THE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN BRAZIL AND THE CONCEPTIONS OF AMARTYA SEN ABOUT DEMOCRACY

THE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN BRAZIL AND THE CONCEPTIONS OF AMARTYA SEN ABOUT DEMOCRACY

Kimberly Farias Monteiro

ABSTRACT: For years, a lot of women's lives were marked by situations of inequality and inferiority in relation to the men. The women were meant only for housework. Thus, they were raised and educated to learn domestic techniques and become housewives who did not have basic rights, such as the right to vote. In this sense, women were excluded from the decisions of society and could not fully exercise their rights, and so, democracy was not fully exercised. It was after struggles to claim that women gradually gained their rights and, through the development of gender, became stronger in society. As a result, gender development has become paramount in strengthening of the quality of life women and, consequently, in the occupancy of space in the society, specifically in the political sphere. These factors - such as the participation of individuals in society - also help human development, which can be verified through health, education and income, which together would result in the capabilities and abilities developed by individuals. In this sense, the problematic that will surround the future article is to verify if from the human development, verified the capabilities developed by Amartya Sen and of the development of gender, both considered as primordial factors for the progress of the participation of women in the public spaces, it is possible to verify the effectiveness of democracy through the participation of women in Brazilian politics. So, at first, the objective is to analyze human development and the development of gender, as crucial cornerstones in the reach of political participation by women, since both relate to the step that human development influences, also , gender equality and development, because, so that women can strengthen themselves before society, especially in decision-making spaces, the basic requirements become essential: health, education and income, pillars of human development. In this way, the opening chapter will be based on Amartya Sen's book 'Development as Freedom' because of its strong influence on the concept and parameters of human development, as well as the analysis of the Human Development Index and the Development Index of gender. Subsequently, starting from the premise that in order to have democracy in a society, there should be the minimum of possible inequality as explained by Robert Dahl and the premise presented by Amartya Sen that political participation has an intrinsic value for the life of human beings, seeks to demonstrate if the participation of women in the political sphere is effective as a means of promoting democracy.

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