Pathways
Feminisms and the Struggle for Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights - the Brazilian Experience
2007 - 2011
Lead Researchers: Silvia Lúcia Ferreira , Cecilia Sardenberg
Researchers: Simone Andrade Teixeira , Patricia Marques , Gilberta Soares , Carla Gisele Batista
By exploring the link between the denial of women’s reproductive rights and the denial of women’s sexual agency under patriarchy, the researchers sought to elucidate the conditions under which feminist demands around abortion have been successful by drawing together experiences from across Latin America.
Resources For This Project
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Ageing Women And The Culture Of Eternal Youth: Some Personal And Theoretical Reflections From A Feminist Over Fifty In Brazil
In this paper presented to the Sexuality and Development Workshop, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, 3-5 April, Sardenberg proposes to reflect upon some of the dilemmas faced by women over fifty living in the “culture of eternal youth” which, nowadays, rules Brazilian society. She recognises that the battle against age is one that cannot be won, and therefore proposes a new discourse - a feminist discourse on the female body in the process of aging. She shares some reflections, based on her own person experience, around the control over the body that the culture of eternal youth imposes on us and looks at these issues from a feminist perspective, reflecting upon how gender, age and generation, along with race and class, structure the construction of body and self. She focuses here primarily on how narratives of decline and the positive ageism of the cosmetics industry at large speak to aging white, middle-class women. …
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Direitos Sexuais E Direitos Reprodutivos: Interseções Entre ONGs E Núcleos Universitários Feministas Brasileiros
This paper presented at Fazendo Genero (Doing Gender) 8 held at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina from 25-28 August 2008 focuses on the Pathways Latin America project which examined the struggles for the realization of reproductive rights in Brazil, following and retracing campaigns for the legalization of abortion. The project also identified and analysed the strategies employed, and the particular contributions and roles of feminists in NGO networks, and in the academic world. …
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Getting Hotter By The Day: The Debate On The Legalisation Of Abortion On Demand In Brazil
Article on the debate around abortion legislation in Brazil. Currently abortions are only legal in Brazil when the pregnancy results from rape or when it puts the mother’s life in risk. Unlike middle and upper class women, who can afford to pay for a clandestine abortion in modern, safe clinics, many young, poor, black women die from illegal abortion. …
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Looking At Sexuality And Identity In The Information Society From A Latin American Feminist Perspective: Implications For Policy Formulation
This paper, presented Strategic Planning Workshop of the Feminist Network on Gender, Development and Information Society Policies, IT for Change, Bangalore, India, 5-7 October, briefly addresses some of the issues in debates on the rise of the information society and its impact on feminism and women’s movements in a world scale, as well as its importance as a tool for the empowerment of women and significance to contemporary expressions of sexuality and identity. In this paper, Sardenberg focuses more specifically, on those debates relating to expressions of sexuality and identity in the information society, as seen from a critical Latin American feminist perspective. She raises these issues in the hopes that they can be of significant consequence for policy formulation on the uses of the information society with greater gender equity. …
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Teoria E Praxis Do Feminismo Acadêmico. Fazendo Gênero 9
This paper presented at Fazendo Genero (Doing Gender) 9 focuses on the Pathways Latin America project which examined the struggles for the realization of reproductive rights in Brazil, following and retracing campaigns for the legalization of abortion. The project also identified and analysed the strategies employed, and the particular contributions and roles of feminists in NGO networks, and in the academic world. …
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The Right To Abortion: Briefing From Brazil, Open Democracy
Cecilia Sardenberg discusses the challenges facing Brazilian feminists and their supporters in the campaign to legalize abortion in the country beyond the current strict limits. She reports on the recent decision at the Brasilia gathering of the second Conference for Public Policies for Women (II CNPM) in support of legislation to sanctioning abortion on demand – a significant step beyond the current situation where it was legal only if the pregnancy results from rape or when it put the mother’s life at risk. Cecilia Sardenberg is the director and a founding member of the Nucleus of Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies (NEIM) at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. …
