Bolsonaro is a candidate that promotes sexism, inequality and violence. This leaves Brazilian women in a panorama full of uncertainty

Bolsonaro is a candidate that promotes sexism, inequality and violence. This leaves Brazilian women in a panorama full of uncertainty

Jair Bolsonaro has shown, through his comments, to be sexist, racist and homophobic. However, this has not been an obstacle on his way to the presidency of Brazil.

Leer en español: Este es el panorama de la mujer si Jair Bolsonaro es elegido presidente

In fact, the candidate for the Liberal Social Party won a 46% vote in the first round of elections, beating Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party, according to the scrutiny of the Brazilian electoral system. But what is the real risk that a person with these positions will rise to the most important position in this country?

Will the situation of women worsen with the coming to power of Bolsonaro?

In Brazil there are more than 106 million women, as estimated in the portal Macro data. This means that they are the majority, surpassing men by nearly four million individuals. However, at present some of the main problems that women must face are related to sexual discrimination and the wage gap, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the World Bank .

According to a document entitled "Gender Statistics: Social Indicators of Women in Brazil", published in March of this year, on average women employed in Brazil receive a 71% lower salary compared to men who hold the same positions and work the same hours.

Now, let's go back to one of Bolsonaro's most unfortunately celebrated comments, said during an interview with Zero Hora newspaper in December 2014: "Between a man and a woman, what does the businessman think?" Pucha, this woman has an alliance in the finger, shortly becomes pregnant, six months of maternity leave" (…) Who will pay the bill? The employer. In the end, deducted from social security, but broke the pace of And when she comes back, she's going to have one more month of vacation, that is, she worked five months in a year."

Bolsonaro's position is based on the defense of the entrepreneur with a neoliberal policy proposal. Now, if the woman already suffers discrimination at work, one can only hope that her situation worsens if Bolsonaro wins the presidency. This is because he encourages employers to privilege the hiring of men and justifies that women be paid less salary.

The same IBGE survey says that black women are paid 27% less than white women. Now, among the collection of unreasonable phrases that he has made about this community stands out the one he made during an event in Rio de Janeiro in 2017, for which he received a fine of approximately $ 16,000 dollars, as reported by El Observador.

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Bolsonaro said: "Afro-descendants do nothing, I do not think that as reproducers they serve more." It is also important to highlight the context in which he said this phrase, since the event in question was intended for entrepreneurs. So it is possible that black women are doubly affected during the government of Bolsonaro, because not only male workers would be privileged but also white people.

Fortunately, the work of the Congress and other government institutions is precisely that the country is not governed under one look, but to ensure diversity and avoid violations of rights. But in this I find another threat.

According to IBGE, women are underrepresented, both in the political field and in other areas of the public sphere. These only occupy 37.7% of the managerial positions, in the public sector as in the private one, unlike 62.2% of the men. In addition, the picture worsens when it comes to inequality based on race, as black women only occupy 0.4% of executive positions, as reported by the UN.

About the Congress there is an additional fact, because it seems that the candidate already sees it as a rock in the shoe. In an interview, former General Hamilton Mourao, Bolsonaro's vice-presidential formula, said it was possible to make changes to the constitution without consulting the people (represented by Congress).

He also mentioned that any government can carry out a self-coup of State with the help of the military. Obviously Bolsonaro denied that he was already planning a self-coup, but the concern remains in the air. The opinions of this candidate are worrisome, and the Brazilians can prevent united that Bolsonaro comes to power.

Bolsonaro has proved incapable of understanding the real needs of half the country's diverse and multicultural population, which he intends to govern.

LatinAmerican Post | Mariela Ibarra Piedrahita

Translated from "Este es el panorama de la mujer si Jair Bolsonaro es elegido presidente"

* The opinion of the editor does not represent the average

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