The political struggle of rural women: conflicts and resistance for democracy and feminist agroecology in Brazil

Abstract

In the year 2016, Brazil faced a coup d’état, overthrowing democratically elected President Dilma
Roussef, and thus dismantling a number of public policies and programs, and extinguishing
important ministries and secretariats such as the Ministry of Agrarian Development ) And the
Policy Directorate for Rural and Quilombola Women (DPMRQ). In this process, rural women
demonstrated a strong capacity for resistance, articulation and reaction expressed in letters,
manifests, notes of repudiation, marches and public acts, becoming a questioning voice in
the face of the coup and postponing the dismantling of instances and policies. Based on the
analysis of some of these documents, it is possible to see the capacity for network articulation
and joint and orchestrated reaction, as part of the accumulation of learning from participation
in public spaces, but above all feminist practices of resistance and solidarity, in Rural women
as a political subject.