Another March 8. A new day to commemorate the rights of women, the feminist struggle to change the patriarchal and capitalist system that oppresses women, lesbians and trans women, and that aims to advance over our bodies and territories and silence us for trying to push boundaries.
Another March 8. In Brazil, Latin America/Caribbean, and the world, a cry, many cries. For those of us who are here. For those who are no longer here.
In Brazil, the World March of Women takes to the streets once again, wearing violet and lilac colors. They take to the streets with a “batucada”. They take to the streets to say NO to the pension reform that Jair Bolsonaro´s administration is trying to impose. And they do so exposing 10 reasons against the reform [1]. Nalú Faria, member of the WMW-Brazil, talked with Real World Radio about what this social security reform entails and what gender impacts it would bring:
-There has been an attempt during Michel Temer´s Coup administration and now Bolsonaro is proposing a more radical counter-reform, which implies many setbacks in terms of labor and social rights, such as: Increasing working hours, raising the age of retirement and the amount of pension contributions, which would imply the need to work 40 years to qualify for retirement, reducing conditions to obtain pensions.
This reform seriously impacts women, because they are the ones carrying out the most precarious and worst paid jobs, and they spend more hours than men (at least 8 hours more each week) in non-paid tasks, such as domestic and care work. This also impacts the permanence they have in paid jobs.
How can we make this domestic and care work carried out by women visible?
-By visibilizing the time we spend on that, and by changing the production and reproduction conditions. This is not work that can be measured in the same way the job carried out in a factory can be measured.
In so many years of feminist struggle, what would you say to a woman, young or adult, who wants to join the feminist movement?
– The feminist struggle transforms. It is not just about giving more rights to women, but building another society, remembering who we are and fighting in a collective way. There is a lot of potential in feminism to deliver structural changes, and also risks of being coopted by a more liberal vision that aims at a more individual empowerment. But the idea continues being that with feminism we are conquering our freedom and autonomy.