WOMEN'S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION UNDER THE BRAZILIAN MILITARY DICTATORSHIP (1964-1985)

Abstract

This study questions how the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) articulated its structures around violations of women's political liberties, considering the relations between hierarchies of gender and military regimes' authoritarianism. The main goal is to investigate in what forms this specific repression occurred while demonstrating its distinctive elements. To this end, legal-historical research was conducted, based on both bibliography and documental sources. Through the research carried out, records of events and testimonies related to women's political performance during the period were analyzed. Initially, we discuss the institutionalization process of repression through institutional acts and its effects on women's political participation. Then, we approach the ways found by women to act in this scenario politically. Finally, in the last section, we work on the materialization of dictatorial violence against political activists and its specific features. It was possible to understand that the repression of women's political participation was expressed in meeting opponents' persecution with gendered violence and potentialized through this connection.