Women make up the majority of those eligible to vote in the October elections. According to a survey conducted by the TSE (High Electoral Court), of the more than 156.4 million voters who can participate in the elections in both rounds, 53%, just over 82.3 million, are women and 74 million men, which is 47% . .

In the regional distribution of voters, the three largest electoral colleges – Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro – concentrate almost half of the votes in the country (42.64%).

Sao Paulo. Voters vote in the second round of the mayoral election at the municipal elementary school Celso Leite Ribeiro Filho in Bela Vista. – Photo: Rowena Rosa/Agência Brasil/North Dakota

In the state of São Paulo alone, which has 22.16% of the electorate, about 18.3 million women and 16.2 million men are eligible to vote.

In the second position of the ranking, the electorate of Minas Gerais is formed by 8.5 million women and 7.7 million men.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s third largest electoral college, women’s votes outnumber men’s by 1 million. The state has 6.9 million female voters and 5.9 million male voters.

Bahia is in fourth place with 11.2 million voters. There, women make up 52.5% of voters, while men make up 47.5% of the electorate in Bahia.

Profile

According to the TSE, the majority of Brazilian voters (5.33%) are between the ages of 35 and 39, followed by women between the ages of 40 and 44 (5.32%). The age group of 25-29 years is 5.2%. Although voting in Brazil is compulsory between the ages of 18 and 70, it is a curious fact that there are 87,400 female voters aged 100 and over.

abroad

Among the voters living abroad, they also constitute the majority. Of the nearly 700,000 people living outside the country and eligible to vote for the President of the Republic, 59% are women and 41% are men.

Performance

Such expressive figures are still not reflected in political and power chairs. According to the TSE, women are still underrepresented in these areas. In the 2018 general election, women won only six of the 81 seats in the Federal Senate. In the House of 513 elected, only 77 were women. In 2018, only one governor was elected: Maria de Fatima Bezerra in Rio Grande do Norte (RN).

To encourage women to participate in and stay in politics, in June 2022 TSE launched a new campaign, Mais Mulheres na Política 2022. The campaign highlights the difference between the real Brazil with a strong female presence and political Brazil, a universe where women are still a minority.

According to the chairman of the electoral court, Minister Edson Fashin, democracy without the expression of feminism atrophies, becomes a mere formality, loses its representativeness. For a minister, democracy, to be complete, must represent its feminine face.

“In addition to the issue of women’s visibility, there is also the issue of the effectiveness of measures aimed at guaranteeing them access and a voice in the political space of the country. Electoral justice is on the side of the materialization of the rights inherent in the female condition,” she emphasized during the launch of the campaign.