“Meu desafio na política é existir”: Evidence of violence against women in politics in Brazil

This thesis discusses violence against women in politics (VAWIP) as a phenomenon of violence in politics that affects female politicians for being in a male-dominated sphere. Through quantitative data analysis from 2016-2023 on violence in politics in Brazil, and manually re-coded by me to consider categories of VAWIP, I seek to answer three questions: do women and men experience different types of violence as political actors in institutional politics?; among female politicians, are non-white women more targeted than white women?; and are women with progressive political agendas more targeted than conservative women? Based on a literature review on women’s political representation and VAWIP, I argue that women are more prone to psychological and semiotic violence, that black women are disproportionally more targeted, and that women in left-leaning parties are affected more than conservative women. Through initial data exploration and testing, I partially confirm my first argument, and tentatively confirm the remaining two. I ultimately conclude that further statistical testing, as well as a more comprehensive data collection with more specific keywords will allow us to see VAWIP patterns more clearly in future studies.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Latin American Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Carvalho Teixeira, Beatriz

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sin, Gisela
• Szremski, Kasia

• Vawip
• Political Violence
• Gender
• Brazil

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Beatriz Carvalho Teixeira

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124719

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124719