Marina Merlo

Women are the majority of the Brazilian electorate, almost half of the members of political parties, and even with the gender quotas law obliging the party list to have at least 30% female candidates, they still make up around 10% of the elected representatives to the Chamber of Deputies. The literature on this issue lists several barriers for these women, such as the socialization process focused on the private sphere of life, their supposed lack of interest in pursuing a political career and the lack of resources to conduct an electoral campaign. Analyzing the trajectory of city councilors elected in the municipal elections of 2016 in the city of São Paulo, this work investigates the ways candidates found to overcome these commonly imposed obstacles on women, with special interest in the political parties and partisan leadership presence in encouraging or dissuading their political career. Based mostly on in-depth interviews with female city council members, this dissertation describes their trajectory, from their first political involvement, going through the decision to run for office up until electoral campaigning to investigate how the narrative of these women about their electoral success and available data resonate with theories and evidences from previous studies about each of these stages. The main question asked is how much the party organization and its leaders have influenced, directly or indirectly, to make the candidature and success of these candidates effective; at the same time, I try to consider how and when these women have created or taken advantage of opportunities to run for - and win - elections. Results show that, although political parties are not always present in these women’s first political activities, the party organization and its leaderships - often as a family member of the candidate – have a crucial role in the decision to run and at the support throughout the electoral campaign, especially providing legitimacy and access to networks with other well established political figures. With these results, it is possible to question the established notion that Brazilian political parties have no relevance or influence in the electoral arena and in women’s sub representation, as well as to reassess the arguments and proposals for improving women's political participation.

As mulheres são a maioria do eleitorado brasileiro, quase metade da/os filiados a algum partido político e, mesmo com a lei de cotas de gênero que obriga o registro de pelo menos 30% de candidaturas femininas, elas ainda perfazem pouco mais de 10% da/os eleita/os. A literatura aponta diversas barreiras para essas mulheres, como o processo de socialização voltado para a esfera privada da vida, uma suposta falta de interesse em seguir uma carreira política e a falta de recursos para conduzir uma campanha eleitoral. Analisando a trajetória das vereadoras eleitas nas eleições municipais de 2016 da cidade de São Paulo, esse trabalho investiga quais foram os meios encontrados ou utilizados pelas candidatas para superar estes obstáculos comumente impostos às mulheres, com um interesse específico e investigar a atuação dos partidos e lideranças partidárias no fomento ou bloqueio desse caminho até a vitória. Utilizando principalmente entrevistas em profundidade com as vereadoras, a dissertaç...