• Lula made more nods to women than Bolsonaro, both on Twitter and on Facebook. The PT candidate is also ahead of the current president in number of interactions;
  While Lula has placed women at the center of his campaign, focusing on female housekeepers, householders, rural workers and indebted mothers, Bolsonaro has tried to demonstrate that he “does not hate” women, investing on publications that address the female electorate in a general, indistinctive way;
• Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s wives have played different roles in each candidates’ posts. Janja has appeared at the center of some of the PT candidate’s tweets and posts, but there are no mentions to Michelle Bolsonaro on the president’s networks;
• In the last two weeks, Bolsonaro’s campaign has surpassed Lula’s campaigns in terms of the average boost focusing on women on Facebook. However, the campaigns also target different female audiences, with Bolsonaro’s campaign seeking to reach younger female electors (18-24 years old), while Lula’s campaign focuses on older female electors (55-64 years old).

Since the beginning of the campaigns, the female public and the topic of women have been a key segment in the electoral dispute between the two major presidential candidates. Representing the majority of the country’s electorate (53%), the female public has had the candidates’ attention in the campaigns, television debates, publications and content boosted on social networks. The last Ipec poll (September 26) showed Lula with 51% of voting intentions from female electors, while Bolsonaro had 26%.

According to a survey by the School of Communication at FGV, which analyzed the content and boosts in posts made by the two major presidential candidates on Twitter and Facebook, there were 40 posts made by former president Lula and 9 made by President Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter, and 20 and 7 posts, respectively, on Facebook, with content targeting this segment of the population. In number of interactions on Facebook, the PT candidate is also leading with 683,712 interactions, while Bolsonaro had 513,191. The advantage is larger on Twitter: Lula had 837,968 interactions and Bolsonaro had only 384,820.

Evolution of posts mentioning the topic of women made by the two major presidential candidates

Evolution of Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s posts mentioning the topic of women on Twitter
Period: August 16 to September 26

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

 

• On Twitter, Bolsonaro mentioned the topic of women in 9 tweets, far below Lula’s number of 40 publications. Both candidates focused their posts on the month of September;
  When addressing women, the current president stood out with generic publications and defending equal treatment to all citizens, including men and women. His tweets reinforced the idea that highlighting differences between people would encourage division in Brazil. Bolsonaro defends that people should be evaluated only based on their character, an argument that conflicted Lula’s position;
• The former president’s tweets sought the highlight what Bolsonaro denies: the difference. Not only between men and women, but also between a variety of women whose realities are largely different. The PT candidate targeted female housekeepers, householders and indebted mothers in particular;
• Bolsonaro attempted to show that his administration included roles occupied by women, such as the then minister Tereza Cristina and the former president of Caixa, Daniella Marques. In this sense, the president has made a series of attempts to “prove he does not hate” the female public, such as stating that his administration fought to end violence against women by making certain laws more strict;
• In turn, Lula intensified his criticism of Bolsonaro and argued that the president “hates” the female electorate. The PT candidate sought to establish himself as an alternative to Bolsonaro, using an affectionate and almost fatherly tone when referring to women. He praised female football and supported female politicians and/or women who were attacked by Bolsonaro, such as Vera Magalhães, Benedita da Silva, Gabriela Prioli and Gleisi Hoffmann;
• The affectionate tone used by Lula when talking to women was also present in tweets in which he mentioned his wife, Janja, and especially his mother, nicknamed Dona Lindu. In this context, the candidate constantly refers to the mother figure, emphasizing feelings such as respect and pride. When referring to his own mother, Lula clearly nods to all Brazilian mothers, valuing their importance. The same type of affection is absent from Bolsonaro’s publications, in which he does not mention the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.

 

Major tweets made by Lula and Bolsonaro mentioning the topic of women
Period: August 16 to September 26

 

Source: Twitter | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

Evolution of Lula’s and Bolsonaro’s posts mentioning the topic of women on Facebook
Period: August 16 to September 26

 

Source: Facebook | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

 

• Since the beginning of his campaign, Bolsonaro addressed the topic of women in around 7 posts, while Lula made 20 publications. Both candidates intensified this discussion on September. However, this increase in publications in the final stretch of the electoral race is the only similarity in the strategies of the presidential candidates regarding the female electorate on Facebook;
• The first difference is the presence of Michelle Bolsonaro and Janja in publications made by the candidates. The first lady appeared in electoral advertisements running on the TV and radio. However, she was completely absent in Bolsonaro’s posts on Facebook. The opposite happened in Lula’s campaign. While not exploring Janja’s image for the electoral campaign itself, she appeared in a series of publications, such as a video in which she speaks to women, which became Lula’s post with the highest number of interactions about the topic, as well as posts showing the couple’s affection;
• The way each presidential candidate addresses Brazilian women was also different. Like what he did on Twitter, Bolsonaro addressed the female electorate in a generic way, arguing that everyone, both men and women, should be treated equally. In his view, pointing out differences and inequalities means dividing the country and being opportunistic. Lula, on the other hand, emphasized the different realities of women in Brazil, including mothers who are not able to feed their children as well as female housekeepers and rural workers who need more rights;
• Lula’s publications also included negative campaign movements, with the PT candidate accusing Bolsonaro of not respecting women. In that context, Lula mentioned violent episodes such as when the president attacked the journalist Vera Magalhães. In turn, Bolsonaro has tried to defend himself, claiming he is not against women. In order to prove this, he mentioned the approval of more strict laws for violence against women, but refused to use terms such as “feminicide”, for instance. The president also addressed his relationship with journalists, doubling down on his generic tone and stating that he only respects those who respect him, be them men or women. He also said that if a professional is going through a “fragile moment”, they should avoid confrontation.

 

Major tweets made by Lula and Bolsonaro mentioning the topic of women
Period: August 16 to September 26

Source: Facebook | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

Posts boosted by Lula and Bolsonaro targeting the female public on Facebook

Together, the two candidates boosted 171 posts through their Facebook pages (Lula’s page and the Liberal Party’s page, respectively), all of them including audiovisual content. Lula boosted 123 posts and Bolsonaro boosted 48. Bolsonaro did not use his personal page to boost publications. Bolsonaro’s campaign dedicated 61.31% of its posts to the female public. Lula’s campaign dedicated 66.12% of its posts to women.

Posts boosted by Lula and Bolsonaro targeting the female public
Period: August 16 to September 26

Source: Facebook | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

 

The boosts on Lula’s page started in the week of August 22, while the Liberal Party’s page (Bolsonaro) started in the week of September 5, particularly in content related to September 7. In the last two weeks, the segmentation focusing on women in Bolsonaro’s campaign has increased above the average compared to Lula’s campaign, as shown in the graph below.

 

Evolution of posts boosted by Lula and Bolsonaro targeting the female public
Period: August 16 to September 26

Source: Facebook | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

 

Another highlight in terms of segmentation is the targeted age. On average, the profiles of women targeted by the two campaigns is very different. Bolsonaro’s campaigns has reached out to younger women, with an average of 18% of his segmentation focusing on women between 18 and 24 years old. In turn, Lula’s campaign has directed its advertising to women particularly between 55 and 64 years old, which represented 19% of the content boosted targeting the female public.

 

Posts boosted by Lula and Bolsonaro targeting the female public by age
Period: August 16 to September 26

Source: Facebook | Elaborated by: School of Communication, Media and Information at FGV

The two campaigns have invested in posts that were 100% segmented targeting women. There were 39 such posts in Lula’s campaign, and 7 in Bolsonaro’s campaign. The repertoire of topics was broader is Lula’s campaign videos. The former president addressed topics such as the injustice of his imprisonment; the bias of former judge Sérgio Moro; the respect of faith, focusing on the evangelic public and churches; the transposition of the São Francisco River, food, natural gas and fuel prices; the issues of hunger, unemployment and inflation; and invitations to WhatsApp groups. The highlighted content included a campaign video addressing female indebtedness, particularly related to using credit cards for purchasing food.

In the 7 posts made by Bolsonaro’s campaign, 3 videos stood out. One of them was a reenactment of a conversation between two female friends about an ex, with a negative connotation in association with Lula’s administration; another one focused on women in rural areas and the distribution of land titles; lastly, another video targeted mothers of children with rare diseases.