“Constituent for real has to have woman’s word”: IAJES Women’s Movement, Women’s Regional Movement and struggle for democracy in Brazil

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to present the mobilization of Instituto Administrativo Jesus Bom Pastor (IAJES) Women’s Movement and of Women’s Regional Movement (WRM), net formed in São Paulo interior and Mato Grosso do Sul, in the construction of Women’s Letter to the Constituents of 1987. The Letter, result of historical campaign named Woman and Constituent, from National Council of Women’s Right (NCWR), was result of broad national discussion of numbers women’s and feminist movements that, between 1985-1987, debated and collected signatures to guarantee “women’s demands” in the new Constitution (1988). For that we analyze reports, minutes and other documents of groups that are archived in the collection of IAJES, that
integrates Núcleo de Documentação Histórica Honório de Souza Carneiro, at Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Três Lagoas Campus. Performing a scale game, the group of IAJES women’s, who was part of WRM, will be revealed as a way to explain everyday dynamics and actions of ordinary women that signed the Letter. The selected documentation allows a fundamental reflection on the women’s and feminist movements from the past and the presente, as well as the sensitive approximations and withdrawals of these groups.