The Brazilian women’s movement and the state under the PT national governments

Abstract

Certain segments of the Brazilian Women's Movement (BWM) developed important strategic partnerships with the state under the PT federal government. This article demonstrates how these partnerships had both inclusionary and exclusionary effects on gender-centric policy outcomes. Using a mix-method approach which includes extensive in-depth interviews with BMW activists and archival data from governmental sources, the Brazilian experience illustrates that "entering the state" headed by a women-ally president facilitates funnelling some of the women's movement's demands into the state. However, hierarchies within the movement itself, the congressional strength of the head of executive and the activism of some of its socially-conservative legislative allies can severely temper that effect.