What Brazil’s new president means for girls and women — Assembly

Raphaele Godinho anticipates what will change for Brazilian girls and women now that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in office.

On October 31, 2022, Brazil held its most recent presidential election. Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain and conservative, ran against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist politician and member of the political party Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT).

It’s hard to overstate the importance of this election — both for Brazil and our planet. What made this election so significant? First you have to understand recent Brazilian politics.

Lula governed the country from 2002 to 2010. His presidency was full of ups and downs, marked by corruption scandals but also by very effective social programs. After he left office, PT candidate Dilma Rousseff was elected president until she was impeached in 2016. At that point, the country had been under 14 years of PT presidential leadership and many wanted a change. Some thought PT was corrupt and others didn’t agree with the party's work fighting inequality.

It was at this time that conservative Jair Bolsonaro gained popularity. Elected in 2018, opponents have criticized Bolsonaro for his mismanagement of the pandemic, lack of focus on social agendas, controversial statements and threats to democracy. While president, Bolsonaro cut social assistance spending by 70%, directly impacting millions of women and girls, and particularly affecting Black women and girls who are among the hardest hit by poverty in Brazil. Bolsonaro also made several sexist statements while in office.

“I predict that President Lula will improve social benefits and girls’ school enrollment rates, strengthen some of the programs destabilized by President Bolsonaro, expand environmental protections and restructure and restore ministries.”

— Raphaele Godinho

But what made the majority of the population decide to reelect Lula? Mainly because of Bolsonaro’s failure to address the pandemic, resulting in 700,000 deaths due to COVID-19. They felt this staggering number was caused by the public health service’s negligence and the government’s denialist policy, which led to a delay in purchasing vaccines.

During the 2022 election, Bolsonaro and Lula differed on most issues from human rights and public safety to health. They starkly disagreed on how to handle the climate crisis. Lula’s administration focused efforts on protecting the rainforest. While campaigning in 2022, he pledged to limit illegal gold mining, logging and agricultural expansion and restore climate-critical ecosystems. On the other hand, during Bolsonaro’s time in office, he made it easier for toxic mining to occur, downplayed the importance of rainforest fires, emptied IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) and increased deforestation. Because of Bolsonaro’s failures to protect Brazil’s natural resources, many media outlets and climate activists around the world supported Lula’s candidacy.

In a contested election, the Brazilian people elected Lula back to office with 50.83% of the votes and he took office on January 1, 2023. While much has been written about this election and Lula’s next term in office, I wanted to look at how his presidency will impact the lives of girls and women. Considering his past actions and current promises, I predict that President Lula will improve social benefits and girls’ school enrollment rates, strengthen some of the programs destabilized by President Bolsonaro, expand environmental protections and restructure and restore ministries.

Improving social benefits and girls’ school enrollment rates

In 2003, President Lula introduced the Programa Bolsa Família (PBF), a social welfare program that provided low-income families with conditional cash transfers. To be eligible, families had to send their kids to school, stay up to date on vaccines, ensure pregnant women receive healthcare and follow other such rules. Since its creation, the program has helped over 3.4 million Brazilians out of extreme poverty, reduced child mortality by 16%, and increased girls’ school enrollment. However in 2021, the Bolsonaro government replaced the program with a new initiative, Auxilio Brasil, although very little has changed about the initiative in practice. The Lula government promises to restore Bolsa Familia in 2023 and increase the amount of aid from R$190 in previous years to R$600. This will hopefully result in girls’ increased enrollment as parents need to send their daughters to school in order to access the program rewards.

“During Lula’s first term in office, the program was beneficial for Brazilian women because families with women as heads of household (i.e., single mothers) had priority in accessing some resources.”

— Raphaele Godinho

Strengthening destabilized programs in the last government

The Minha Casa Minha Vida program facilitates real estate financing for the low-income population, allowing thousands of Brazilians to have their own homes (something often only accessed by families with higher incomes). The Bolsonaro administration changed the program’s name and cut R$1.5 billion of its budget in 2021. However, one of Lula's main proposals is to resume the original program.

During Lula’s first term in office, the program was beneficial for Brazilian women because families with women as heads of household (i.e., single mothers) had priority in accessing some resources. In addition, it allowed divorced and/or separated women to obtain the property in their name even without the spouse's signature — even in cases where there was no judicial divorce.

Expanding environmental agenda

Lula's government plan states that he wants to: “Combat illegal mining, burning, and deforestation. Recover preservation and inspection bodies to defend the environment, especially the Amazon. Adopt a strategy of fair, solidary, and sustainable development.” In addition, Lula’s team shared their plans to end the rule that classifies mining as an “artisanal activity” since this is one of the most polluting activities in Brazilian rivers and veto proposals for gas extraction via fracking, which the Bolsonaro government recently made possible. Finally, the new team seeks to create new marine and land preservation units, in addition to enhancing the environmental agenda in basic education.

These policies have important implications for Brazilian girls and women as climate change disproportionately affects them — but also the entire planet as the majority of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil.

“These policies have important implications for Brazilian girls and women as climate change disproportionately affects them — but also the entire planet as the majority of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil.”

— Raphaele Godinho

Restructure and restore ministries

In an attempt to reduce public spending, President Bolsonaro merged different ministries to reduce spending. In practice, the measure was not very effective since many important issues were deprioritized.

Bolsonaro created the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, which faced many, many controversies due to its minister, Damares Alves. The Lula government has since created the Ministry of Women to support vulnerable women. The new government also recreated the Ministry of Culture, which works to ensure cultural access to Brazilian populations in need, including women and children.

I, like many other Brazilian women, openly voted for Lula's government, but that doesn't mean idolatry is part of our decision-making process. We voted for democracy and for its continuity, and for that reason, we will continue to demand that our leaders take rational and effective actions and support the rights of girls and women.

For more reading on Brazilian politics, Raphaele recommends:

Raphaele Godinho

(she/her/hers) is a 22-year-old international relations student from Brazil. Since 2016, she has been advocating for women’s rights with her initiative, Rescuing & Valuing Women. You can follow her on Instagram.