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RIO DE JANEIRO-A month ago in Brazil, a wave of protests swept through Brazil's major cities. Jair Bolsonaro's sprint to the presidency, marched through streets to cries of "Ele Não" ("Not Him"). But, two years later, polling data from the investment firm, Ibope showed that Bolsonaro's lead had only increased, a backlash to the Nano movement of conservative voters. During the first round of voting on Oct. 7, Bolsonaro consolidated the lead, comfortably, if not decisively, in front of his opponent.
Now, as Brazil races towards a run-off vote on Sunday, Oct. 28, Bolsonaro will face the trainer São Paolo mayor and teacher Fernando Haddad, the candidate for the Workers' Party (PT); he is projected to easily claim victory. For some women, the choice is stark: to vote against Bolsonaro, known for praising Brazil's military dictatorship and for comments that a female colleague in the National Congress was too ugly to "deserve" rape, or to vote for him despite these misogynistic comments as A defender of traditional family values and the political economy in the wake of a long-running political corruption and a struggling economy. The two movements- # EleNão and #EleSim ("Yes, Him") – have divided women as they have divided the country.
That women may be deciding factor in Bolsonaro's victory, rather than cementing his defeat. As recently, as many as 50 percent of women said they would vote for Bolsonaro under any circumstance.
"He's violent. He said that he would be convinced that it would be a huge step backwards for women, "said Giovanna Ramalho, a 22-year-old student at UERJ, Rio de Janeiro state university, who participated in last month's protests. "Clara de Oliveira Araujo, a political science professor at UERJ who specializes in female political participation, said this could, in theory, make female votes to decisive factor in Sunday's outcome, but that supposes women are united. They are not.
Despite Bolsonaro's litany of sexist, racist, homophobic, and autocratic comments, they are likely to support their male counterparts. That's because they are tired of seeing you near-nightly news stories of political corruption scandals and gargantuan snatches juxtaposed with public services struggling to cope on squeezed budgets and rising violent crime; they want a radically different president than they've seen before.
"There's a part of the electorate that considers just talk, rather than proposals," Araújo said. "And there's another group who thinks that there may be a danger that he will fulfill his goals but that he is still better than the alternative."
Isabella Matarazzo, an architect in her 50s, does not believe that feminist values are incompatible with supporting Bolsonaro. For Matarazzo, progress and equality means being made because of perceived socio-economic disadvantages, such as social class, gender, or race-despite acute economic inequality in Brazil. "I'm both feminine and feminist. I do not feel like a victim. I feel like a protagonist, "she said. "You do not sit around expecting the government to save you. We women have to make our own gains. "
Like many female Bolsonaro supporters, Matarazzo has one single criterion that takes precedence over all others when it comes to electing the country's next leader: Corruption. Twin political and economic crises beginning in 2014 brought about by the high-profile political corruption scandals brought to light by the far-reaching Operation Car Wash. As of March 2018, three years after the investigation, 237 people had been convicted of crimes against corruption and intent to form a criminal gang, with high-up executives and politicians agreeing to plea worth $ 3.5 billion in payments to the state . Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who carried the PT to power in 2002, is among those now serving a jail sentence on corruption charges. He was barred from running for president just weeks before the first round of elections.
"A government with a clean record is the most important thing in this election," Matarazzo said. "If you're corrupt, you're taking money out of public institutions, taking out people out of hospitals and children out of schools. The government has to set an example for the people, who look at them and say, 'If they rob, then why can not I?'
The most important reasons for Bolsonaro's ascension even among women. Despite emerging from the worst recession in its history in June 2017, Brazil's economy is struggling to regain its previous strength: Some 12.7 million Brazilians are still unemployed at the bottom of GDP growth, which has been hovering at a little over 1 percent for much of the last year , according to the International Monetary Fund. And having witnessed such services in the public health care and education struggle of revelations of billions of dollars in political kickbacks, Brazilians are angry.
"Corruption did," said Sandra Cristovam, a 60-year-old small-business owner. "The PT had everything in their hands. They had their luck. "
Maurício Santoro, an international relations professor at UERJ, said Brazilians tend to credit with everything that happened during the party's 13 years in the country's leadership. Supporters all progressive policies, such as the groundbreaking poverty alleviation initiative Bolsa Familia, a social welfare program created in 2003 that helped lift 36 million people out of poverty by 2014. But Santoro said voters who oppose the PT blame the party alone for corruption and economic downturn, turning the election into a "referendum on the PT."
"A lot of people make a connection between the economic crisis and corruption," Santoro said. "With Bolsonaro, this support is much more related to this generalized rejection of all political parties."
But among some women, it is more than just anger at a perceived status quo of political corruption. Instead, it's a feeling that Bolsonaro shares the same values they hold dear.
"Bolsonaro is someone who is loved by God. He's someone we can trust in, "said Marília Gil, a retired educator. "He has always been a patriot. He's the only one who could not be more. "
Brazil remains a deeply religious country and an increasingly conservative one at that. Although it is still the most populous Catholic country on the planet, evangelicals have been growing at a rapid pace in recent decades. In the 2010 census, some 42 million Brazilians-around 22 percent of the population-described themselves as evangelical.
Christina Vital, a sociologist at the Fluminense Federal University who studies evangelicals in national politics, said many religious leaders of the world. "The left became associated with identity agendas, such as female autonomy and LGBT rights," she said. "Evangelicals and Catholics understood this as a risk to the standards which had been in place until that point."
The size of Brazil's evangelical population has turned into a great power during elections, with enough sway that canvassing candidates for the support of popular preachers, such as televangelist Silas Malafaia. In 2012, Malafaia's endorsements of 40 candidates in seven states in municipal elections were considered a factor in their success; by 2014's presidential elections, even then President Dilma Rousseff used religiosity to improve her image among evangelical voters. And on Sept. 30 this year, Bolsonaro received an endorsement from the evangelical pastor Edir Macedo, who founded the neo-Pentecostal Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and an expansive evangelical media network, RecordTV. (He was reportedly worth $ 1.1 trillion in 2015.)
"Politicians confessing religious beliefs end up strengthening their political capital among different parts and denominations," said Vital said. "It's a game."
Nonetheless, Araújo, the political science professor, said it is effective. "Bolsonaro has really pushed a moral conservative agenda, which appeals to the evangelical part of society," she explained, adding that there are still more women than men in Pentecostal churches in Brazil. By placing Christian outreach at political corruption and the status quo, Araújo said Bolsonaro is able to style himself as a savior. "In the context of this political crisis," she said.
To be sure, Bolsonaro's offerings do not win over all values vote. Camila Mantovani, a 24-year-old evangelical activist, said Bolsonaro's religious appeals are obvious ploys. "He sees Christians just as an electoral means. He had to write the word "God" on his hand during a debate to remember to mention God! "She said. Mantovani added that he is a lawyer who is a lawyer who is a lawyer and is a lawyer who is not a lawyer. "I feel sickened by this fact that many people believe him. That man is not a Christian, "she said.
But for some women, despite what many are inconsistent in his adoption of religion, he remains a sincerely spoken devotee who represents the changes they want to see take place in Brazil. They believe that the greatest risk to the country is to be had in the past, and that the election of Haddad would be a continuation of the most recent, difficult chapter in Brazil's story. After the PT's 13 years in power, you are in the driving seat of the country's highest office.
"Dictatorship is what we have today in Brazil, a political and ideological dictatorship," said Gabriella Cardoso, a 27-year-old small-business owner. "We want a political overhaul-not just an ideological overhaul but a cultural and ethical overhaul. For us, Jair Bolsonaro is that. "
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