Mulheres, suas representações sociais e a destituição do poder familiar materno: uma análise cognitivo-discursiva

Abstract

The research analyzes the conceptualizations about women and motherhood in judgments of the Maranhão Court of Justice rendered in appeals in parental removal actions, using a cognitive-discursive analysis. The legal concepts or social and moral standards of motherhood that contribute to the construction of the meaning of terms defined by law as criteria for the parental removal in judgments about women are problematized. Ronald Dworkin's theory underlies an interpretation of law as integrity, based on the constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination, together with conceptions of gender, racism, intersectionality to analyze the motivations expressed in the judgments. We used the metaphor analysis approach to identify the metaphors about motherhood. We highlight the metaphors found in judicial decisions and what they reveal about motherhood and its exercise. The metaphors identified reflected notions of common sense about motherhood and the family, which are easily found in society, regardless of the social class of the actors, however, in the present case, they were used as conceptions about motherhood to fill concepts of legality that justifies the parental removal, basing decisions that separate mothers and children, in violation of the constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination.