Salon.com: Brazil elects first female president, By Tracy Clark-Flory:
Dilma Rousseff marks another milestone for women's global political presence
Well, here's occasion to break out the Carnival costumes and floats once more this year: Brazil just elected its first female president.
Dilma Rousseff's win follows major global steps toward presidential parity: In 2006, Michelle Bachelet was elected as Chile's first female president, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became Argentina's first female president in 2007. You might also have noticed that the 2008 U.S. election brought about many historic moments for women (so many, in fact, that some smart people have written whole books on that very subject). In the context of women's advancement, her victory is certainly something to celebrate, as are her leftist, democratic aims — but Rousseff is also a more complex character than that narrative allows. As the Washington Post reports, she has quite the fabled past.
See also: The Miami Herald: Abortion, God drive vote in Brazil, by Vinod Sreeharsha:
SAO PAULO, Brazil — The pocketbook is battling the pulpit in Brazil's presidential elections Sunday, as government candidate Dilma Rousseff faces opposition leader Jose Serra in a runoff election to lead this burgeoning economic power of 190 million people.
Issues that most Brazilians thought didn't belong in national politics — in particular, abortion — have taken center stage, and both candidates are catering to the concerns of evangelical and Roman Catholic voters.
By abandoning her previous public stance on liberalizing the country's anti-abortion laws, and attending church before the television cameras, Rousseff, a former atheist, appears to have outmaneuvered Serra. A national poll Thursday night gave her a 13-point advantage over the former governor of Sao Paulo state. . . .