Political parties and women’s agency in Brazil and beyond

As the central gatekeeper of institutional political power, parties constitute a key battleground for women’s representational pursuits. In this paper, we theorize the factors that condition women’s agency within and around parties and how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality to structure the attainment and exercise of decision-making power in parties. The literature engaging critical mass theory signals the salience - and contingency - of action. With an empirical focus on the Brazilian case, we discuss the obstacles women confront in political parties and the role social movements have played in enabling women to circumnavigate those constraints, highlighting the critical acts of/for women within parties and social movements, careful to push beyond reductive assumptions about the homogeneity of women and the effects of their absolute or relative presence in positions of power. We speak to the political opportunity structure and the decision environment that shape how strategies for increasing women’s representation are pursued and implemented, centering the role of organizational and human actors amidst these constraints and contingencies. We explore the intersections of gender with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality, and analyze variation across and within Brazilian political parties and social movements. The paper is part of our broader collaborative research project bridging literatures on parties and social movements and our book project on the constraints and boosts to women’s agency in political parties globally.