March 8, as a reference date to remember the condition of women worldwide, must be recognized for its political and symbolic meaning. That date, set in 1977 by the United Nations, meant the recognition of historic struggles undertaken by women in the United States, but also in Europe. We have records that at the end of the 19th century, in these parts of the world, women's movements, basically workers, were already protesting against unworthy working conditions, with periods up to 15 hours a day, but also low pay and exploitation of child labor.
In the 20th century, however, the process of confronting and organization of women intensified in those regions, forging, even if still as a principle, the recognition of women's rights on an equal basis with men. A long road that we pursuit to this day, which, as the Polish philosopher, Rosa Luxemburg says, requires “a reflection in movement that enriches itself with historical experience”. With this understanding, the day that recalls the struggles of women in the world must be recognized as a moment to highlight the role of inferiority attributed to women and that is at the origin of the formation of many societies.
In Brazil, the women's path of struggle did not have different motives from those that we have identified in other countries. However, only in the early twentieth century, certain groups of women were able to assert themselves and mobilize themselves to guarantee basic rights, such as voting in elections, which only occurs in 1932, despite Brazil becoming a republic at 1889. As we can see, the idea of gender equality in our country is quite recent, and the discussion about the existence of desires, based on the condition of being female, is something very distant from our culture.
As a society, we have as one of our inheritances the fact that we organize ourselves based on an idea in which women still has a secondary role in relation to the men. Despite some advances of the condition of women in Brazil, with the creation of public policies and spaces to face the violations committed against us, we have a long way to overcome prejudices around the right to experience the world from our own desires and feelings.
Undoubtedly, this new look will require that women recognize themselves in their gender condition and consider what is related in this perspective. This will mean dealing, to a certain extent, with the relationships that you have established in life, with the repertoires accumulated from your experiences and, also, with the roles that you have taken along your path. You will need to look at the current representations of what it means to be a man and woman in our society and, still, as fundamental in this process, let your subjective dimension emerge.
It is worth remembering the 12 rights that, according to the UN, are guaranteed rights for all women. Are we managing to enforce these rights? How to reach them in regions such as the set of favelas of Maré, in Rio de Janeiro, where violations against women occur in a significant way?
These are the rights that cannot be forgotten: 1. Right to life; 2. Right to freedom and personal security; 3. Right to equality and to be free from all forms of discrimination; 4. Right to freedom of thought; 5. Right to information and education; 6. Right to privacy; 7. Right to health and its protection; 8. Right to build a conjugal relationship and to plan your family; 9. Right to decide whether or not to have children and when to have them; 10. Right to the benefits of scientific progress; 11. Right to freedom of assembly and political participation; 12. Right not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Eliana Sousa Silva
Director and founder of NGO Redes da Maré, researcher in public security and visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP
