Women and the New Constitutionalism: A Feminist Narrative about the Brazilian Experience

Abstract

The new constitutionalism that has been being built, little by little, in Latin America, has had its base and main characteristic in an increasing popular participation in the political processes that culminated with the redemocratization of the regions States. Among the several groups and social movements that contributed to the insertion of new rights into the Latin American Constitutional texts, feminist and women movements distinguished themselves along the 1980s for their struggle for the constitutionalization of their historical demands. In Brazil, as in some neighboring countries, women acted decisively in the Constituent National Assembly of 1987/1988, articulating participative and representative democracy, and amplifying, extraordinarily, womens rights as citizens. Nevertheless, Brazilian Constitutional historiography has ignored, silenced and/or omitted this fact, contributing, even more, to one-dimensional, androcentric and disconnected from social reality analysis and juridical/political interpretations. Aiming to fulfill this gap, this text, brings a feminist narrative of the Constituent process, based on documental analysis and on interviews with some of the most distinguished participants of this historical moment.