Raça, gênero e classe na política em Goiânia : mulheres negras nas eleições de 2024

Abstract

This work aims to understand how gender, race, and class inequalities affected the candidacies of Black women for the position of city councilor in Goiânia in the 2024 elections. To examine the barriers to Black representation in local institutional politics, the research adopted an intersectional and exploratory approach, with a quantitative-qualitative character. Although studies in Brazilian Political Science that simultaneously mobilize gender, race, and class to analyze issues of political representation are still scarce, this research joins previous studies that are beginning to fill this gap, shifting the predominant focus on gender, elected women, and national processes to the study of candidacies and the local level. The research is based on data provided by the Superior Electoral Court, which, since 2014, has started collecting information on the self-declared race/color of legislative candidates. From this survey, it was possible to establish contact with the majority of black women (black and brown) candidates, who were invited to complete a structured questionnaire and, subsequently, to participate in in-depth interviews. Out of a total of 146 black candidacies in the 2024 elections for the Municipal Chamber of Goiânia, 44 women (approximately 30%) responded to the self-administered structured questionnaire, and 15 (around 10%), respecting party diversity, participated in in-depth interviews.The data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. Multiple social markers intersect the political trajectories of Black women, producing constraints and barriers that distance them from public life through the overlapping of structural inequalities. By highlighting the absence of institutional and party policies that provide effective support for Black women's candidacies, the study demonstrates that the political-electoral system and the internal structures of parties are among the main factors responsible for the exclusion of a portion of the population from positions of power. This scenario not only limits their access to political representation but also weakens democratic consolidation. Thus, based on the case of Goiânia, this dissertation seeks to contribute to a critical understanding of the persistent underrepresentation of Black women in Brazilian politics and the democratic deficit that it produces.