Antifeminismo de Estado: uma análise sociopolítica da ascensão das parlamentares antifeministas no Brasil

Abstract

The 2023-2028 legislature represents the highest number of women in the history of the Brazilian Federal Chamber, with 93 female deputies occupying 18% of the seats. Within this numerical advance, the consolidation of women aligned with the far-right can be observed, acting against historical gender equity agendas and shaping State antifeminism, which aims to institutionalize discourses and actions that counter the achievements gained through feminist struggles. Based on the hypothesis that the presence of antifeminist federal deputies contributes to legislative setbacks in the promotion of gender equity, this research analyzed how their discourses, propositions, and strategies articulate politically. A total of 359 bills proposed by five members of the Liberal Party (PL) – Bia Kicis, Carla Zambelli, Caroline de Toni, Chris Tonietto, and Júlia Zanatta – were examined, with 29 bills standing out for presenting explicitly antifeminist content. Their positions regarding the Pay Equity Law (Law 14.611/2023), the Law on Combating Political Violence against Women (Law 14.192/2021), and the Statute of the Unborn Child were also investigated. Based on content analysis, the empirical investigation was guided by three interdependent categories: neoliberalism, religious conservatism, and anti-gender politics, while the political representation model of these deputies was analyzed in light of Iris Marion Young’s political theory (2000; 2006), which categorizes representation by perspective, opinion, and interest. The analysis revealed that the deputies operate within a discursive logic that articulates economic interests, religiously grounded moral values, and an exclusionary and biologizing view of gender. The study further demonstrates that, although there are efforts to consolidate State antifeminism within institutional politics, the presence and actions of progressive women, feminists, and femocrats have been crucial in containing these initiatives. It concludes that antifeminism in Parliament is not merely an ideological divergence but a profound dispute over the meaning of democracy and women’s rights in contemporary Brazil, operating through a politics of exclusion, discipline, and symbolic and material violence, mobilizing fear as a central emotion to sustain its project of power and reaffirming that in Brazil antifeminism is a strategic and structuring counter-movement of the far right.