Manuela D'Avila hopes she and women like her will change the face of government in Brazil, a country where the female presence in politics has lagged behind neighbors despite the election of Dilma Rousseff as the nation's first female president.
D'Avila, a two-time state legislator who is leading the mayoral race in Porto Alegre, Brazil's tenth largest city, is among of an unprecedented number of women running for municipal offices in 2012 elections.
Forty-seven other women are candidates to run the capitals of Brazil's 26 states. The field of contenders is still shifting, but it's a large increase from the last elections, when only 28 women ran for mayor of state capitals.
Read more in ABC News, published 29 Dec.
Manuela D'Avila hopes she and women like her will change the face of government in Brazil, a country where the female presence in politics has lagged behind neighbors despite the election of Dilma Rousseff as the nation's first female president.
D'Avila, a two-time state legislator who is leading the mayoral race in Porto Alegre, Brazil's tenth largest city, is among of an unprecedented number of women running for municipal offices in 2012 elections.
Forty-seven other women are candidates to run the capitals of Brazil's 26 states. The field of contenders is still shifting, but it's a large increase from the last elections, when only 28 women ran for mayor of state capitals.
Read more in ABC News, published 29 Dec.