POLITICIZATION OF MOTHERS AND THE IMPACTS OF FINANCIALISATION ON THE ORGANISATION OF LIFE IN BRAZIL FROM 2016 TO 2019

Abstract

Using a theoretical framework based on Social Reproduction Theory (Bhattacharya, 2017; Ferguson, 2020; Vogel, 2013), this article analyses Brazilian feminist social movements of mothers from 2016 to 2019 with a case study to explore the social impacts of financial mediations to access education, pensions and health within families. It starts from Lapavitsas’ (2013) definition of financialisation, which explains it as a complex process observed in different ways in different spaces in contemporary times and which involves an increase in the projection of financial capital with an impact on daily life. Given this situation, questions arise about the impact of financial mediation on access to basic goods and services in the current organisation of social reproduction: What are the impacts of the disengagement of the State on social reproduction? What are the changes in mothers’ lives and how do they influence their political mobilisation? To answer these questions, the research is conducted by combining the theoretical framework with the methodological proposal of militant research (Bringel & Varella, 2016) in an analysis of both the interviews conducted with members of the Movimento Mães e Crias na Luta and the state of the art. The main results show an increase in the workload of mothers, who have to take on tasks that were previously shared with the state and perform paid labour to maintain the family’s subsistence. This situation both takes time away from women’s political activism and pushes them to press collectively for change. Thus, it was observed that the political mobilisation of the studied movement is seen as fundamental by its members, which is why they are willing to do it, even if they are exhausted.