Bruna Potechi

BRUNA POTECHI, Federal University of Sao Carlos, Sao Carlos, Brazil, was approved funding in April 2024 to aid research on “Contesting Maternity: An Ethnography of Documents and Laws in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.” This research analyzed the centrality of the “mother” and motherhood in disputes over rights in legal texts in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in a context of conservative electoral gains in congress. Based on a study of the work of deputies from antagonistic parties in the 2019-2022 legislature, the grantee set out to analyze how “maternity” has been disputed in legislative documents and forums in the new political term in 2023-25. Themes such as obstetric violence, abortion, paternity leave and care have gained prominence in the research as well as in legislative debates. The research carried out an ethnography of congress and legislative processes, observing how legal texts are formulated, debated, negotiated, and reformulated. Thus, from the observation of the change and maintenance of terms in proposals concerning women and topics related to maternity in different legislative documents, threats to women’s rights appeared consistently in the research.