Chapter 16: Meaningful Lives of Women Over Three Generations: A Glimpse into Afro-Brazilian Experience

Although several studies have focused on matters related to the pregnancy and delivery of Brazilian women of African origins (Cunha, 2001; Martins & Tanaka, 2000; Oliveira, 1999, 2003; Rea, 1994, 2003), few have worked on understanding the meaning and the significance of their subjective experience. In fact, women of African descent suffered the consequences of double silencing: toward women in general, and the other directed to their perceived social class background. This double silencing is embedded in Brazilian history. After the Slavery Abolition Act, in 1888, slaves gained their civil freedom, but their material conditions of existence did not change significantly (Maestri, 1984, 2005). While some ex-slaves continued living as landowning peasants in rural areas, others joined the marginalized flow of urban migrants seeking survival, and finding new ways for their subsistence (Fiabani, 2005).