We have opened up a discussion about gender among men and women, and we are sponsoring several debates about sexual harassment, even within labor unions. At CUT events, child care is always provided. In the Union of Bank Employees in Bahia, as a result of a 1993 initiative of its Women's Department, members have openly debated a number of controversial issues such as homophobia among workers. Issues like women's double work day, sexuality and affection are actively debated in the union.10 In the 1990s, women's organizations within unions even spread to other political arenas, including some which have long been considered difficult to organize. There are domestic workers' unions throughout Brazil.
Male dominance is strong, something that begins by educating children to be machista.
We will achieve equality by educating men and women within the Movement. Before, for example, we women stayed in the kitchen, but we are becoming more and more involved in everything, in land invasions, in meetings, and we also want to discuss health, rights and our relationships with men. On the other hand, we have to work harder to equalize relationships within the family, because many times a woman signs a land deed because her husband insists. This kind of pressure often exists within the family. Nonetheless, the implementation of quotas for women's leadership is a real achievement, and all feminists agree that the fight for affirmative action laws and policies that guarantee the rights of women workers must continue.