BY KEVIN G. HALL
  Knight Ridder News Service

  RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's presidential election campaign is entering its final week with an unprecedented push to win over women voters, who now
  make up more than half the electorate.

  There are more than 86 million women in Brazil, and they make up 52 percent of the eligible voters, 2.4 million more votes than men. But the female vote
  is not monolithic, and candidates are pitching issues such as maternal and infant healthcare to rural women and public security and education reform to
  urban women.

  ''They are recognizing that women cannot be taken for granted. We are the majority,'' said Laudiceia Holanda, a Rio de Janeiro voter who declared
  herself pleased with the level of new attention to women's issues.

  UNEQUAL INCOMES

  Topping the list of concerns for many women is income disparity. Research shows that women have higher levels of basic and college education than men
  and make up more than 40 percent of the workforce. Yet on average they earn 40 percent less than men for the same job.

  ''There is still great disparity in salaries. This needs to be evened up, because isn't a woman doing the same work as a man?'' asked Nubia Farias, a
  voter from Recife. ``Beyond that, she has to run the house, care for her husband and children and work outside the home.''

  Farias and other women voters are demanding results on this issue after the Sunday election.

  The important women's vote began getting media attention in May, when former Health Minister Jose Serra, who has the support of the government,
  made history by selecting the first-ever female running mate. He tapped Rita Camata, a congresswoman from Vitoria state known for her support of
  women's issues.

  In written response to questions from Knight Ridder, Camata said it is no accident that women's issues are so important this year.

  ''For the first time in our country, women outnumber male voters. Beyond that, one in every four Brazilian families is headed by a woman and Brazilian
  women have higher education levels than men in all regions of Brazil,'' Camata said. ``Today, concretely, the women's vote could decide presidential
  elections.''

  As the campaign winds down, campaign ads and stump speeches are increasingly focused on women, many of whom are still undecided.

  ''Everything the analysts see indicates that women are waiting until the end to decide,'' said Andre Singer, campaign spokesman for Luiz Inacio Lula da
  Silva, the leftist candidate of the Workers' Party who has a commanding lead in the polls.

  IBOPE Opinao, one of Brazil's leading polling organizations, said that at least 12 percent of female voters were undecided less than two weeks before
  the election.

  Marcia Cavallari Nunes, director of IBOPE Opinao, offered a theory for the high number of undecided women. Men want to hear about jobs and salaries,
  while women demand more detail from candidates about their platforms.

  ''They have much more to do with government than men in the day to day. They go to the health clinic where there may be no doctor; they know when
  the water [from public services] is not working; or when there is a problem with a school,'' said Cavallari Nunes. ``It's women who deal with these
  things.''

  CRIME, PUNISHMENT

  And offending female voters in Brazil can prove disastrous. Just ask ex-Finance Minister Ciro Gomes. In August, he was nearing first place and led all
  candidates with female voters until he joked to reporters that actress-girlfriend Patricia Pillar ''has one of the most important roles, which is to sleep with
  me.'' He plunged in the polls and has not recovered.

  Women also are running for office in record numbers. According to surveys, women represent 11.7 percent of all candidates running for the federal
  legislature, or 529 women, compared to 348 female candidates in 1998. In 27 state legislative races, there are 1,908 women compared to 1,361 in 1998.

  The number of women in government is even smaller. There are two female governors among 27 state governments, and only 319 female mayors. In the
  federal legislature, there are five women in the 81-member Senate and 33 women in the 531-member Chamber of Deputies.