By Angela Simões de Farias*
The Goddess of Justice is a woman. However, there is a significant deficit of women in Brazilian Courts. In Pernambuco, it’s shocking. The National Council of Justice confirms: only 25% of positions in higher courts, for example, are held by women. This is in a population of 51% women, with a surplus of around six million of them, in relation to the number of men, according to IBGE. And without racial or gender bias.
Briefly, this deficit can be explained because our society is ‘terribly’ conservative. And consequently, Brazilian justice operators follow this trend. This fact of the overwhelming majority of men, in the higher courts, for example, is reflected in the formation of other courts, state and federal, accompanied by the corresponding Public Prosecutor’s Office positions. To repeat: in Pernambuco the situation is even worse.
The Judiciary, as well as the MP, are patriarchal institutions, for historical-cultural reasons, accompanying the whole of Brazilian society. This perception may improve in some regions of the country, but known male supremacy predominates.
When women, through public examinations, fill positions in the hierarchy of Justice and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, even today, they do not usually highlight any feminist traits.
They accommodate themselves in a hierarchical way, in their positions and the life they follow. They don’t have the strength to ascend.
When dealing professionally with feminist themes, they are discreet operators, much like male colleagues. These are conservative views. And in this context, there is no demerit. It’s just a verification analysis.
Taking the reality of State Justice in a state of the federation, such as Pernambuco, for example, the story is grim for women. In the 1980s, they did not enter the state judiciary, as they do today. The scholars or “lucky ones”, in these competitions, managed to enter the MP/PE, but failed in the oral exam for the judiciary.
In another example, being the head of the accusation in the Popular Jury Court was only possible, in the 1990s, because it was a male stronghold, until then. Due to its publicity, the Jury can be a good example of male supremacy.
The rite of procedure, with a lot of orality and clash of theses, only recently became accessible to women. Through the Popular Jury, the political-sociological profile of its operators is very evident.
Remembering that the Legitimate Defense of Honor thesis “shined” until it was judged unconstitutional, by the STF, only in August 2023. Is there anything else needed to be said? In Justice, it is the “modus in rebus” of good moderation, even in assimilating the contingent of women in senior positions.
The Court of Justice of the State of Pernambuco is made up of 52 judges. Can anyone say how many are women? Hello Governor Raquel Lyra. Don’t you think it’s time to start changing this situation?
*Poet, writer and feminist activist
