LatAm women reshape politics

BRAZIL: Brazil's first female President Dilma Rousseff, who takes up the helm on January 1, will lead a small but powerful group of women taking on the political challenges facing Latin America.

When she is inaugurated as the head of the region's biggest economy, Rousseff will be the most visible face of the inroads women are making into a paternalist tradition that has so long sidelined them into secondary roles.

It will be a tricky test for Rousseff, who takes over from her charismatic mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose gruff, bearded manner proved persuasive in a variety of situations not least in getting her elected.

She joins a select club of Latina female leaders that already includes Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla.

"In Brazil, there is an attempt to undermine Dilma's legitimacy because she was chosen by Lula, as if she was incapable of making her own decisions just because she's a woman," said Professor Rosemary Segurado, a social sciences professor at Sao Paulo University.

Rousseff, Lula's former cabinet chief; Kirchner, first lady before taking over the presidency; and Chinchilla, a former vice-president of Costa Rica, are finding themselves forced to prove "they are not in anyone's shadow", she said.

Brasilia, Monday, AFP