The Superior Electoral Court found that the number of cases involving gender-based political violence has increased more than 11-fold in four years. In 2022, 15 cases were brought before the Electoral Court. As of September 2026, cases have reached 177.

Since 2018, the federal prosecutors have recorded 436 complaints of gender-based political violence. In more than half of the cases (221), this violence was of a moral nature. And in 40 percent of them (177), psychological violence was involved.

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Political violence against women can take many forms, ranging from intimidation and attacks on a woman’s honor to threats and murders. Cases such as that of Rio Councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was murdered in 2018 for reasons linked to her political activities, and the attacks suffered by Congresswoman Maria do Rosário in Congress in 2014, highlight the extent to which this type of violence can escalate.

Awareness

In an effort to combat this type of violence, the Superior Electoral Court and the Federal Prosecution Service on Tuesday (Sep. 22) launched a campaign dubbed Política é Substantivo Feminino (“Politics is a feminine noun,” in reference to the fact that the word “politics” follows the feminine gender in Portuguese grammar). The initiative aims to raise awareness among the public about the role of combating the various forms of political violence perpetrated against women.

Court Judge Estela Aranha explained the impact of this type of violence on Brazilian democracy.

“It [gender-based political violence] silences women individually. A woman thinks, ‘I’m going to leave politics,’ but it also affects the community as a whole, because other women who witness the violence think, ‘Why should I get into politics?’ You drive out those who are already involved as well as those who are thinking of getting involved. And this is serious, because democracy presupposes the political and electoral participation of all citizens – men and women alike – and women are being excluded from the debate,” she argued.

Gender and race

During the campaign launch, women’s rights and black rights organizations presented court head Judge Minister Nunes Marques with a letter expressing concern over the rise in political violence based on gender and race in this year’s elections and demanding effective measures to prevent further incidents.

The document states that, in recent weeks, social movements have received reports in various states from female candidates – especially black, lesbian, bisexual, and trans women – who have been threatened with death and sexual violence, had their addresses and family members’ information exposed, and suffered racist and LGBT-phobic attacks, persecution, intimidation, and physical assaults.

The text also emphasizes that gender-based violence does not affect all women in the same way. A study by the Marielle Franco Institute analyzed 77 cases from 2021 to 2025. Among the victims, 87 percent were black.

Women in elected office

Brazil is one of the countries with the lowest representation of women in Parliament. In a ranking of 184 countries, Brazil ranks 135th, with only 17.5 percent of women in Congress, trailing behind nations with less democratic regimes, such as North Korea and Burkina Faso.

At the local level, Brazil has over 700 municipalities with not a single woman in elected office, and only 16 percent of city governments are led by women.

Raquel Branquinho, coordinator of the working group on preventing and combating gender-based political violence at the Office of the Prosecutor-General for Electoral Affairs, says that Brazilian legislation is in line with international guidelines on women’s representation.

“The major problem to be addressed, however, is violence against these women,” she said.

More than just disillusioned with politics, Brazilian voters are staying away from the polls year after year because they feel exhausted and lonely. The finding comes from a survey conducted by Plataforma Avaaz with pollster Datafolha, released this week.

In this groundbreaking study, experts linked the lack of community ties and contact with nature to disinterest in politics, pointing to these factors as explanations for voter abstention.

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About 30 million voters – nearly one in three – did not vote in the last elections. The survey found that, in general, this abstention was driven by what it termed an “epidemic” of loneliness, mental exhaustion, and a dependence on technology.

“We discovered that the ‘disengaged’ are caught in a destructive cycle,” explained Nana Queiroz, director of Avaaz’s Desapocalíptica Project, who believes this group turns to TV and social media “as a kind of anesthetic for this exhaustion.”

She also pointed out that social media in Brazil keeps people in their own personal circles of users with similar opinions – in addition to fueling “a culture of hate.” In these cases, they feel more isolated, hopeless, or guilty for wasting so much time on social media or TV.

“When these people feel this way – guilty, exhausted, and isolated – they believe they lack the power to bring about collective change, and that is why they are stopping voting,” she argued.

The “disengaged”

Nearly half of Brazilians identified with this behavior (47%) were classified in the survey as “disengaged.” These are individuals who have stopped voting altogether or vote only rarely. Three in ten have given up voting entirely due to this lack of engagement.

Young people fit this profile the most. According to the data, young people aged 18 to 34 make up 44 percent of the disengaged group, signaling the need for action. Only two out of ten young people say they have a connection to their community and feel good about it.

Queiroz draws attention to grueling work schedules, such as the 6–1 shift (six days of work followed by one of rest), which reduce the time available for leisure and for building a social network.

Good living

To rebuild that connection, the recommendation is to develop what are known as “good living” policies. These are initiatives that also promote contact with nature, access to culture, leisure, and more accessible cities in general, Queiroz explains.

“Saying ‘good morning’ to someone at the bakery already has an impact on your level of happiness,” she noted.

Contact with the environment is also seen as restorative to mental health, especially in cases of anxiety and boredom among young people. Measures to curb digital addiction are also necessary.

“If you want to win these people back and get them to the polls, you need to create policies that change their real lives, so they feel that their vote has a real impact on their lives,” the specialist stressed.

The survey was based on a foreign methodology that looks at quality-of-life indicators less frequently examined in economically focused surveys – which tend to focus more on access to consumption, material comfort, and economic performance itself.