Encouraging the participation of women in leadership positions, especially in the 2022 elections, is the theme of the national campaign launched by the non-governmental organization #ElasnoPoder. the mobilization Refer a Woman seeks to encourage more female candidates to seek a place in politics.
“We did a survey with women who were already active in politics and of those who responded that they are not interested in running for office, 40% of them said they don’t do it because they think they don’t have a profile. This is super strong and shows that women don’t see themselves as leaders, even if they already are, who already work in politics. And there are policies that show that social support is very important for them to become the key”, explained the coordinator of Partnerships at the NGO, Isabela Rahal.
The mobilization, which runs until the deadline for party affiliation, on April 1st, aims to reach women in all states of Brazil. According to the organization, the target audience includes both those who have never considered (or are not considering running at the moment) and those who already intend to run for public office. They will receive a NGO letterinforming that they were nominated by society to assume leadership positions in politics.
“We will to have a letter, which will be signed by representatives and by people who already have a mandate to encourage them to run for office. We will to have a WhatsApp group so they can support each other and a newsletter specific to these candidates so that they feel supported, that [saibam] who have social support. But the most important thing of all is that they will know that there is someone who really sees them as a leader”, said Rahal.
Last year, to encourage female participation in politics, the National Congress approved a PEC that establishes a minimum of 30% for the allocation of campaign financing funds and the portion of the party fund to electoral campaigns in female candidates in proportional and majority elections. . In the 2018 elections, they held only 16% of the positions, despite making up 52% of the general population.
“Parties see it as a simpler matter to look for last-minute candidates, anyway, than to actually invest in these candidacies. The double vote, which was approved at the end of last year, where women’s vote counts double for the distribution of party and electoral funds. This will, in fact, make the parties look at women more competitively,” said the coordinator.
