From female impeachment to male only government: no points to Brazil

After months of a real 'House of Cards' in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff was accomplished, taking the Workers' Party out of power after 13 years. On 12 April, the vote in the Senate decided Rousseff's suspension for a maximum duration of 180 days from the presidency. She now has to prepare her defense on accusation of responsibility crime that will be later on decided by the presidency of the Supreme Court and a new vote from the Senators. A positive or a negative final decision (in September or October) will define a definitive destitution and ineligibility for political positions for the duration of 8 years.

The accusation of her dishonesty about corruption cases were unbearable to the president, always refusing them, but a tired and slow government to take decisions reached its breaking-point, in the person on its leader. The impeachment procedure introduced by Eduardo Cunha has now officially started (the first after 24 years), after the State Audit flagged fiscal irregularities and budget misconduct during the first mandate.

It is true that the procedure is more political than legal, and many fiscal irregularities and accusations of corruption are normal in Brazil but never this was a reason to impeach a president, ever before. Until now.

“I may have committed errors but I never committed crimes”.

“It’s the most brutal of things that can happen to a human being to be condemned for a crime you didn’t commit. There is no more devastating injustice.” (1)

But how come Brazil political situation has come to this point?

In 2010, Rousseff was elected the first female president in Brazil after a long and consistent career more as an administrator than a politician. Her commitment to the Workers' Party was always there while at the same time exercising her functions in companies and public sector. The problems started very soon in the mandate when complaints about corruption in the ministries led to the dismissal of some ministers and the nomination of new ones. Since then, a "cloud" of corruption suspicions has always been linked to this presidency without even mentioning the judicial procedures against previous president Lula da Silva, her mentor.

In 2013, once again, manifestations against the president started with thousands in the streets.

Again, in 2014, her skills as a president were put in the spotlight. The reason was some deals on public companies, accusation of corruption and nomination of directors (Passadena, Petrobas and Lava Jato cases) that were suspected of having her involvement. Even so, she was re-elected during that year with 51.63% of votes, one of the most fierce presidential elections in Brazil. 

Since one year, that the public manifestations have grown highly in the cities of Brazil. At this point, the cries were not about accusation of corruption but the population was asking for Rousseff's resignation.

At the same time, at the economic situation, Brazil has been showing some decreasing number in GDP which did not facilitate her task to deal at the same time with the political and public fight and the economy of the country. The 'Brazilian miracle' is not so visible anymore, and even the sport events taking place in the country are not expected to bring a big push to the economy (2). Moreover, a strong intervention of the state in the economy was not well seen by the political opposition and the population, and even in her own political party.

Due to the difficult internal situation during her second mandate, Rousseff might have fail to balance internal with external affairs and disregard its importance for economy and trade. For the future, Brazil is in the negotiations of Mercosur with the EU, the first since 2004, which is expected to reach a deal between the two organisations for more trade and the definition of common technical questions about customs and agriculture.

After a contextualization of Brazil situation at the moment, I will turn now to the main point of the article:

The new only male government

I question: in 2016, elected governments in democracies cannot still find in their closest collaborators and politicians, women available to join a government? 

Regardless to say that a only male government nominated by the interim president can be seen as surprising. Michel Temer, from the center-right party, appointed as interim president for the following months, has managed to nominate the first full male (and white) government since the 1970s.

The symbology of having a only male government is very clear and it passes a strong message to the population. This are the kind of roles that should not happen anymore today. The fight for womens' right is somehow endangered due to this situation. Besides the government, also in the Brazilian congress the number of women is ridiculous: 53 women in a total of 513 congressional representatives. Brazil is at #115 in a global ranking of female political representation.

To note, that Brazilian women represent 44% of the Brazilian workforce (3). Of course they do, women are half of the society. But what makes it so difficult to be a political representative?

Is this an end to female presidents in Brazil? 

The national debate on the topic has started (4). Women in politics can be seen by some as a burdensome. The reason is that, likewise to business or law, women have to adapt to a system traditionally ruled by men, and in Brazil it is a rule. The society is qualified as extremely sexist regardless of the women's social or economic situation. For this reason, in 2010, the election of president Rousseff was liberating for many Brazilian citizens.

Due to the impeachment procedure and the attacks to Rousseff, gender has become a topic for the reason that it seems for some that only because she is a woman there is such a political attack like anything else before and she is considered unfit for the job by others.

Indeed, her strong and explosive political profile shocked some of her rivals and even her collaborators. Internal fights with her staff were constant due to her bossy behavior. During the votes since April, senators were seen holding signs that read "bye dear" and making suggestions that she would loose her temper because she was a woman. Women cannot be seen by some as a political animal, like a man can be. The suggestions is that she is hysterical or bossy, something like women would be qualified in the nineteen century. 

Women in politics that have a strong character and opinion about their job are not well seen in certain democracies all around the world, including Europe. Gender mainstreaming is an ideal and only education and an upgrade on the society's values can change this in the future. At the moment, Brazilians are indecisive between their social, moral and religious model of society and about the role of women in the society. There is a clear shift on the political arena for a more conservative vision of women's role in the country and empowerment has mixed connotations that need to be defined and transformed. 

Is it because the Brazilian society is still not prepared to have gender mainstreaming?

Feminist defenders affirm that the society is not respecting women rights and violence is daily in high numbers, for example, the increased number of rapes in Brazilian cities has led to establish a women-only carriage in metro so that there is less aggression or inappropriate situations in public transports. The role of women in the society is strongly connected to some stereotypes between an intelligent woman and a beautiful woman. The stereotypes in Brazil are strongly related to beauty standards that come from media and that are being fought everyday by women that work, that study and that do their job. A traditional view of women is stuck but the young generations want to change the stereotype and social media helps a lot on this (5).

In this context, the women's rights are in risk regarding, for example, the abortion law which increases at the moment a political debate by feminist protesters in the Brazilians streets. 

Another important point is that the levels of illiteracy and poverty in Brazilian families is still very high: some children today in Brazil do not go to school. These situations hardens the job of grassroots movements and civil society to proceed with a cultural consciousness-raising about the role and the power of women. It must be remarked that the Workers' Party has done a great job during the last years on including more children in school and opening more health centers in the country. But the social and economic problems in Brazil are chronic and it will take many years to reduce.

To conclude, Dilma Rousseff has the following months to prove her innocence even if he political nature of the impeachment procedure has already condemn her case. The debate on gender is open and this might be an opportunity for the Brazilian society to rethink their attitudes regarding gender balance. Still, women and men have to fight everyday to change mentalities and, unfortunately, the male only government of Temer has not helped: hoping this will be a temporary situation.

The young democracy of Brazil won't probably remember these moments in the future with pride.