Women’s policy agencies and government ideology: the divergent trajectories of Argentina and Brazil, 2003–2019

ABSTRACT

This article examines the institutional evolution of women’s policy agencies (WPAs) in Argentina and Brazil over a 15-year period. By using a classification of WPA institutional types proposed by scholarly literature on state feminism, I identify contrasting trajectories of how WPAs developed under left- and then right-wing governments: in Argentina the WPA moved from overt irrelevance to a marginal position, whereas in Brazil a robust WPA embedded in feminist movements became an anti-feminist agency. What factors explain these divergent institutional outcomes? More broadly, what processes mediate the link between WPA attributes and government ideology? My longitudinal case comparison shows that political authorities do not make decisions about the formal structure and policy orientation of WPAs based on ideology alone. WPA attributes are part of what governments more instrumentally negotiate when they need to build constituencies or, alternatively, reciprocate loyalties, depending on their popular support, the overall demands and mobilization capacities of their core allies, and the extent to which feminists play a role in party politics and electoral campaigns.

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s policy agencies
• government ideology
• Latin American gender policies
• democratic state
• gender institutional change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The assessment of Honduras draws on fieldwork that I conducted in 2021.

2 The authors utilize this classification to address specific policy areas, but I apply it to capture the overall institutional contours rather than a delimited arena of interventions.

3 Venezuela’s WPA with the process led by former President Hugo Chávez is an example (Abi-Hassan 2017).

4 I use the variables suggested by state feminism: status or policy-making power, proximity to decision-making power, leadership, policy orientation or mission, and administrative resources and budget.

5 Conflating three secretariats into one ministry was part of Rousseff’s compromise with conservative allies to downsize the state and demote the three positions. I thank one of the anonymous reviewers for this comment.

6 The first secretary was Senator Emilia Fernandes, former coordinator of the Women’s Bench in the Congress.

7 She obtained 54 percent of the votes, with a difference of 37 points relative to the candidate with the second most votes. She supported LGBT rights but not abortion (Tabbush et al. 2019).

8 The “encuentros” (annual women’s gatherings) increased abruptly in 2014 and then in 2015.

Additional information

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Ana Laura Rodríguez Gustá

Ana Laura Rodríguez Gustá has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, USA. She is a researcher at Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in Argentina. She is a faculty member in the School of Politics and Government at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina. Her research and publications focus on gender and organizations and gender mainstreaming in public policy, with a comparative emphasis on Latin America. Her most recent book is the edited collection Marchas y contramarchas en las políticas locales de género: dinámicas territoriales y ciudadanía de las mujeres en América Latina (2019).