Why don women bring to bear the fact that they make up a majority of voters?
Because of the prejudice that they themselves hold: that women are inferior. A majority of women are still conservatives who defend the patriarchal system and see men as more experienced and fit to govern. Furthermore, since it seems only “logical” that men stand a better chance of being elected, the parties assign them more resources. Women candidates are thus left with less campaign publicity and fewer funds in their campaigns. But there has been a revolution since the introduction of the birth-control pill. Forty years ago only five percent of the members of Congress were women; today we have twice that proportion of female legislators. Brazil still has one of the lowest levels, far from the 50 percent achieved by some northern European countries, but we are improving, thanks to the work by women’s rights activists. It is interesting that we have two good female candidates running for president in the October elections, although Dilma Rousseff is in a better position to win because