See what the priorities of the women’s bench in the Chamber will be in 2024

The women’s bench in the Chamber of Deputies – made up of deputies from the right and the left – defined what the priority agendas will be in 2024, after meeting with the Minister of Women, Cida Gonçalves.

Among its priorities, the bench intends to work for “parity” between men and women in spaces of power, well above the 30% quota foreseen in candidacies for federal, state and municipal parliaments.

According to parliamentarians, women make up more than half of the Brazilian population, but do not exceed 18% of the composition of the Chamber, with 91 federal deputies.

The bench also intends to support women candidates for city hall and city council, with a focus on ending gender-based political violence. “The fight against political violence must strongly guide the prosecutor’s activity in 2024 as it is a municipal election year. Political violence is very serious and is present 24 hours a day,” said the woman’s deputy prosecutor, deputy Delegada Ione (Avante-MG),

Another priority for the women’s bench will be the regulation of paternity leave. At the end of 2023, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) recognized the National Congress’s omission on the issue and set a deadline of 18 months for the approval of definitive legislation.

The topic had already been discussed in the bench’s working group. For the deputy coordinator of the Women’s Secretariat, deputy Laura Carneiro (PSD-RJ), the proposal is “important to combat inequalities between men and women in the job market and in the division of baby care”.

“Regulating paternity leave is saying that we, women, have to share with men the right to have our children and share with men the right to be productive and empowered”, highlighted the deputy.

More conservative agendas that divide the bench, such as the end of the legalization of abortion, homeschooling, among others, are not among the bench’s priorities.

In the month of March, when International Women’s Day is celebrated, federal deputies seek to make a concentrated effort to approve projects of interest to women, always with the approval of the president of the Chamber and party leaders.