Da república sem mulheres à modernização patriarcal : origens e metamorfoses das relações de gênero no Brasil

Abstract

This study intends to contribute to an understanding of how Brazilian social and political thought, since the 19th century through to mid-20th century, produced knowledge and specific meanings about gender relations. The first chapter, seeks to trace the multiple dimensions that helped configure these beliefs by relying upon the framework of the sociopolitical imaginary, given it is considered a framework broad enough to revisit classic debates in feminist theory such as the public/private dichotomy and its relation to the recompositions of patriarchy. The narrative proposed here also considers how struggles for recognition were important for articulating agendas that challenged patriarchal discourses, practices and structures inscribed in those imaginaries. Stemming from this theoretical framework, the following two chapters analyze the discourses and ideas of feminists and actors/authors, representative of certain normative traditions in two historical periods: (1) mid-19th century until the first years of the First Republic and (2) 1930-1964. First, Nísia Floresta’s vindications in the 19th century are studied in relation to the influences of Positivism, Catholicism and Liberalism. Subsequently, Bertha Lutz’s discourses and agendas are analyzed in relation to the traditions configuring the imaginary of the 20th century: Authoritarianism, Catholicism and Leftist thought. Lastly, the study highlights a few links between the past and present with regard to continuities or ruptures with the imaginaries examined. The proposed thesis deepens the understanding of the origins and metamorphoses of the sociopolitical imaginaries and their influences on gender relations, illustrating, first, how women’s access to public spheres was accompanied by the processes associated with patriarchal modernization. The feminist re-reading and interpretation here also unveiled the political significance behind not only the beliefs studied, but also of the struggles for recognition emerging in the periods investigated. Finally, the research presented is based on the premise that a study of Brazilian social and political thought, through a feminist perspective, is better capable of detecting how patriarchal forces and cultures, grounded in past imaginaries, continue to create obstacles for Brazilian women’s greater emancipation and autonomy in the public and private spheres.