Topic: Encouraging Political Participation by Women
Country: Brazil
Delegate Name: Asha Lewis
School: East Grand Rapids High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Brazil position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Brazil is in dire need of rejuvenation of their infrastructure. This doesn’t mean repaving roads and pipelines, this rejuvenation should come in the form of gender equality leading to a greater amount of women in the political sphere. The number of female candidates has grown in the last elections, from 935 in 2010 to 1755 in 2014, and a number of these elections led to a female candidate emerging victoriously. With the leadership shown by Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Roussef, gender-based policies such as health care before and during pregnancy and at birth, as well as child care and education have been implemented. Women, however, are still a minority in every political body, with an astounding 9.9% of congresspersons being female. Brazil believes that the most effective way to combat this is to first promote gender equality, which will, in turn, spur social changes. Brazil has made tremendous bounds in the equality of education, with illiteracy rates for women aged fifteen years and older fell from 20.3 percent in 1991 to 9.8 percent in 2008 and, in the workforce, have even surpassed the average amount of schooling that their male counterparts have received. Our nation has also decreased the income gap, achieving the lowest disparity in the last fifty years. Despite these improvements, women with twelve or more years of education still earn merely 58 percent of men’s salaries. This increase of women in the workforce can create social change with a simple process proposed by Pierre-Richard Agénor and Otaviano Canuto of the World Bank. The process is as follows: when more educated women are in the workforce, they bring in more capital, have an amplified say in family affairs and have a greater inclination to invest in their children which instills these feminist ideals in the younger generations. According to Agénor and Canuto, the lack of women in the political sphere is directly caused by the inability of the franchise to reject deeply-rooted social norms and vote for female candidates. Therefore, once younger generations dispel these antiquated, misogynistic beliefs, those aforementioned 1755 female candidates will have a greater chance of winning elections. This success is not completely accredited to social change, but to legislation requiring that a minimum of a coalition or party’s candidates are 20% female. Additionally, this legislation has gained the support of the people. According to a 2013 survey made by IBOPE and Patrícia Galvão Institute, 74% of interviewees agree that democracy’s sustenance depends on female participation in power positions, and 78% believe that half the candidates in the list presented by parties should be female. With this unbeatable combination of successful legislation and changing views on women’s role in society, Brazil is eager to set a positive example and aid other nations in strengthening the prominence of women in the political sphere.
Works Cited: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPREMNET/Resources/EP109.pdf https://www.gwi-boell.de/en/2015/05/21/brazil-womens-participation-elections
