ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the political process of expanding women's rights in Brazil during the last three decades, when feminists have undertaken efforts to change discriminatory family laws that allowed the naturalization and concealment of domestic violence and impunity for perpetrators. It highlights how changes in laws related to family issues were fundamental for the approval of laws against gender-based violence. The chapter analyzes other civil legislation, as well as penal and labor legislation, that contributed to legitimize violence against women (VAW). The 1988 Constitution, rooted in equality between men and women, was a landmark in addressing VAW, affecting women's rights at large. Since the 1980s in Brazil, two key agendas mobilized feminists in the defense of sexual and reproductive rights: the high incidence of maternal mortality and the criminalization of abortion. In the early 1980s, feminist groups created voluntary services to serve victims of sexual and domestic violence.
