XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Guardians of the Nation: Women and the Shaping of Brazil's Authoritarianism

• In Event: 1964 in Perspective, 60 Years After the Coup Part III: Afterlife of Authoritarianism

Abstract

In this paper, I grapple with women’s contributions to shaping the normative gender ideology that sustained authoritarianism in Brazil for twenty-one years. Navigating a contested ideological terrain, women of different sides of the political spectrum employed often times contradictory strategies of political participation. Conservative women acted as early agitators for the 1964 coup and later became central actors in bolstering the hard turn towards repression in 1967. As such, this paper focuses on their role in creating the gendered landscape of the regime. Through understanding women’s participation in such groups as the Campanha da Mulher pela Democracia and the União Cívica Feminina, this paper argues for a continuum of conservative women’s organization that engendered long-lasting notions about political participation. The gendered models of participation advocated by these conservative women played a significant role in shaping the political landscape and served as a reference point for women, regardless of their political persuasion, well into the democratic period. This paper provides an understanding of the role of women in the formation and maintenance of the authoritarian regime in Brazil and the lasting impact of their political actions on the country's political and social landscape.

Author

• Marina Dias Lucena Adams, Brown University