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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Cabdrivers know passengers don't want to miss a moment of Brazil's nightly soap operas, or novelas. In the popular Ti-ti-ti, Claudia Raia (on-screen) plays a strong-willed fashion designer.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
The Shrinking Family
The seven children of 61-year-old Maria do Livramento Braz (left, seated in their midst) of Rio are a reminder of Brazil's once high fertility rate. The number of kids per woman has plummeted since the 1960s. Working-class families now aspire to the middle-class lifestyle—and family size—of Maria Corrêa de Oliveira (right, seated), a Rio psychoanalyst. She and her husband have only Henrique, 8, and Diana, 12.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
A girl takes a solo spin on her shiny pink bicycle in São Paulo's Ibirapuera Park. Among comparable populations, only China, with its one-child rule, has seen as dramatic a drop in its fertility rate as Brazil. The difference? Brazil's decline was driven by women's choices, not state policy.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
In a scene from Ribeirão do Tempo, a policewoman grills a development company's CEO. Like these TV characters, Brazilian women are gaining ground on male turf. The country elected Dilma Rousseff as its first female president last year.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Some novelas target a teenage audience. This one, filmed at a studio version of an elite high school, is called Rebelde, or Rebels—a title reflected by one character's unorthodox contact lenses.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
The Soap Opera Effect
Ninety percent of female characters in the average novela have just one child or none, which may have influenced Brazilian women to desire smaller families. The scripts didn't intentionally encourage low fertility. Early novela writers sought to subtly undermine the dictatorship that ran Brazil until 1985, using story lines that critiqued traditional values and empowered women.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Director Amora Mautner oversees a rehearsal for Cordel Encantado (Enchanted Verse), a new novela on the Globo network. Rather than mirroring modern life, as most novelas do, it's about princesses and bandits in a fairytale kingdom.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Consumer Culture
Despite the booming economy, not every Brazilian can indulge in expensive fashions like these, at a boutique in Ipanema.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Brazilian culture is famous for its sexuality—and for its bikinis, like these on display at an upscale Ipanema boutique. But with many women choosing sterilization after a couple of kids, sexuality and fertility have become uncoupled in Brazil.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Consumer Culture
Economist Renata Peixoto gets her teeth bleached at a São Paulo clinic.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Brazil has changed dramatically in recent decades, but its culture still celebrates sensuality. Above, a couple dances at a bar in Rio's Botafogo neighborhood.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Justice for Women
Because sexual harassment persists in Brazil's machismo culture, Rio's subway offers females-only cars, where a guard keeps men out.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Justice for Women
A Recife activist participates in a vigil demanding an end to violence against women.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Thirteen-year-old Rebeca da Silva's violin hums with promise in a Rio slum, or favela, thanks to a scholarship program called Ação Social pela Música. Access to education is improving, with 85 percent of Brazilian teen girls now enrolled in high school.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
A cramped apartment in Rio's Santa Marta favela has no room for a nursery. The young parents, both from large families, don't want an overcrowded household. They plan to have only one more child—but will wait and save money first.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Money and space are tight in Rocinha, Rio's largest favela, but the Coopa-Roca crafts cooperative lets moms like Liliane Mineira da Silva (with Beatriz, 6, at right, and Vitória, 8) earn income while caring for their children.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
One Woman's Dreams
Marcela Gonçalo Pessoa, 24, works as a maid for a woman whose extravagant Recife apartment looks like a set for a novela.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
One Woman's Dreams
Pessoa watches the soap operas nightly; here, she's glued to Ti-ti-ti with her husband and sister.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
One Woman's Dreams
Each morning Pessoa dresses up for her hour-long bus commute; she's working hard to take charge of her own future.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
One Woman's Dreams
Pessoa lives in a tiny apartment outside Recife, where she shares a bathroom with neighbors. But she's saving for her own home.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
Brazil's storied beaches, like Rio's Copacabana, have been the scene of many a love affair. But the romance of large families has faded for many couples.
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