cash transfer programmes became a central issue in the presidential campaigns of the main candidates, especially Lula and Bolsonaro. Before Lula was inaugurated, his government managed to approve a Proposal for a Constitutional Amendment (PEC) which guaranteed a significant increase for the Bolsa Família Program. A major part of this programme – which was closed by Bolsonaro’s government – is to support women’s healthcare, particularly mothers. In March 2023, Lula’s government resumed the programme.

4.    Resolve and investigate the humanitarian crisis against the Yanomami people

The feminist commitment to democracy and human rights is also based on solidarity with Indigenous communities and the demand for actions by the State and authorities to resolve and investigate the humanitarian crisis that is spreading across indigenous-owned territory.

There is an immediate need to expel all illegal miners from the indigenous land. It is important to remember that the region is occupied by 30,000 indigenous people, but with the invasion of more than 20,000 illegal miners, the situation of the Yanomami in particular has become unsustainable. Throughout his government, Bolsonaro encouraged illegal mining.

It is necessary to investigate and punish those responsible for the humanitarian crisis, and the alleged rape of the young girls. The current federal government must ensure the safety of the Yanomami people, and guarantee their territory, culture and traditional practices, in addition to strengthening their Bem Viver (‘Good Living’ in English). Young indigenous people must have their rights guaranteed and respected, including in accordance with their values ​​and traditions.

5.    Strengthen the Ministry of Women with the necessary budget and political force

The institution of a Ministry of Women is an important victory for the feminist and women’s movements. An earlier version of this Ministry, created during Lula’s government – the National Secretariat of Policies for Women – was weakened during Dilma Rousseff’s second government, as a consequence of conservative pressures from the opposition during the impeachment crisis. It was then shut down during Michel Temer’s presidential term. During the extreme right-wing government of Jair Bolsonaro, the Ministry of Women, Family and Human rights – among others – were dismantled as part of the attack on women’s rights and gender justice legislation.

It also means that we must demand greater participation from women in civil society and social movements in the production of public policies, giving space to their struggles and recognition of their expertise. Participatory state feminism must be resumed and expanded.

The Ministry must also have a robust budget that can manage women’s demands. This means that the federal government must guarantee the necessary budget for policies and equipment to protect women to be really efficient.

Looking ahead

Brazil is experiencing a moment of relief compared to recent years. The coup suffered by Dilma Rousseff and the Bolsonaro government meant a period of marked defeats for women and for Brazilian society in general. Social movements were hampered, indigenous people were massacred, black people suffered from slaughter, racist statements and practices without control or punishment; women suffered from misallocated resources to combat domestic violence.

We thought we would not survive. But we won. And now the new government, which was elected with a lot of women’s strength, deliver to us what it promised. We are dreaming of a better world, one that is radically democratic and feminist, and that is willing to #EmbraceEquity.

By banning ‘gender ideology’ Bolsonaro feeds his far-right ideals

In Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019 inauguration, he swore to ‘combat gender ideology’ and ‘preserve’ familial values. ‘Brazil will once again be a country free of ideological bonds’ he declared – as if what he was stating wasn’t ideological at all. This positioning led to gendered cultural and social approaches and policies being dismantled. Funds to prevent violence against women have been cut, teenage abstention is promoted instead of sexual education, LGBTQ+ groups are excluded from public television; these are just some examples explored in my article ‘Brazilian far-right neoliberal nationalism: family, anti-communism and the myth of racial democracy’.

This type of backlash isn’t new

‘Gender ideology’ is an expression frequently used in Brazil by the far-right to attack progressive public policies, pro-women and LGBTQ+ people’s rights. But this is not recent. As numerous researchers have identified, ‘Gender Ideology’ is a term that was first propelled onto a global level in 1995, as a reaction of the Catholic Church leadership to the World Conference on Women in Beijing, when the word ‘woman’ began to be substituted by the word ‘gender’. With the passage of time, the expression was taken up by other Christian groups and gained social popularity in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, France, Hungary, Peru, Poland and the United States.

In Brazil, one of the main disputes of ‘gender ideology’ was in the educational sector between 2014 and 2016. The word ‘gender’ was banned and simply excluded from several state’s education plans when approved by City Councils and State Assemblies. Elected officials frequently argued that ‘sexual orientation’ (they don’t use the word ‘gender’) doesn’t concern schools or education, but only the ‘family unit’. This ignores the reality that gender does indeed cut across the entire school experience.

Gender ideology as a neoliberal tool

Bolsonaro’s discourse against gender ideology and women’s and LGBTQ+ people’s rights gained materiality by his agenda, implemented by the Ministry for Women, Family and Human Rights and the Ministry of Economy. Neoliberal reforms and policies promoted by his government and his predecessor, Michel Temer, led to the intensification of poverty and to the dismantling of the social assistance system (such as changes in the ‘continued benefit’, a guarantee of a minimum wage per month to the elderly aged 65 years or over or to the disabled person of any age), which made women’s lives – especially those who are black, indigenous and trans – worse.

The defence of conservative thought might sound contradictory to liberal and neo-liberal ideas. However, neoliberalism and ‘gender ideology’ and other conservative’s thoughts are an ideal marriage in Bolsonaro’s Brazil – and of course I’m using the word ‘marriage’ in a provocative way as Bolsonaro and his supporters defend a traditional, restrictive family model.

As I argue in my recently published article ‘Brazilian far-right neoliberal nationalism: family, anti-communism and the myth of racial democracy’, with Sue Iamamoto and Renata Summa, it is necessary to understand the various cross overs between neoliberalism and neo-conservatism, which we do not see as opposing schools of thought. As Verónica Gago accurately explains, ‘the privatisation of public services or the restriction of their reach is translated into the fact that these tasks (health, care, food, etc.) must be supplied by women and feminised bodies as unpaid and mandatory tasks’.

The promotion of a heterosexual, patriarchal family, strengthening the sexual and racial division of labour, fits well to neoliberal plans that weakens public services which were already far from being universal. Afterall, somebody still has to take care of the children, the elderly, the family and group’s health and survival in general. Services that could be offered by the State become once again unpaid or precarious work. As Wendy Brown argues, the defence of the ‘family’ is also a neoliberal attack on social policies that battle inequality, whether in its gender, race, or class expressions.

An ideological ‘crusade’

During Bolsonaro’s first year as President it was commonly mentioned, especially by the hegemonic media, that the government had two, even three, different branches: the economic, the ideological and the military. Going to the end of his first term, it became evident that such distinction did not exist. The far-right Bolsonaro government is an assemblage of all those actors and the fight against women’s, black, indigenous and LGBTQ+ people’s rights. Presented as an ideological ‘crusade’, this is the ground where the disputes are happening in Brazilian society.

But there is resistance.

Here is an example: before the first term of the elections in 2018, thousands of women from all over the country occupied the streets in the #EleNão (#NotHim) movement against Bolsonaro. They headed back to the streets on 4 December, 2021.