Melissa's Project

Health Care of Afro-Brazilian Women

Two factors of disparity which consistently contribute to the subordination of Afro-Brazilians are race and gender. Black women have fewer and inferior opportunities compared to whites and Black men in Brazil. Moreover cultural representations of Afro-Brazilian women serve to reinforce negative stereotypes about them and to justify existing structures of inequality. Representations of Black women have been crucial to their domination. Notions about the inferiority of Black women are passed down through the family, media and school. With the help of these ideological apparatuses, racial differences are reinforced and internalized. While my seminar paper explored the multiple oppressions experienced by Afro-Brazilian women, my research in Brazil will focus on whether there is a structure to accommodate for their health needs.

The public health system in Brazil has typically ignored Black women because hospitals were prohibited from asking the race of patients in order to keep in line with the myth of racial democracy. As a consequence almost nothing is known about the health conditions of Black women in Brazil. However, Afro-Brazilian feminists know that in other countries Black and white women have significantly different health profiles, therefore the same must be true in Brazil. At the same time they are ignored in terms of other health matters Afro-Brazilian women have been the targets of mass sterilization campaigns.

Through my investigation I want to reveal the disparities between the health care of Black women and white women. I will show that access to health care is yet another area in which Afro-Brazilian women are at a disadvantage as compared to white women. In order to gather this information I will be conducting several interviews with established service providers as well as community organizations.