Motherhood is political: mobilization of motherhood by female candidates (2021-2022).
Motherhood, Mothers in Politics, Maternal Feminism, Matricentric Feminism, Gender and Politics.
The thesis discusses the use of motherhood as a political resource. It has, as the corpus of analysis, the profiles of eight female candidates running for different positions, from different political parties and states in the Brazilian elections of 2022. Historically, motherhood has been invisible in the public sphere due to women's absence from these spaces. The responsibility of caring for a child seemed incompatible with the full dedication required of a political representative. However, now motherhood is displayed and claimed by many women in politics, which responds to the effort of identifying with the electorate – by sharing an experience common to many women, they show themselves as "people just like us." Often, the discourse also incorporates elements affirming the moral superiority of mothers, associated with altruistic values and care for the vulnerable, approaching the theoretical perspective of the "maternal thinking." However, the visibility of motherhood rarely leads to the presentation of public policy proposals that alleviate the burden on women who are mothers and even less to a demystification of the maternal role. On the contrary, the ideology of reconciling the priority given to mothering, seen as necessary and unquestionable for any woman, with public activity is very present. For the analysis of the empirical material, the thesis relies on the theory of matricentric feminism by Rich and O’Reilly.