WOMEN IN POLITICS: REFLECTIONS ON GENDER PERFORMANCES IN PRACTICE OF FIRST LADIES OF CARIRI CEARENSE
Performance; Gender; Politics; Representation.
The proposal of this research is to analyze the performances of the first ladies in the 2016 political campaigns in Cariri region, Ceará. For Amaral (2007), research on this topic has gained a greater proportion, especially since the twentieth century, In this period, the figure of the first lady emerged as a fundamental piece to prolong and consolidate the status, power and popularity of the husband. The figure of the first lady is directly related to a gender identity, in which the woman would have the function of caring. From this, I propose to consider this supposed gender identity based on an understanding of gender, which implies a problematization with subjectivity, permeated by an comprehensiong of the "body as a signifier in a permanent process of construction and multiple meanings" (BENTO, 2014). The idea of the multiple gender and its denaturation gains even more space in this context when the field of research becomes more complex with the participation of the first ladies in the election contest, since the character of the performances of the gender identities stands out before the election process. So I question how these women built political capital, and succeed in legitimizing themselves as political representatives of municipalities. Focusing on the analysis of gender performances in Cariri politics, I made observations during the period of the Political Conventions in five cities and continued throughout the electoral process in the Cariri region.