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President Lula (PT) has not yet formalized the appointment of the new occupant of the vacancy left by in the STF (Supreme Federal Court) but everything indicates that it will not be this time that the minister of more than half of the Brazilian population, women, will be in the court.
In the three opportunities he had to nominate ministers to the Supreme Court since he was sworn in, in 2023, Lula opted for men. You chose, and now you must.
But how does it affect the courts? Does it make a difference to have female judges and ministers in the functioning of the Judiciary?
According to law professor at UERJ (State University of Rio de Janeiro) Juliana Cesário Alvim, yes. Firstly, because there are studies abroad that point to a change in decisions on issues linked to discrimination based on gender or sex when there is a greater presence of women.
Furthermore, the presence of women creates spaces for new perspectives in trials, even if it does not change the results. The professor cites, for example, judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, . “It is almost always a defeated vote, but it brings arguments that did not reach the court before and this is very important”, says Cesário Alvim.
It’s the so-called politics of presence, explains researcher Débora Thomé, from Fundação Getúlio Vargas. “People are not dissociated from their lived experiences, from the place they occupy in the world”, he states.
In other words, if each minister will decide based on their “place in the world”, the lack of women and black people makes majority perspectives in Brazilian society disappear, he argues.
The researchers also point out that the tiny number of women who have already held positions in the STF means that the court adopts gender dynamics in its own work.
In one , Cesário Alvim and colleagues demonstrated, for example, that Brazilian ministers are interrupted more than their male colleagues during their speeches in court. Furthermore, when they are rapporteurs, the .
The studies were based on a speech by Minister Cármen Lúcia who, in 2017, scolded her colleague in plenary. The minister had said that he would “grant” the floor to Rosa Weber.
He was questioned by Cármen, who was presiding over the court: “How do you give the floor? It’s her turn to vote. She’s the one who will grant Your Excellency an aside if she wants”, scolded the minister. And he recounted a conversation he had with Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the US Supreme Court.
“Minister Sotomayor asked me, ‘What about [no Brasil]how is it?’ ‘There, in general, Minister Rosa and I don’t let us talk. So, we are not interrupted’. But now it is Minister Rosa’s turn, by constitutional right, to vote. You have the floor, minister”, he concluded.
A woman to meet
Ellen Gracie (1948)
First woman appointed as minister of the Federal Supreme Court, in 2000. The Rio judge based in Rio Grande do Sul graduated in law from UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul).
She worked as a lawyer, prosecutor and judge at the TRF (Federal Regional Court) of the 4th Region before being allocated to the STF by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
She was the first woman to preside over the court, between 2006 and 2008, and was replaced by the minister.
