Dilma Rousseff's pledge to empower Brazil's women comes good

 

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, came to power a year ago promising to fight for women's rights. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

She came to power vowing to blaze a trail for women's rights and now, nearly a year after being elected Brazil's first female president, Dilma Rousseff may be achieving just that.

A wave of women are preparing to stand for office in her home state of Minas Gerais, where Reginaldo Lopes, the local leader of Rousseff's Workers' party (PT), said the party would field a record number of female candidates in 2012.

"The PT is going to explode, it will be all about the women," Lopes said, outlining the party's plans to field female candidates in several of Minas Gerais' largest cities, among them Governador Valadares and Juiz de Fora.

At least 100 female candidates are planning to stand in mayoral elections next year, according to the state's leading newspaper, Estado de Minas.

The newspaper, based in the state capital of Belo Horizonte, where Rousseff was born and raised, claimed the candidates hoped to take advantage of what electioneers and journalists have dubbed "the Dilma effect".

"Lipstick, well-groomed hair, precisely chosen clothes – matching with the shoes, of course – may all became indispensable items in next year's elections," the paper said in a somewhat patronising front-page story this week. "Is it women's turn?" it wondered.

A career civil servant and former leftwing guerrilla, Rousseff came to office in January, exactly 60 years after the election of Brazil's first female MP.

She became the eighth elected female president in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in her first address to the nation promised to battle for women's rights so that electing female leaders became "a natural event".

"I would like fathers and mothers to look into their daughters' eyes today and tell them: 'Yes, women can,'" Rousseff said in her inaugural address.

Despite the initial jubilation at her historic election there were concerns, even within her own party, that Rousseff would struggle to replicate the successes of her predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula, widely considered the most popular president in Brazilian history and famously dubbed "my man" by his US counterpart Barack Obama because of his standing with his country's electorate, left office with approval ratings of more than 80%.

Almost a year after taking the reins Rousseff is, however, faring well. The latest polls, conducted in September, gave her a personal approval rating of 71%.

Analysts say voters have responded particuarly well to the president's well-publicised attempts to tackle corruption – labelled faxina or house-cleaning. So far five ministers have been ejected from their jobs after allegations of graft. Other high-profile heads are expected to roll in the coming months.

"At first people had their doubts, but today Dilma has won the people over," said Lopes, who believes that Rousseff's current popularity is likely to help boost support for other female candidates.

The PT is not the only Brazilian party looking to cash in on the "Dilma effect" in Minas Gerais. Its main rival, the Brazilian Social Democratic party or PSDB, also sees an opening for a greater number of female candidates. The PSDB is reportedly considering 39 women for its electoral lists.

"We believe that there is now a greater stimulus for women to take part in the elections with the expectation of winning," Lenita Norman, the PSDB's regional head told Estado de Minas. "We have a female president in a world where this is a rarity and that shows that Brazil is leading the way."

Maria Imaculada Dutra, a Socialist councillor in the town of Manhuacu who is hoping to run for mayor, said courage, rather than Rousseff, would be her greatest asset in the 2012 election race.

"It's not Dilma running a good government that motivates me. I'm tired of corruption in this town and you need courage to face up to the corrupt," she said.