On Intentional Women’s Day, celebrated this Wednesday (8), the Senate paid tribute to seven women who made a significant contribution to the defense of rights and gender issues in Brazil. They were honored in the plenary of the House, with the Bertha Lutz Diploma.
One of them was the President of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Minister Rosa Weber. In her speech, she said that discriminatory conduct and acts detected in the forensic space indicate that not even the Judiciary, in its fields of activity, is immune to the culture of subjugating and disqualifying women. According to her, Brazilian society sees, nowadays, violence against women increasing alarmingly.
“Therefore, reaffirming women’s right to equal treatment and access to public decision-making spaces as a way of fighting gender discrimination is not a project that has been completed, but rather a project that is constantly under construction. In a society marked by structural machismo, procedural and decision-making structures were built so as not to consider women as a relevant institutional political actor in the constitutional democratic project”.
Also honored, the first lady of the country, the sociologist Janja da Silva, spoke about the importance of the presence of women in spaces of power:
“I want to say that my commitment to increasing the representation of women in politics is permanent, it is part of my daily life. I believe that we need to increasingly institutionalize our presence in the spaces of power and ensure that the rules of parity exist and are enforced”.
Still on the Senate floor, Janja pledged to be an unconditional ally of the first hour in actions against gender violence in politics: “the issue of violence against women is inadmissible. The number we have in our Brazil today is unbelievable. We need to put a stop to it. Stop killing our women! None of us in fear, all of us in politics.”
The list of honorees for this edition also included political scientist and specialist in public safety and drug policy, Ilona Szabó de Carvalho; Senate Director General Ilana Trombka; and the journalist and one of the coordinators of the Front of Evangelicals for the Rule of Law Nilza Valéria Zacarias.
in memory
In this year’s edition, two other Brazilian women were posthumously awarded: Clara Filipa Camarão and journalist Glória Maria. Clara was an indigenous woman from the Potiguara ethnic group who led a group of women against the Dutch invasions in the 17th century, in Pernambuco. Her name is inscribed in the Book of Heroes and Heroines of the Homeland, in Brasilia.
Glória Maria is considered an icon of Brazilian journalism. She has worked on TV Globo since the 1970s and has become recognized for her special reports and coverage of historical events in Brazil and around the world. She died in February 2023victim of cancer.
Bertha Lutz
Since it was created in 2001, the Bertha Lutz Diploma has been awarded to people who have made a relevant contribution to the defense of women’s rights or who have participated in tackling gender issues in Brazil in any area of activity, in defense of a society more plural and fair.
Bertha was a biologist, lawyer from São Paulo and one of the most significant figures of feminism and education in Brazil in the 20th century. Approved in a competition for researcher and professor at the National Museum, in 1919, she became the second Brazilian to take part in the public service in Brazil.
She came into contact with the feminist movement while studying in Europe. Upon her return to Brazil, she founded the Brazilian Federation for Women’s Progress (FBPF). One of the main flags raised by Bertha Lutz at the time was to guarantee women the right to vote and to be voted for. This only occurred on May 3, 1933, in the election for the National Constituent Assembly. She died in 1976, in Rio de Janeiro.
