Representação política das mulheres: avanços, retrocessos e perspectivas

Abstract

Given the increasing recognition that men and women are equal in rights and therefore important and essential, both individually and as a group, for the development of our society and democracy, and considering the gender representation quota policy that has increased the percentage of representation of women in institutional spaces of power, this work aims to study advances, setbacks and perspectives of female political representation, with an emphasis on the debate on descriptive representation and substantive representation, with the help of the analysis of legislative activity. That said, the question arises whether the descriptive representation of women implies substantive representation. To answer this question, the following hypothesis was formulated: descriptive representation implies substantive representation because with the increase in women deputies, the number of legislative proposals related to women also increased. In view of this discussion and research problem, we intended to seek assistance in the legislative activity of the Chamber of Deputies between the period 2003 and 2022. Through qualitative analysis of the legislative activity of the Chamber of Deputies, we sought to establish relationships between the data discovered and the research hypothesis, such as the proportion between the number of elected officials and legislative activity; the proportion of approved materials when authored by women or men, whether or not there are proposals that, instead of defending women's rights, contradict them. This research can be classified as descriptive-analytical, qualitative and quantitative in nature based on documentary research and descriptive statistics. The results of the research were: women do not occupy higher positions in the distribution of power in the Chamber of Deputies; the increase in the number of female representatives increased the number of proposals related to women; proposals from female deputies are no less likely to be approved compared to male deputies; a recurring theme in women is violence; there are legislative proposals that tend to reduce the rights achieved by women; Among female deputies there is no consensus on which issues are of interest to women. The hypothesis raised, however, was not confirmed, as it is not an automatic relationship that occurs between descriptive representation and substantive representation due to the increase in the presence of women and legislative proposals relating to women.