Rejecting the scaffold: an analysis of women's role in parliament in the state of Rio Grande do Norte
women’s organized movement; women in legislative; gender political violence; Rio Grande do Norte’s pioneers; imbrication patriarchy-racism-capitalism.
Historically, women have been forbidden from occupying public and political spaces. As a result, it was necessary for them to build collective organisations in order to face and resist violations. In the context of the institutional politics in Brazil, the state of Rio Grande do Norte was home to women who were pioneers in acquiring the right to vote and in being elected for political office. Although there have been advances in guaranteeing women’s rights, their presence in political spaces remains considerably small, whilst the violences imposed to them remain frequent. The domination and exploration of women is based, within this understanding, in the imbrication amongst patriarchyracism-capitalism. Therefore, the main goal of this research was to investigate the measure in which the presence of women elected for the legislative in the state of Rio Grande do Norte might impact the overcoming of structures that submit women. Electing feminism and Marxism as main perspectives, it was determined as methodological procedures the mapping of women elected for legislative positions in the aforementioned state from 1990 until 2018, the applying of interviews based in a semi-structured guide, and the documental analysis of the bills and approved laws redacted by the elected politicians. The analysis of the interviews resulted in three meaning cores: a) the experience of existing-for, b) the experience of the political-woman, and c) the experience of being within legislative. It was identified that the material and subjective experience lived by women in politics carries the violences of being a woman in a patriarchal-racist-capitalist society. It was concluded that, for the presence of women in legislative to confront the unequal relations between genders, it is necessary that they recognise the violences to which they are constantly exposed and make a commitment to a political proceeding that is anti-patriarchy, anti-racism and anticapitalism.