“I remember, especially the woman from São Paulo, that at this decisive time the vote is even more sacred and any dispersed vote could benefit extremists”, said Carolina Amália Galvão, 98 years old at the time, in an interview published in a political advertisement on November 29, 1945.
The almost centenarian defended that women . The UDN (National Democratic Union) soldier gathered anti-Getulist support in the first democratic elections in Brazilian history, just over a month after the.
It was the first time that women were able to vote for president. , the 1934 elections were indirect, and the 1938 elections were canceled with the coup in 1937.
The weight of the novelty, however, was diluted in a context of greater openness, since December 2, 1945 was also the first time that many men were able to vote in Brazil, as recalled by Mônica Karawejczyk, a doctor in history from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
“There were no restrictions on voting, as in the case of those registered in religious orders. Furthermore, voting was optional in a country with little access to education. The electoral code of 1932 made voting mandatory for everyone”, he says.
Rafael Navarro, professor at Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro), states that the biggest novelty of the election was, in fact, the expansion of the electoral base.
“The 1945 election is remarkable, above all, because it marks the real democratization of Brazil. Before it, a very restricted portion of the population voted, including men.”
Less than 2 million voters, around 5% of the Brazilian population, participated in the 1930 election, the last of the First Republic. In 1945, 6 million people went to the polls, just over 13% of the total.
The electoral contingent still excluded the illiterate, who made up more than 50% of the population, according to the 1940 Census.
For professor Hildete Pereira de Melo, from UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense), the presidential candidates of 1945 did not run campaigns aimed at women. “They are not concerned with the female vote. At most, they created blocks linked to their wives and daughters”, he states.
She recalls the support of military wives for Eduardo Gomes’ candidacy, with the organization of teas and social events in which chocolate sweets were served that became part of Brazilian cuisine under the name brigadeiro.
There are different versions about the origin of the sweet, including that it already existed before the elections and only gained its name later. But it is a fact that the association with the military campaign by women in high society at the time helped to establish it in national culture.
As there were no consolidated research institutes at the time, it is not possible to attest to a preference among female voters for the brigadeiro (who was handsome and single, according to the popular jingles of the time), for Dutra (the one elected and anointed by Vargas) or for Iedo Fiúza (the communist candidate).
Hildete assesses that the dynamics of voting in Brazil’s first democratic experience may not have been affected by gender issues. “The vote was more defined by social class, family connections and religion”, he says, remembering the weight of the Catholic Church in choosing candidates.
These, in turn, still did not have a defined strategy to win over voters, as democracy was a new scenario.
“Candidates organize themselves on the radio and in newspapers, which deliver ballots to voters”, says Rafael.
On the pages of Folhas da Manhã and Noite, which can be consulted at , the parties placed advertisements appealing to voters in different ways, as in communist texts exalting workers, or in the attempts by the UDN and the PSD (Social Democratic Party) to obtain the Catholic vote.
In a text dated November 30, the day before the election, the then president of Folhas, , spoke of what he saw as the fragility of , saying that even if he were elected, the communist candidate Iedo Fiúza would not be authorized to take office by the military.
In the end, a military man won the election. General Eurico Gaspar Dutra received 55% of the valid votes and became the 16th president of Brazil almost two months later, on January 31, 1946, beginning the first democratic period in the country.
