Politics of Interest, Politics of Care: Representation and “Women’s Singularity”

• Main Author: Luís Felipe Miguel
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2001-01-01
• Series: Revista Estudos Feministas
• Subjects: política; mulheres; cotas; representação; igualdade
• Online Access: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ref/article/view/9706

This article discusses different strategies for justifying the adoption of sex-based electoral quotas, emphasizing the type that claim a different moral status for women. The latter advocate introduction of a new type of politics, more unselfish and altruistic, which is supposed to reflect women’s social training as those who are responsible for the care of those who are weaker (beginning with children). However, this “politics of care” or “maternal politics” ends up perpetuating the subordinate position of women in the world of politics, to the extent that the very grounds for their admission—their “entrance ticket”, as it were—represents the negation of action in defense of women’s own interests.