Diálogos com as mulheres na política local baiana: famílias, tradições e representações entre o público e o privado

Abstract

Does the greater female participation, in numbers, in the bureaucratic and political frameworks – within the Brazilian contemporary process – indicate an effective citizenship, spaces conquered and banners unfurled? Coming from this generating question, this work reflects about the “empowerment” of women, accessing debates about gender and the binomial of inclusion/exclusion, as well as their incidence in municipal politics, thought about as an agent that exercises political power. Focusing on family and life histories, it analyses the categories of gender and kinship, which permeate the performances, exploring the intersection of the worlds that conform the political universe, in a perspective that understands gender as a part of a system of relations. Aiming to overreach the naturalized/essentialized view of the female role in the political space, this etude has as an objective to analyze how the relations between public and private take place among women who act in politics, with the perspective of understanding how the conscience of oneself and for oneself is elaborated. In a broad and watchful perspective of the historical and cultural problems of which the women were victims and kept made invisible in subordinate functions up until today. A discussion that demonstrates the incorporation of diversity and multiplicity. In a specific way, it intends to identify how the women invested in an office exercise citizenship in public and private spaces, enforcing the principle of non-discrimination, understanding whether they indeed conquer autonomy and/or empower themselves in the sense of taking actions and raise banners of fights against segregations, violences and vulnerabilities. The study proposes to broaden the field of reflections about social and political representations, bringing forth scientific and multidisciplinary aspects. The methodology consisted in multiple case studies, involving family histories and content analysis, with the contribution of feminist theories, of the social representations and political philosophy, applying diverse techniques, amongst which, the open and profound interviews with female mayors of towns in Bahia, in the office of 2009-2012. The focus is on the category of gender as an analytical and relational instrument, families as networks, cultural and social links and constructions, and it questions the social representations and admits the historical perspectives that neglected the invisibility of women in the course of civilization and the existing stereotypes related to gender, as well as searching, in the subjects’ everyday life, intertwined aspects that direct their conduct. Investing on detailing the reality of women in local power in Bahia, hearing their “voices” from their everyday lives, realizing the obstacles and conquests that permeate the way they act in the public space, demonstrating ideas and actions. The epistemological base has been crossing the borders between feminisms and the interest was in contributing to the understanding in reference to the participation and actions of women in politics, especially when it comes to not judging without analyzing each case and condition. Women, within their multiple actions and references, for better or for worse their acting in politics can be, face unique situations and there are many variables at stake. Moreover, they can be only pieces in the machinery of dominant political power and of reproduction of capital and of a dominant patriarchal praxis. In this view, one is at risk of losing the wealth and details of particularity and singularity – the nuances, the shades of meaning that require attention to detail and broad knowledge of a specific cause. Between general and specific, between feminisms and other theories that support centuries of views and proposals of intervention, the reality studied, seen from up close, marks spaces of quantitative advancements, whether nationally or regionally, and the picture is favourable to an increase of female consciousness in fighting for their civil rights, affirming themselves more and more, by their personal autonomy and desire of emancipation. However, not necessarily crediting conquests to feminism. The conclusion reached after a work of such nature is that power, especially of women, is distant, leaning more on conscience and praxis than on numerical data. These are new times in which disguises transform domination into something so subtle it is nearly impossible to notice. The “society of the spectacle” determines a political dialogue often impoverished and repeating itself. In times of privileges authorized by Governments to exploit others in many different ways, the acceptance and even the spreading of female superiority is part of an arsenal of trends which should be used in service of the system’s interests, responding to international agendas and patterns for the overcoming of the “invisibility” throughout History. The patriarchy no longer is inserted in the logic of absolute power in the hands of a few men, suffering profound mutations, acquiring new linens and characteristics. Its metamorphosis unleashed the advanced capitalism in service of a stronger and more dominating power. This capitalism manages to sidestep human minds and insert women in a collection of interest games and dominations, far from what would be their “empowering” with true social and political emancipation of all human beings, in a world with equity and social justice.