A participação da mulher na política: uma análise da representatividade feminina nas eleições municipais de Monte Santo

Abstract

This study is a research on female participation in the electoral contest in the city of Monte Santo, in the state of Bahia, aiming, in general terms, to analyze the context of insertion of women candidates for councilors in the municipality of Monte Santo in the elections of 2020 and, specifically, describe the candidates for councilors in this municipality according to socio-demographic, party and political capital variables, analyze the candidates' campaign experience and their performance in political parties, specifically in the process of choosing candidates, as well as the obstacles institutional and non-institutional women's access to candidacy and the exercise of councilorship; and verify whether there are spaces for effective decision-making power in the exercise of the political position held by elected officials in the municipality and whether they seek to represent feminist interests and agendas. This study is necessary, as there are few scientific analyzes regarding women's access to spheres of power in the state of Bahia, notably within the scope of municipal legislative power. This work has a theoretical framework structured into four sections. In the first two sections, it focuses on feminist issues throughout general history, as well as the crisis of contemporary democracies. In the following two sections, feminism and its achievements in the Brazilian historical context are discussed, moving on to examine the problem of low female participation in electoral elections in Brazil and the regulations aimed at mitigating this problem. It is an exploratory study, of a quantitative and qualitative nature. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with elected and non-elected candidates in the 2020 municipal election. From the data collected, it was possible to observe institutional barriers to women's participation in formal politics, such as lack of effective party support and financing and, in this quadrant, that the context of Monte-Santo portrays the absence of party mechanisms capable of facilitating in this local space the engagement of Monte-Santenses in the structure and dynamics of parties and in the processes of raising female candidacies, electoral disputes and the full and effective exercise of councilorship, as well as non-institutional barriers, such as lack of financial resources and time availability, imprisonment of women in private space and a local political culture that is not very inclusive.