As experiências do feminino na política: percepções e atuações de prefeitas paraibanas.

Abstract

The thesis discusses the symbolic representations of women's participation in politics, to do a theoretical course on the experiences of women in the feminist struggles in Brazil and the context of submission and inequality of rights for their entry into formal politics. We understand that the study of this path is necessary to understand the difficult and cultural participation of women in the spaces of power in the country at the municipal, state and national levels. For this, our analysis makes uses of the reports from five female mayors from the State of Paraiba about formal politics. They are: Pollyana Yasnaia (PT) mayor re-elected in 2012 in the city of Pombal PB; Ednacé Henrique, mayor reelected in 2012 in the municipality of Monteiro - PB; Euda Fabiana, mayor reelected in 2012 in Cuité - PB; Luzinectt Costa, mayor reelected in 2012 in Barra de São Miguel - PB and Rosângela Leite, mayor elected in 2012 in Desterro - PB. It was necessary to carry out a quantitative - qualitative research on the insertion of women in formal politics, in which the understanding of moral and symbolic values in the speeches we collected proved essential to our study. Our hypothesis is that women in the exercise of public power continue to reproduce the masculinized power of political practice. We have concluded that when they reach such a public office, women generally conquer it by the force of kinship relations. Despite this, we believe that it is a victory for women to assume public office of political power, such as a city hall, but we also believe that when they assume such an office, they reproduce women's stereotypes in the society. That is to say, the female mayors assume a position of the image of the woman culturally rooted in their practices of difference in relation to the man: they are more sensitive, have a more clinical look, have the capacity to do many tasks at the same time, are more restrained, are caregivers, and are the mothers of the people. The research sought to understand the idea that the presence of women in this power space, in Paraíba, reproduces the masculinized power of politics, since the traditional practices exercised by the "owners of power" are reproduced by these women, such as social welfare, the use of "religious faith" and the image of the "mother country". These attributes contribute to win votes and thereby perpetuate the power of dynasties in the political group of the municipality and region. These practices contribute to the preservation of structures of political and economic power that have historically constituted themselves in the State and continue to be reproduced today, starting from the "entry" of women into politics.