March 9, 2022

08:03

Malu Dacio – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said during a ceremony celebrating International Women’s Day, on Tuesday, 8, that today women are “practically integrated into society”. The event took place at the Planalto, in Brasilia.

According to information from Correio Braziliense, Bolsonaro also repeated a speech made by the Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, Damares Alves, and said that the participation of women in the government is greater than in previous administrations. In fact, besides Damares, Tereza Cristina (Agriculture) and Flávia Arruda (government secretary) are also ministers.

Also according to the media outlet, the master of ceremonies of the communication of the Planalto Palace announced on the sound system of the ceremony alluding to the International Women’s Day that Bolsonaro will sign a decree that provides for the free supply of sanitary pads, which was confirmed on Tuesday evening, 8.

This is not the first time Bolsonaro has reproduced sexist lines. His own daughter Laura has been defined as a ‘weakling’, as Bolsonaro is the father of 4 male children. In late 2021, the president was filmed dancing to a funk parody that had lyrics that compared leftist women to bitches.

Speech is the target of criticism

Vice-president of the feminist collective ‘As Amazonas’, Yasmin Martins, 23, said that considering that we have already had a woman democratically elected as President of the Republic, Brazil has experienced much better political moments than this.

“We, unfortunately, live in a macho and sexist political environment that keeps us away from political spaces, from political spheres, from social spheres and its most diverse fronts. This speech by the president only characterizes even more the definition of the government, of segregation, that this government of Jair Bolsonaro is”, she criticized.

“It is much more than the speech of a political person; I believe that it has been and has become a political project of destruction of the Bolsonaro government”, she defended.

Campaign act

Sociologist and professor at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), Gilson Gil, told CENARIUM MAGAZINE that Bolsonaro’s speech is a campaign act. “I believe he is campaigning. He said he’s going to approve the project of the pads, he extolled the female presence in the government, and he talked about God. He is, I think, trying to get back together with the female electorate, which has a high rejection to him”, he recalled.

The expert argues that, however, Bolsonaro’s record does not confirm such statements. “Just as there are few women in the ministry and he doesn’t show any real signs of looking after this segment”, defended Gilson.

He reaffirmed that he sees it more as an attempt to ‘surf’ in the campaign, over a sensitive issue, such as the female presence in society today.

“These are electoral alignments and he, even if clumsily, tries to appear to be concerned about this issue”, he concluded.