Women's political sub-representation in the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil: analyzing the amendments of the deputies to the federal budget in the 53th legislature

• Grant number: 12/03900-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Lorena Guadalupe Barberia
• Grantee: Natália de Paula Moreira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Having such great theme the underrepresentation of women in politics, women's behavior when they become federal deputies is still a relatively unexplored in the literature. It is known that the Brazilian female deputies face challenges to achieve key positions and influence in the Chamber of Deputies. There are, however, few studies that suggest that this area is of great importance and deserves further investigation. Studies that analyze the behavior of federal deputies in the Chamber found difference between the performance of women and men (Pinheiro, 2007; Ogando and Neiva, 2010). When analyzing the production and presence in legislative committees, it was found that the women are strongly associated with issues involving the social context (such as education, health, welfare) and men, in turn, issues management, agriculture, among other taxes. Given the importance of this topic and the low production of studies that analyze the female political underrepresentation in this respect, the objective of this scientific iniciation is to study the behavior of women in the Chamber. More specifically, the objective is to analyze the amendments of women deputies compared to the men deputies, to the Union Budget for the 53th Legislature.