00:00Women are the majority of the population of the Brazilian electorate, but they
00:04occupy six times fewer seats in Congress than men. In its new installment of the
00:09Brazil Decide series, our team shows from Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil, how they
00:13see the current political scenario in Brazil and what they demand from the state.
00:20On 4 October, 58.7 million Brazilians will be called to vote.
00:27Of these, 52.8% are women, equivalent to 83.8 million female voters.
00:36Josenilda Melo is one of these voters. She has worked in one of Latin America's main
00:41markets, located in the city of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe in Pernambuco, for more than
00:47a decade. She never misses an election, and next month, she will vote to change the current
00:54government.
00:57Personally, I wanted the change. I didn't want this government to continue unopposed. We
01:07need some change. It's not that one is better than the other, for me. But I think, like this,
01:17politics should change so that we can see how the other side works, and not just remain on one side.
01:23A few stores away in the same market, Maria de Fatima works. During election season,
01:30she sells T-shirts bearing the names of the two main presidential candidates.
01:36If the polls indicate a tie in the second round, her sales are also tied, reveals the 70-year-old
01:43vendor. She is proud that one of her children was able to get ahead thanks to public policies,
01:52despite her having to leave her basic education studies to work.
01:58My son graduated from Lula's Federal University, which Lula built here in Karwaru. He is now a
02:04manager at Queixa Economica Bank. My other son is also a businessman and works at the fair.
02:09We are all Lula. I thank Lula. Today my son has graduated. He was the only one,
02:15because I could not afford to pay for a private university.
02:19She is sure of her political choice and issues a warning about what could happen if the far right
02:26wins. If Flavio Bolsonaro wins, it's going to be like the United States here, only war.
02:35We had a quiet life before. Brazil is a wonderful place to live. Here we have peace.
02:41A country that experienced a coup d'etat against its first female president in 2016 remains dominated
02:49by Amashist logic. In 2023, with Lula's return to the presidency, the Ministry of Women was established
03:00for the first time, equipped with a dedicated agenda and resources. However, an investigation
03:07by the National Map of Gender Violence, published in August this year, revealed that 29 million women
03:14in Brazil had been victims of domestic or family violence in a 12-month period. In 2025, the country
03:25recorded a new high of 1,571 femicides. In other words, four women were murdered every day simply for
03:35being women. Experts say that one way to combat gender violence is to invest more in projects that
03:43promote women's financial independence. Unfortunately, the economic aspect is still an issue.
03:53Some women remain in the cycle of violence because they feel unable to support themselves or their
03:57children. This is one of the key issues addressed by our secretariat here in Karawaru. We have a project
04:04called Women Entrepreneurs, through which we have already reached approximately 700 women.
04:11The project promotes economic empowerment and strengthens women's position within the creative
04:16economy, showing them that they can survive through their own work.
04:22Another challenge that must be overcome is the lack of political representation. Although women make up
04:29the majority of the electorate and the Brazilian population, the reality in Congress is very
04:34different. Of the 594 parliamentary seats, women occupy just over 100. In other words, there are almost
04:43six men for every woman in the national legislature. Rosa Amoram, who is lesbian, black and landless,
04:51was elected state deputy in 2022 and is contesting the position of federal deputy in the next elections.
05:01Although women make up the majority of Brazilian society, we are a minority in spaces where political
05:07decisions are made. The consequence of this is the ever greater consolidation of a patriarchal,
05:14macho structure that violates and kills women every day.
05:19If we want to strengthen Brazilian democracy, we need more women in positions of political power,
05:25including those responsible for combating gender-based political violence.
05:32According to a September survey published by Dada Folha,
05:35women's votes could be decisive in a polarized scenario with a technical tie between the two main
05:42presidential candidates. While 26% of women polled have not yet decided how to vote,
05:52this percentage is 14% among men. Andre Vieira and Sebastião Souto, Telesur, Brazil.
