SUELI CARNEIRO

Translated
by ReginaCamargo

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Women in Movement

Abstract
Thisessayseeksto dginethe courseof Brazilianblackwomen'sstrugglewithinthe nationalfem-
inist movement.ft questionsthe classic
feministperspectivefoundedon a supposedlyuniversal
notionof womanthat takesWesternwhitewomenas its paradigm,obscuring the perceptionof
the multipleintra- and inter-gendercontradictionsbroughtabout by racialissues.Giventhese
contradictions,blackwomenarecaneduponto establishthemselves as a newpoliticalentity,
bearinga newagendathat derives from a specificidentitywhereinthe variablesofgender,race,
and classinteract,posingnewand morecomplexcha[[enges to oursocietygforts in attaining
equitabilityofgenderand race.

The Brazilian women's movement is one of the most respected women's

movements in the world. It has played a fundamental role in developing
certain themes concerning women's interests on an international
level. It is also one of the best-performing social movements in the
country. An illustration of the power of this movement takes the form
of the Constitution of 1988, which took into account 80 percent of the
recommendations proposed by the movement, leading to a radical change
in the legal status of women in Brazil. The 1988 Constitution granted equal
rights to both parents, overturning a previous law that granted parental
rights in terms of decision-making to fathers only, among other things.
The women's movement has also made significant contributions to
the democratization process in Brazil, including yielding important
innovations in the field of publicpolicy. Women in the movement were

Meridians:feminism,
race,transnationalism
14, no. 1 (2016): 30-49.
Copyright© 2016 Smith College. doi:ro.2979/meridians.14.r.03

30
instrumental in the creation of the National Council for Women's Rights,
whose goal is to design public policies that promote gender equality
and fight gender discrimination against women. The struggle against
domestic and sexual violence established a paradigm shift regarding the
question of what is publicand what is private.Domestic violence, which

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was perceived as something private, reached the public sphere and became
the object of specific policies. Because of this shift, the state introduced
new organizations, such as police stations that specialized in serving
women (DEAM,by its Portuguese acronym); shelters to protect women
in situations of domestic violence; and other means of rendering effective
public policies that address women's concerns, such as training public
security professionals regarding situations of violence against women.
According to Suarez and Bandeira:

Despite their imperfections, the DEAMs (police stations specializing in

serving women) are nongovernmental institutions that were created as
public spaces in which the discourse about the right of women to receive
equitable treatment when facing situations of denounced violence was
articulated. As opposed to regular police stations, the DEAMs avoid
employing methods of violent conduct, promoting instead a negotiation
between the parties involved in the conflict. What distinguishes DEAMs
from other police institutions is the fact that they include mediation as
a legitimate and efficient resource. In this sense, it is worth mention-
ing that mediation has increasingly become a valuable resource in the
administration ofinterpersonal conflicts, a measure that decreases the
likelihood of conflicts escalating and becoming violent. (Suarez and
Bandeira 2002, 299.)

In the realm of women's sexuality, "the struggle of women to have

autonomy over their own bodies, to be able to exercise their sexuality
with pleasure, and to be able to decide when to have or not to have
children has resulted in a victory for the whole humanity providing new
rights: sexual and reproductive rights." (Plataforma 2002) There were
many campaigns to address the inequality women suffered due to their lack
of access to power, resulting in the approval of a bill introduced by then-
congresswoman Marta Suplicy, which reserved 20 percent of the seats for
women candidates.

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 31

 Even though the gender gap, as defined in terms of wages for men and
women performing the same type of work, has remained significant, it is
undeniable that feminist criticism of inequality in the job market had an
important role in the intense diversification in terms of occupation that
women have experienced over the past three decades. Being associated with

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popular movements and with the struggle for the democratization of the
country has been a source of pride for the Brazilian feminist movement.
The memorable leadership role taken by Brazilian feminists in the
struggle for amnesty; for childcare (a constant need among working class
and low-income women); and for the legalization of abortion, which, in
its current form, undeniably penalizes poor women who have abortions
performed in precarious conditions and which contributes in large scale
to the high rate of maternal death in the country, among many other
initiatives.
Nevertheless, like other progressive social movements in Brazilian
society, Brazilian feminism also has been limited by a Eurocentric and
universalizing view of women. As a consequence, there was an inability to
recognize the differences and inequalities present in the feminine universe,
despite women's biological identity, resulting in voices that were silenced
and bodies that were stigmatized. Women who were victims of different
forms of oppression beyond sexism remained in silence and invisible.
Denouncing the silence induced by other forms of oppression in Brazilian
society, which extend beyond sexism, has required a re-elaboration of
discourse and of the political practices offeminism. The determining
element altering the ideological perspective of the political practice of
feminism has been the emerging black women's movement.

Blackening Feminism

"Blackening feminism" is the expression we have been using to describe

the trajectory of black women in the Brazilian feminist movement. By
using this expression, we aim to specify, on the one hand, the white and
Western identity at the foundation of classic feminist theory, and on the
other hand, to point to the theoretical and political insufficiencies present
when it comes to integrating the different expressions of feminism created

32 MERIDIANS 14: I
in multiracial and multicultural societies. Through such initiatives, it has
been possible to formulate a specific agenda to simultaneously fight against
gender and intra-gender inequality. We have affirmed and made viable
a black feminist perspective that emerged from the specific condition of
being a woman, a black woman, and in general, poor. Finally, we delineated

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the role that a black feminist perspective has in the struggle against racism
in Brazil.
In making gender inequality political, feminism has transformed
women into political subjects. The condition of being a political subject
enables women to take on different gazes depending on the context in
which they find themselves inserted, which, in turn, can initiate specific
processes that underlie the struggles of each particular group. In other
words, for instance, groups ofindigenous women and groups ofblack
women have specific demands that cannot be treated exclusively under
the rubric of gender without taking into consideration the specifics that
define being a woman in this or that category. These different perspectives
have gradually been demanding practices that are equally diverse, and
which seek to broaden the feminist leadership in Brazilian society while
safeguarding its differences. This is what determines the fact that for black
women, the struggle against racism is a political priority. As Lelia Gonzalez
emphasized, "awareness of oppression starts with racial awareness before
anything else." (cited in Bairros 2000, 56)
Afortiori,there is a pressing need to articulate racism within the broader
gender issues historically faced by women, because the race "variable"
has produced subordinated genders both as it pertains to black women's
identity, which has been stigmatized, as well as the subordination ofblack
men's masculinity, which is considered inferior to the feminine gender of
the dominant group of white women.
Given this double devaluation, it is valid to affirm that racism lowers
the status of both genders. By doing so, it institutes the first degree
of social and intra-gender inequality, having as a standard the social
achievements of the racially dominant genders. Therefore, in order for
black women to reach the same level of inequality present between white
men and white women, it would take an extraordinary degree of social
mobility, given that black men, according to most social indicators, fare
below white women.

SUELi CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 33

 In this sense, racism also exacerbates the inequality between genders
through the privileges that arise from the exploitation and exclusion of
subordinated genders. The hegemonic genders impose standards that
would be unfathomable if the competition were equal. The excess ofblonde
women images or the "blonde-ization" of Brazilian television is an example

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of this disparity.
The perspective of women from subordinated groups infuses feminism
with a diversification of concepts and of political practices as the result of
a dialectical process that, on the one hand, promotes the affirmation of
women in general as political subjects, and on the other hand, demands
the acknowledgement of the diversity and the inequality that exist among
these women. Lelia Gonzalez's valuable syntheses serve as a beacon for the
discussion: the first is about the contradictions that historically marked
the trajectory of black women within the Brazilian feminist movement; the
second refers to a fundamental critique that black women introduced in the
movement, and both of which have been significantly altering perceptions,
behaviors, and social institutions. Here are Gonzalez's conceptions
regarding Brazilian feminism:

Black women suffered two difficulties: on the one hand, the Eurocentric
bias inherent in Brazilian feminism, which neglects the centrality of the
race issue in the gender hierarchies present in society, and universalizes
the values of a particular culture (Western) to all women without medi-
ating the processes of domination, violence, and exploitation that form
the basis of the interaction between whites and non-whites and con-
stitute the axis which articulates the myth of racial democracy and of a
whitening ideal. On the other hand, it also reveals a detachment from the
reality lived by black women by negating a whole history forged through
resistance and struggle, in which black women have played a leading role
thanks to the dynamics of an ancestral memory that has nothing to do
with the Eurocentrism present in this type offeminism. (Lelia Gonzalez,
cited by Bairros 2000, 57)

The awareness that gender identity does not unfold naturally into
intra-gender racial solidarity drove black women to face within the
feminist movement the contradictions and inequality that racism and
discrimination produce between women, particularly black women and

34 MERIDIANS 14:1
white women in Brazil. The same thing can be said regarding the intra-
group race and gender solidarity that drove black women to demand that
gender issues become a structural element within the discourse about
racial inequality that sets the agenda for the Brazilian black movements.

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Furthermore, these evaluations have contributed to promoting black
women's engagement in the general struggles of popular movements as
well as in the struggles undertaken by black movements and women's
movements nationally and internationally, always ensuring the specific
perspective of black women is represented. This process has resulted in the
creation of many black women's organizations spread out nationally, as
well as in the creation of forums to discuss specific questions or instances
in which themes central to the feminist agenda are examined meticulously
by black women, taking into consideration the effects of racism and racial
discrimination.
The main factors that have informed the proposals of the movement
resulting in effective changes in feminist perspective are further discussed
in the section below.

Labor market

The gap that separates blacks and whites in Brazil in terms of professional
occupation is widely known. The black women's movement has been
highlighting this gap, which reaches higher proportions when both gender
and race are taken into consideration.
In this regard, it is imperative to point out the gains obtained by the
feminist struggle in the job market. Racial inequality still blocks the
advancement of black women in this sphere, despite major improvements.
Therefore, the universal proposals of the women's movement not only
show the movement's fragility, but also demonstrate how impossible it is to
make such demands viable without dealing with the specificities of racism
in Brazil.
Regarding the changes in the structure of occupations in Brazil, Carlos
Hasenbalg and Nelson do Valle Silva affirmed in the 1980s that:

Women definitely tend to get a better distribution in the structure of

occupations, but they also abandon the areas that absorb a work force

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 35

 with higher qualifications and yet earn lower wages to join, in increasing
numbers, the area of modern service. It is safe to suggest that there is a
difference in the labor market for women. While low-income working
class women with low levels of formal education tend to concentrate
in the field of customer service and factory work, middle class women

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with a higher level of formal education work in the areas of production
services and retail. (Hasenbalg and Silva Valle 1984, 37)

In other studies, such as the study entitled "The Educational and Socio-
economic Achievements Trajectory of Black Women" conducted by Marcia
Lima, it is evident that:

The fact that 48 percent of black women [. . . .] work as domestic

workers is a sign that the expansion of the labor force has not been
significant for those women. When these social barriers are removed,
in other words, when black women are able to invest in education in an
attempt at social mobility, they are driven to jobs that are low-paying and
less acknowledged in the labor market. (Lima 1995, 28)

Because of the different gains realized by black women through a struggle

that claimed to represent women universally, it is impossible not to
recognize the weight of racism and of racial discrimination in the selection
processes and in the allocation of women's labor, considering that the
inequalities remain even when the level of education is factored in. In sum,
the term "well groomed," a euphemism systematically denounced by black
women as a subtle way to block the aspirations of black people in general,
and of black women in particular, reveals its discriminatory potential
through job market statistics. The political issue that arises from this reality
is the demand to combat racism, racial discrimination, and the privilege
white women enjoy by being held as the structuring element of feminist
ideology-an ethical and political imperative that reflects the collective
wishes of the feminist struggle to represent the needs and interests of
women as a whole.
Nonetheless, while there has been a growing understanding within the
Brazilian feminist movement regarding the need to fight against the racial
inequality suffered by black women in the job market, the vision established
by the myth of racial democracy is still prevalent among the general
population, and even among the people who are considered opinion-makers,

36 MERIDIANS 14:1
as demonstrated in an articlewritten by federaljudge Monica Sifuentes
entitled "Lawand Justice" and published in the Correio Braziliense
newspaper, dated February18, 2002. In the article, the judge makes a
comment against the adoption of an affirmativeaction-stylequota system for
black people. She says, peremptorily:

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[. . . .] for us women, there was no need for quotas. Competing under
equal conditions with the men was enough to make the number of
women higher in most college courses in the country. (Sifuentes 2002)

In response to this article, we reacted to the pronoun chosen by the judge in

an article entitled "We?," published in the same newspaper on February 22,
2002, in which we questioned the following:

The judge's argument does not take into consideration the fact that men
enter the labor force earlier than women, resulting in a deficitin terms
of their years obtaining an education. But despite it, recent studies about
women in the labor force revealthat women need to have a five-yearadvan-
tage to reach the same chances men have of obtaining a job in the formal
sector. For blackwomen to reach the same standard in terms of salaryas
white women with four to sevenyears of schooling, they need four more
years ofinstruction; in other words, theywill need betweeneight and n
years of education. This is gender and racial inequalityinstituted in the
labor market and the paybackwomen, especiallyblackwomen, get for their
educationaleffort. (Carneiro2002b, 5).

Violence: Other aspects of the matter

Regardingviolence,blackwomen havehighlighted another dimension of the

problem. Asidefrom the issue of domestic and sexualviolencethat women
from all races and social classes suffer, there is a specificform of violencethat
compels the pursuit of the right to be represented in a positivelight; it limits
the full exerciseof sexualitydue to centuries-oldstigmas, restricts access to
work, discouragesaspirations, and lowers self-esteem.
These are the effectsof the hegemonyof"whiteness" in the socialimaginary
and in socialrelationships. It is an invisibleform of violencethat has a
negativeeffectfor the subjectivityof blackwomen, interfering in the waythey

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 37

 express affection and in the way they express their sexuality. This dimension
of racial violence and the way it affects women from non-hegemonic racial
groups has been inspiring careful analysis and the re-creation of practices
that are capable offormulating other points of reference. Beatriz Nascimento,
an Afro-Brazilian historian and filmmaker, points out the following in her

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beautiful article entitled "The Black Woman and Love:"

A black woman living in a multiracial society that has as standard of

beauty for women the highest degree of"whitening" (from mixed-race
women to white women) will have her romantic opportunities limited. As
a member of the subordinated ethnic group, she will have fewer chances
in a society in which sexual attraction is ingrained in racial models. Men
will choose her based on the belief that she is more erotic or sexually
passionate than other women, beliefs that are often based on her physical
attributes and exuberance. However, when it comes to a institutional-
ized relationship, discrimination based on ethnicity becomes a deterrent
enforced even more if the woman becomes more socially prominent
[. . . .] In this context, the woman is expected to demystify the concept
oflove, actively transforming it into something cultural and social, by
becoming involved in politics, for example; and, by doing so, seeking
parity between the sexes rather than parity in the illuminist sense of the
word. By rejecting the fantasy of romantic submission, there is a chance
for an actively participant black woman to emerge, a woman who does
not reproduce the authoritarian masculine behavior, since she is opposed
to it, and a woman who takes on a critical stance by mediating her own
history with her ethos. Furthermore, she would elevate the proposal of
what a sexual partnership should be, which eventually would be reflected
in broader social relations. (Nascimento 1990, 3)

Regina Nogueira, an Afro-Brazilian doctor, in her article entitled "Black

Women and Obesity," questions the aesthetic tyranny imposed by the
white hegemonic pattern of beauty on all non-white women. She advocates
a new right: "The black woman should demand that her image be
represented in all the diversity of her cultural values" (Nogueira 2000, 201).

38 MERIDIANS 14:r
Health

The incorporation of health and reproductive rights in the anti-racist

agenda and the acknowledgement of the racial and ethnic differences in

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this subject are among the contributions of black feminism. From this
perspective, the struggle for the inclusion of a question about "color,"
especially in the system of classification of the population, has been a
permanent challenge and object of political action by courageous activists
who understand the topic. As Fatima Oliveira, an Afro-Brazilian doctor,
affirms:

[.... ] they understand the implications of the racial and ethnic

differences and differentials, of gender oppression and of racism in the
maintenance, recovery, and loss of health in a classist society. There is a
lot of controversy regarding the question of"color"-as in racial iden-
tification. It is a problem and a challenge in a scientific environment,
among professionals, service providers, and other people who formulate
and implement public health policy. [. . . .] There are many arguments
in favor of and against asking people questions about their "color/race"
in forms. The accusations of racism come from both sides. When the
question is asked on forms, people usually neglect to answer. Even when
people answer the question or when the professional fills in the answer
based on observation, people don't know what it is for or what to do
with the answer. In general, service providers do not consider it essential
epidemiologic information. (Oliveira 1998, 43)

Sterilization has occupied a significant place on the political agenda of

black women for many years, resulting in the production of campaigns
against the sterilization of women, particularly given the high rate of
this phenomenon in recent years in Brazil, especially among low-income
women. The majority of women who undergo sterilization choose to do so
because the health care system does not offer many choices of reversible
contraceptive methods, which would enable them not to choose the radical
option of not being able to have children again. This topic was also the
subject oflegislative bills created via a partnership between congressional

SUELi CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 39

 representatives and feminist activists, culminating in law number 209/91,
which regulates sterilization.
Another relevant topic in the struggle of black women in the field of
health is the implementation of a program focused on sickle cell anemia, a
"hereditary form of anemia and the most common genetic disease among

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people of African descent." In Brazil, it is considered a "public health issue"
(Oliviera 1998, 133). The Sickle Cell Anemia Program created by the Health
Ministry (PAF-MSin Portuguese) is a direct result of black women activists
calling attention to the carriers of this disease.
Despite the important achievement that the Sickle Cell Anemia
Program represents in the fight against the disease, the program was
fully implemented only in the state of Minas Gerais, although there
have been sparse initiatives promoting the program elsewhere in the
country. Ten percent of the Brazilian population is affected by this
disease, mainly Afro-Brazilians and their descendents, so the problem is
not inconsequential, although efforts to address it presently seem to be
disregarded.
A new area of research and political intervention is biotech. Fatima de
Oliveira has been pioneering this area of research, taking into consideration
feminist and anti-racist perspectives, whose main concerns are:

The interfaces of new findings in biosciences, in particular genetics,

especially the findings provided by mega-projects regarding human
genetics (Human Genome Project [HGP] and Human Diversity Genome
Project [HDGP]) and the way they have been distorted by racist theories.
(Oliveria 1998, 132)

Oliveira points out the risks of the development of eugenics and of human
experiments. Moreover, she summons feminists and anti-racists to act in
forums in which these topics are addressed. She believes that:

In actuality, bioethicists and biotech forums, mostly male and white,

are the sectors of society that have acquired legitimacy in the world, and
among legislators and government. Social movements with a tradition of
struggle, such as the feminist movement, the anti-racist movement, and
the youth movement, are left out of the debate and the decision-mak-
ing in biotech. That is worrisome because biotech deals with topics

40 MERIDIANS 14:1
 that involve the whole society, such as reproductive rights (conception,
contraception, abortion, infertility, and new reproductive technologies),
public health, sexuality, patients who are terminally ill, euthanasia, and
genetic manipulation. (Oliveira 1998, 130)

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Media

The media has constituted a space in which the black women's movement
has been able to intervene and set forth a political agenda because the
naturalization of racism and sexism in the media systematically reproduces
and crystallizes the stereotypes and stigmas that damage, on a large scale,
the affirmation ofracial identity and of the social value of this group.
According to Antonia Quintao:

The symbolic exclusion, the lack of representation, or the distorted

image of black women in the media are forms of violence that are so
painful, cruel, and damaging that it could be regarded as a human rights
issue. (Quintao 1999)

If we start with the understanding that the media not only reproduces
social representations that are ingrained in the social imaginary, but also
serves as agents that operate, construct, and reconstruct within their logic
of production of systems of representation, we will take into consideration
that the media plays a central role in shaping the popular images and
feelings about black women. Much has been said about the implications of
those images and about the mechanisms that would affirm this segment of
the population in a positive light.
The lack of a large number of black women in the media and the
obsession with certain categories (e.g., the "mulatta," the domestic worker)
are topics that have been explored at length. There has been a gradually
increasing presence of black women playing roles other than subservient
roles, but despite those changes, some radical shifts still need to happen.
We currently have a black presenter doing Fantastico(a weekly variety
show produced by Globo television) and there are now characters of color
occupying prominent positions in popular soap operas. According to media

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 41

 producers, these changes reflect the radical changes in the situation of
Brazilian black women, who are no longer limited to subordinate positions.
Although this may be true in some regards, these recent changes have a
tricky and perverse connotation; they are used to hide the standards already
established by the media and that are covered up by a possible correlation

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to reality. We hope that black women may be represented more fully, taking
into consideration a broad range of occupations and abilities, even if that
may happen in adverse economic conditions.
Moreover, according to Nilza Iraci, there are still major obstacles to
be conquered in the field of media when it comes to constituting a new
social imaginary in terms of representation of black women in the media,
and by extension, in other fields of decision-making such as politics.
There is a growing awareness among black women that the issues related
to globalization and the new world order require new kinds of activism.
Therefore, the role of the media and its representation of black women
are being viewed as a link in the empowerment process and as a way to
guarantee the portrayal of black women in a positive light, as well as to
promote visibility of the process of struggle. (Network of Organizations of
Black Brazilian Women, 22-23)
Black women have been trying not only to change the logic of representation
in the media, but also to train a new leadership to deal with new technology,
because the lack of power among historically marginalized groups to control
and to create their own representations have enabled the media, both
electronic and print, to propagate stereotypes and distorted images.

New Utopias and New Feminist Agendas

The change in perspective adopted by the new feminist political platform

is a consequence of the growing leadership role of black women within
the Brazilian feminist movement. This new platform, originating from the
National Conference ofBrazilian Women that took place on June 6 and 7,
2002, in Brasilia, repositioned the feminist struggle in Brazil in the new
millennium. The platform was created collectively by black women, native
Brazilian women, white women, lesbians, women from the north and
the northeast regions of the country, women who live in urban and rural
areas, women who are affiliated with unions, quilombolas (the inhabitants

42 MERIDIANS 14: l
of quilombos, communities founded by the descendants of former Brazilian
slaves), young women, older women, women with disabilities, women
who belong to different religions, and women who sympathize with
different political parties. Together, they thought critically about the most
pressing issues and obstacles to achieving gender equality on a national and

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international level and devised mechanisms to overcome those challenges
using the following guiding principles:

• To acknowledge the autonomy and self-determination of social

movements led by women;
• To commit to a critique of the unfair neo-liberal model, which is predatory
and unsustainable in economic, social, environmental, and ethical terms;
To acknowledge the economic, social, cultural, and environmental
rights of women;
To commit to defending the principles of equality and socioeconomic
justice;
• To acknowledge the universal right to education, health, and social
welfare.
To commit to the struggle for land and housing rights;
To commit to the anti-racism struggle and in defense ofracial and
ethnic equality;
To commit to the struggle against all forms of gender discrimination,
as well as to the struggle against domestic violence, abuse, harassment,
and exploitation of women and girls;
• To commit to the struggle against the discrimination against gays and
lesbians;
• To commit to the struggle for complete access to health care and for the
defense of sexual and reproductive rights;
To acknowledge women's right to have or not to have children with
access to contraceptive and/or access to conception technologies;
To acknowledge the right to freely express one's sexuality for transgen-
der people and for transvestites;
To acknowledge the decriminalization of abortion as a citizenship right
and as a public health issue;
• To acknowledge that every person has the right to be part of and/or to
form diverse types of family, including domestic partnership [.... ].
(Carneiro 2002e, 5)

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 43

 According to Nancy Fraser, a political scientist and feminist from the
United States, a broad concept of gender that incorporates the diversity
offeminisms and historically constructed feminisms should mirror "a
concept of justice that is equally broad in its scope and it should encompass
redistribution and recognition" (Fraser 2002, 63). As mentioned earlier,

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the formal Feminist Political Platform that led to the National Conference
of Brazilian Women represents the culmination of almost two decades
of struggle for the acknowledgement and incorporation of racism and
racial discrimination and the gender inequalities this generates. This idea
constitutes the foundation of the women's struggle. By incorporating this
principle, the platform sealed a pact of solidarity and co-responsibility
between black women and white women in the struggle to overcome
gender inequality and the inequality between women of different races
in Brazil, and to redefine the terms of a true social justice movement in
Brazil. According to Guacira Cesar de Oliveira of AMB (the Articulation
of Brazilian Women) and one of the conference's organizing committee
members:

We reaffirm that the women's movement and the feminist movement

want to radicalize democracy, making it clear that there won't be equality
while there is no equality in terms of wealth distribution; between men
and women, white people and black people, people who live in urban
areas and people who live in rural areas, for those are at the root of
poverty. We are not aiming for a role reversal; we are rather aiming to
achieve a new plateau in terms of civilization. (de Oliveira 2002)

Fraser adds, "[. . . .] I see the struggle for gender equality as another facet
of a broader political project that seeks institutionalized democratic justice
through multiple axes of social differentiation." (Fraser 2002, 63).
Following this same perspective, the Feminist Political Platform proposes
a contribution to a more socially just and democratic society. It clearly
stresses the urgency of this new paradigm in terms of democracy:

The representative democracy through voting which has been in place in

Brazil is perceived as ifit was the only legitimate way to exercise power
despite the crisis oflegitimacy affecting its institutions. [. . . .] The
representative democracy is still impregnated with the racist, sexist, and

44 MERIDIANS 14:1
 classist profiles present in Brazilian society, which have consolidated the
hegemonic power, a power that has a masculine, white, and straight face
regardless of the ideological differences between the parties. This situa-
tion has been aggravated by the current neo-liberal/conservative political
situation, whose power in connection with the economic system and the

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media restricts the chances of a political debate for many other segments
of the population. (Plataforma 2002, paragraphs 12 and 13)

There is also criticism regarding the democratic state oflaw and social
justice, which points out that the concentration of wealth, viewed through
the dimension of gender and race/ethnicity, reflects inequalities and social
exclusion:
The inequality grows through the current fiscal practices that favor the
free accumulation of capital and restrict the access to the national wealth
by the vast majority of the population, especially black and indigenous
women. (Plataforma 2002, paragraph 31)

Fundamentally, the women in search of a new paradigm clearly oppose the

neo-liberal order:
The Brazilian women's movement opposes the neo-liberal policies and
policies that demand structural adjustment. They reaffirm the need for
having the state develop affirmative action policies to overcome poverty,
to generate jobs and income creation, and to guarantee the well being of
the population. (Plataforma 2002, paragraph 33)

The biggest challenge is to propose, articulate and implement proposals

that are consistent and which resonate with a radical project whose aim is
to overcome those problems and envisage new ideals. The black women's
movement has gradually been signaling new key initiatives regarding the
intersections between racism and sexism:
In the last few decades, the women's movement has affirmed itself as
a political subject in the process of democratization in Brazil and in
changing hearts and minds. It is in this condition that we invite the whole
society to debate the barriers that still make it hard, at the dawn of this
new millennium, to establish in our country social justice in terms of
gender, race/ethnicity, and social class to all persons and in all aspects of
their lives. (Plataforma 2002, paragraph n)

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 45

 This permanent articulation of exclusion based on gender and race
determined by sexist and racist practices is used to constitute one of the
key prerequisites necessary to establish a perspective of a common struggle
between black and white women in the context of the feminist struggle.
This is how the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo announced the release of

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the Feminist Political Platform on August 6, 2002, at OAB (the Brazilian Bar
Association) in Sao Paulo:

A group of nongovernmental organizations will release today the

Feminist Political Platform. The document includes proposals that
impact women, such as agrarian reform, environmental issues, and the
fight against racism. (Folha de Sao Paulo 2002)

The items mentioned in the newspaper article are indicative of the impact
of black women's perspective on the Brazilian feminist agenda. The fight
against racism, which used to be treated as an almost nonexistent issue at
the periphery, has become an essential element in the Feminist Political
Platform. The same is true for agrarian reform and the environmental
issues that were highlighted by the newspaper; both are points of interest
for working-class women. Black women are involved in this category due
to the fact that many black women live in rural areas. Moreover, the conflict
situation experienced by the remaining communities of the quilombos,
who find themselves contending with agro-businesses over their ancestral
lands, with the lumber industry, and with people trying to use bogus titles
to take over their lands with the intent of taking advantage of real estate
speculation in blatant disregard for the federal law, article 68, which
conferred to them the right to those lands.

Forging the Path Ahead

Reflecting on the contribution made by the black feminist movement in

the struggle against racism involves bringing up the implications of how
racism and sexist have condemned black women to a perverse and cruel
situation of social exclusion and marginalization. This situation has,
in turn, engendered ways to resist and to overcome that are even more
compelling.

46 MERIDIANS 14:1
 It was the effort required to affirm the identity of and to demand social
acknowledgement for black women who lack social capital that enabled
these women, both past and present, to echo their voices in a historic battle
to overcome those barriers that kept them excluded. It was also what made

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it possible for the first Brazilian woman to become a novelist to be a black
woman, despite society's affirmations otherwise.
The effects of racism and sexism are so brutal that they may trigger
reactions capable of covering up the losses caused by the situation of
domination. The effervescent leadership of black women guided by a desire
for freedom and a desire to recover their humanity denied by slavery, and
later, underscored by the emergence ofblackwomen's organizations and by
the national articulations ofblackwomen, has been drawing new scenarios
and perspectives for black women recovering their historical losses.
In sum, it worth noting that the political leadership of black women has
constituted the driving force in determining the changes in the concept
and the political repositioning of feminism in Brazil. The political action of
black women has been promoting the following:

The acknowledgement of the fallacy in the universalizing view of

women;
The acknowledgement ofintra-gender differences;
The acknowledgement of racism and racial discrimination as factors in
the production and reproduction of the social inequalities experienced
by women in Brazil;
The acknowledgement of the privileges that this ideology produces for
women belonging to the hegemonic racial group;
The acknowledgement of the need for specific policies for black women
to equalize social opportunities;
The acknowledgement of the racial component in Brazilian poverty, and
as a consequence, the need to address the issue of race in the feminiza-
tion of poverty;
The acknowledgement that symbolic violence and the oppression
imposed by whiteness as a standard of beauty, a standard that is privi-
leged and hegemonic, have an impact on non-white women.

Furthermore, the introduction of all those issues has contributed to

broadening the meaning of democracy, equality, and social justice. Gender

SUELi CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 47

 and race impose non-negotiable parameters for the construction of a new
world.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SueliCarneiroholds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Sao Paulo

and is a founding member and Executive Director of Geledes: Instituto
da Mulher Negra. She has been a powerful articulator of Afro-descendant
feminisms nationally and internationally and is a leading voice in Brazilian
feminist and black movements alike, having worked tirelessly to, as she
puts it, "blacken feminism" and "feminize black struggles."

SUELI CARNEIRO • WOMEN IN MOVEMENT 49