Political participation of women in spaces of social control: what is the importance of Municipal Councils for Woman's Rights in Santa Catarina and Brazil?

Abstract

This study seeks to promote a debate on the Municipal Councils for Woman's Rights of the state of Santa Catarina and contemporary Brazil. It is known that the Rights Councils represent a possibility for community participation concerning public policies and their social control. The Rights Councils are bodies administratively linked to the Executive Branch and operate in the three spheres of the federation. Thus, the Rights Councils are spaces for important action by civil society, which dialogues and works with public authorities in a consultative, deliberative, and supervisory sense of public policies. This body is guaranteed by the 1988 National Constitution and by specific legislation, according to the specificity of each Council. In this context, in this study, we promote a debate on the limits and possibilities of action of Women's Rights Councils in our country, based on their historicity and the challenges in guaranteeing the promotion of public policies that include the female population. To this end, Feminist Studies is used as a theoretical and methodological contribution to this study, as the perspective offered by Feminist Studies allows a critical analysis of a History that is seen as universal and monolithic, as it yearns for other ways of producing knowledge.