Mídia, gênero e conservadorismo na estrada real (MG): como as mulheres eleitas em 2020 constroem suas representações nas plataformas digitais

Abstract

The largest Brazilian tourist circuit, Estrada Real, had only 4% of its mayoral positions occupied by women in the 2020 elections. In this context, this research aims at understanding how elected female mayors, deputy mayors and councilors made their own representations on digital midia, during the electoral campaign and in the first three years of their terms (2021, 2022 and 2023), in order to win over voters in a politically conservative area. The hypothesis was that they reinforced the social role conventionally accepted to be played by women from Minas Gerais: white, married, religious and mothers. To answer the research problem, it had been analyzed 1,961 posts on Facebook by 18 women elected in 6 municipalities, defined based on the creation of the Female Representation Index (in portuguese, IRF). Content analysis (Bardin, 2016; Sampaio, 2021) had been adopted as methodology. The hypothesis was only partially confirmed: the elected women are not as conservative in their customs as supposed, but they perpetuate spaces of historical privilege. The discourses are moderate: they don’t show most radical feminist agendas, chosing instead those already incorporated or in the process of being incorporated by neoliberal discourse. Regarding electoral communication, it is surprising they are still mostly analogical. However, despite the growing conservatism, the meanings of feminisms remain in dispute when it comes to women’s participation in politics.