Female caucuses of the Chamber and Senate say they are united – 03/09/2023 – Power

Despite the ideological differences, the female caucuses of the Chamber and the Senate say they are united around the fight against gender violence and the wage gap between men and women.

In a minority in parliament, female deputies and senators heard by the Sheet claim that it is possible to overcome party differences to approve guidelines that are in the interests of women —and guarantee the maintenance of the rights won in recent years.

“I think there are guidelines that we can deal with in a non-party way. It is not possible for any woman to agree with the rates of femicide practiced in the country”, says Senator Teresa Leitão (PT-PE).

“The guidelines that we can diverge [são] the usual ones. We differ even on merit. But in my experience as a deputy [estadual], I think we have points of convergence that we should highlight. Opportunities in the labor market, wage gap.”

Even in record numbers in both Houses, the female bench grew less in the last election than in 2018. In 2022, 91 women were elected in the Chamber. Of these, 50 are from parties that make up the base of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government, 18 are from the opposition and 23 from independent parties.

In the Senate, 11 of the 15 senators are in base parties, two in opposition acronyms —Bolsonaro’s former ministers Tereza Cristina (PP-MS) and Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF)— and two in União Brasil, which is independent.

Senator Mara Gabrilli (PSD-SP) claims that there is an unspoken agreement that unites parliamentarians, even when they are on opposite spectrums of politics. According to her, the party difference is something that has little impact on the female bench.

“The women’s bench has something that is not said. Even tacitly, there is an exercise by women to overcome the parties in order to be able to work on common agendas”, says Mara, who was candidate for vice president of the Republic of Simone Tebet (MDB ), on the first 100% female ticket in history.

Faced with disagreements on topics considered controversial — such as the use of medical marijuana and the so-called customary guidelines — base parliamentarians say that the idea is to maintain rights that have already been conquered, such as legal abortion.

Deputy Sâmia Bonfim (PSOL-SP) says that issues related to women’s health, such as cancer treatments, and that encourage their participation in politics are also topics that tend to have greater consensus. “It’s about seeking the minimum consensus and not retreating”, she says.

She also reinforces that women do not want to be restricted to the female agenda. “The role of the caucus is also to ensure that we have approved projects and initiatives that belong to women on any other topic, because they are affected by all of them.”

The first woman to chair the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Chamber, Bolsonarist Bia Kicis (PL-DF), one of the main names of the opposition, says she sees “much more dissent” on the bench, but says that it is possible to seek convergence.

“Those projects that are really to solve the situation of women whenever they are more vulnerable, we are together and we are going to work hard to get good projects for women in Brazil”, he says.

In a male-dominated environment, female parliamentarians face a number of challenges. While the senators were left with no space in the Board of Directors, in the Chamber only the deputy Maria do Rosário (PT-RS) got 1 of the 7 vacancies.

Furthermore, no woman has ever been elected president of the House or Senate. Female parliamentarians are also at a clear disadvantage in leading the benches. In the Chamber, only one woman is leader: Jandira Feghali (PC do B-RJ).

In the Senate, former Minister of Agriculture Tereza Cristina was also the only woman nominated by the political parties to lead the bench. “It’s more work, but I made a point of accepting it, because I think it’s important,” she says.

Even circulating in an environment dominated by men since she was an agricultural engineering student, the senator claims that it was in politics that she faced the greatest prejudices — and says that, over the years, she had to adapt to survive.

“Sometimes you take as a joke some things that we consider sexist. You play with that and go ahead”, he says. “Sometimes it’s not a very nice situation, but we have to live imposing ourselves in this environment to be able to participate.”

The Senate women’s bench now has 15 senators, the highest number in history. Five of them, however, are male substitutes —who left the Senate because they became ministers or were elected governors, as in the case of the governor of Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello (PL).

In the last elections, for example, of the 27 seats in dispute in the Senate, only 4 were filled by women. In addition to Tereza Cristina, Teresa Leitão and Damares Alves, only Professor Dorinha (União Brasil-TO) was elected.

The 91 elected in the Chamber represent less than a fifth of the total. The current number, however, dropped to 88 – with parliamentarians who were licensed to hold other positions, such as ministers Marina Silva (Rede), Sônia Guajajara (PSOL) and Daniela do Waguinho (União Brasil) and who were not necessarily replaced by women.

At the end of January, the caucus sent candidates for the presidency of the Chamber a letter of commitment in which three priorities were listed: increasing participation in the spaces of the House, combating violence against women and women’s health.

The text also mentions the guarantees of the group’s participation in the rotation of rapporteurs and that “controversial topics” on which there is no consensus of the bench are not guided. “In the sense that there are no setbacks and suppression of rights already acquired by society and especially by Brazilian women.”

The current coordinator of the women’s caucus, federal deputy Luísa Canziani (PSD-PR), who signs the document, says that the caucus comes up against “specific discussions that often end up blocking the construction of consensus” —but that it is possible to overcome this with the dialogue.

“We already feel this difficulty at the beginning of this legislature, but it can be overcome with dialogue, construction, balance. This is the spirit of the women’s caucus: the sense of unity around the caucus”, he says.