Every time the country is haunted by serial femicides, as happened last week, social networks are invaded by protests from women outraged by the escalation of violence and its cruel refinements. What followed was a public outcry for harsher sentences, generally imposed by those who usually remain silent in the face of gender-based violence: men.
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It is precisely because of women’s indignation that Brazil already has excellent legislation. Very few countries have built such a comprehensive legal framework: the Maria da Penha law, the law on feminicide, the law on sexual importunity, the Joanna Maranhão law, the Carolina Dieckmann law and the Next Minute law are examples, in addition to a series of measures that guarantee women in situations of violence specialized care in Brazilian Women’s Houses and priority in the Sine and the SUS.
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But all this is aimed at punishing crimes against women’s safety and welcoming survivors. The debate on the causes of men’s violence against women and prevention policies seem to be banned from public debate. Why do four feminicides take place every day in Brazil? Why, in 2024, were 87,545 rapes recorded, including more than 60% against girls under 13?
When a man murders a woman because she did not agree to end a relationship or because she did not accept having him as a boss, he expresses centuries of a culture of subordination and devaluation of women – now exposed in front of everyone, on social networks.
Only a country where it is firmly believed that women are inferior to men and that their destiny is the property of men can men feel so comfortable attacking and killing them. Only a symbolic pact of masculinity explains why so many other men remain silent in the face of the 1,492 femicides last year.
But how do you change a culture? Looking outside helps. Between 2014 and 2024, Spain reduced femicide by 30%, with only 77 women murdered in the country last year. This figure is the result of the Organic Law of Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence, legislation approved in 2004 that recognizes gender violence as a symbol and product of systemic inequalities between men and women.
From there, a series of initiatives were created to change the education and health systems, communication and advertising. Mandatory equality plans have been established for businesses and the central government has invested millions of euros in projects to strengthen motherhood and reduce inequalities in care work in different parts of the country. In 2017, Spain approved the State Pact against Gender-Based Violence, with measures to protect women and children, legal action and measures to combat machismo that affects all spheres of society. In 20 years, the country has gone from ninth to fourth place in the European Gender Equality Index ranking, behind the Scandinavian nations, historically champions of equality in the world.
A state pact for women’s lives. When are we going to think about it, Brazil?
*Renata Izaal is deputy editor of Culture at GLOBO and holds a master’s degree in postcolonial studies
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