Evaluating Strategic Political Partnerships: The Case of the Women’s Movement and the State in Contemporary Brazil

In Brazil since 2002, an impressive list of accomplishments in terms of gender friendly policies and programmes has been growing steadily. During this period, the women’s movement has developed a process of intense collaboration with the federal government, both in terms of the approval and the practical implementation of several claims and proposals of the feminist agenda. Several velvet triangles (Halsaa, 1998; Vargas and Wieringa, 1998; Woodward, 2004) were strengthened, particularly among the women’s movement organizations in partnership with Brazil’s women policy agency (SPM) and their elected representative allies. Using mixed-methods approach, which combines qualitative interviews with the analysis of quantitative archival data, we analyze the objective conditions around the ties between women’s movement actors - particularly when it comes to funding - and the federal government, as well as how these activists perceive themselves in the current pattern of state-civil society relationship in Brazil. From 2002 to 2015, we document and analyze the ebbs and flows between protest and a dynamic and systematic engagement with the state – particularly the federal government – and how the women’s movement evaluates its present condition, especially its autonomy vis-à-vis the state, its identity as a civil society actor, and its capacity of pushing for the approval and implementation of additional items from the feminist agenda. The results of our research demonstrate that although women’s movement organizations maintained formal autonomy, many of them became dependent on federal government funds in order to guarantee their activities and pursue a feminist agenda. Simultaneously, they limited themselves to less contentious actions in order to avoid weakening their allies in government. Certain organizations with access to power holders and funds strengthened their organizations and activities while others were considerably weakened. In addition, vertical ties between civil society and government weakened horizontal alliances among feminist networks and coalitions.