The political narrative of Brazil has been altered in a historic turn of events during the 2022 presidential elections. A new political spirit has consumed the country, reflected in the results of the election in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken the presidency. A member of the ‘Workers party’ and a leftist, he managed to fight off former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro by winning 50.9% of the vote against 49.1% of the vote. Not only have these elections been politically significant for society as a whole, the results are particularly crucial for women, who under the leftist regime, may flourish in ways they were not previously allowed to.
It should be mentioned that women have been at the forefront of this year’s Brazilian election campaigns, as the key demographic, and the elections have raised the profile of Brazilian women and their importance in politics. In many instances, this election has shown the upcoming power of the female voice in Brazil, and its ability to flourish when encouraged by a leftist political group. Their position in this election was to tear down decades of unrecognition and condemn Bolsonaro, who had only two women among his twenty-two ministers over the last four years, and both controversial. Luckily, for the women of Brazil, this is likely to mean that women will be more central presences in elections, and campaigns will need to directly appeal to their demographic to raise their profile.
Women were also one of the hardest hit groups of the Right-wing regime, with many facing human rights violations such as the temporary presidential veto against the free provision of menstrual products for low-income people and the exclusion of LGBTQ+ from 2020’s annual budgetary plan. Bolsonaro shut down many conversations on the primary issues that these groups were facing and neglected the basic needs of women all throughout Brazil, but Lula’s manifesto said that he wants to be president of a country “with more respect and affirmation of the rights of women” aided through his avocation in greater transparency within a democracy, with a greater emphasis on the needs of the people within it.
And whilst Brazil still has a long way to go in relation to the rights and powers of women, the election of President Lula and the themes of his manifesto seems to suggest that there is going to be an attempt to give women of Brazil greater opportunities and a more prominent position in advocating for their needs. The Bolosonaro regime has been so damaging to Brazilian women that any attempt to prioritise them is likely to feel like a culture shock. Still, I like to believe that this is a historic and momentous step for Brazilian women and a chance for their political engagement to pave the way for the women of the future.