Brazilian Neoconservatism and Political Gender Violence: The Experiences of Female Deputies

The political underrepresentation of women is a chronic problem that makes it impossible for this subjective category to exercise full citizenship. It also denotes the rise of reactionary values, through neoconservative political agents, promoting patriarchal and neoliberal values. From this context, we can see the increase and legitimization of the various types of violence practiced against women and feminized bodies, which also intersect with racist and/or classist violations. In this sense, this research focuses on Political Gender Violence, which consists of gender violence widely known in various societies, which has the useful purpose of maintaining the status quo of male domination in democratic institutions. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted with individual, semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions asked to the six female deputies from Rio Grande do Sul, allocated to the left-wing ideological field, between the months of June and July 2023. The temporal and ideological focus was due to the antagonism between far-right neoconservatism, which entered institutional politics in Brazil during this period, and which has precepts that contradict the advancement of gender equality policies, sexual diversity, and affirmative policies that are identified with the left-wing field. From this, the intersections of social and ideological markers were verified, as categories of juxtaposition of violence. In addition, it was identified how the neoconservative movement, through its reactionary premises, enables the encouragement of these violations and the weakening of democratic institutions.