A Reading of O Poder do Macho, by Heleieth Saffioti

Abstract

Heleieth Saffioti’s work is marked by fecund and wide-ranging production, with contributions that are linked by their focus on the analysis of patriarchy-capitalism-racism, as well as by a concern with affirming a feminist contribution or, in other words, oriented toward the struggles of women. In this article I attempt, through a dialogue with the book O Poder do Macho, to reflect on the contributions of the this work, which was conceived as a text for the uninitiated, and the place it occupies in the maturity of my understanding of an explanatory path for the domination and exploitation of women. This is the work through which I make contact with Saffioti. Its preoccupations and contributions toward the interpretation of Brazilian reality, which by problematizing the presence of women in theory, proposes other understandings about Brazil.