Femocrats and gender mainstreaming: catalysts for gender equality in Brazil

Simone Bohn

Chapter Spotlight 5 in Research Handbook on Gender Mainstreaming, 2026, pp 186-189 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Using the case of Brazil, this spotlight showcases the critical role that femocrats play in the gender mainstreaming of the federal bureaucracy. To accomplish that objective, feminist insiders (Banaszak, L. A. (2010). The women's movement inside and outside the state. Cambridge University Press; Mazur, A., & McBride, D. (2023). Do feminist insiders matter? Progress in conceptualization and comparative theory-building. In M. Sawer, J. True & J. Kantola (Eds.), Handbook of feminist governance (pp. 63–75). Edward Elgar Publishing) developed a network of contacts within the federal government, provided gender-sensitive training to bureaucrats, institutionalized a program that produces sex-disaggregated statistics on a regular basis, and implemented Gender Equality Plans. Interestingly, femocrats developed these plans following extensive and participatory consultations with the country's highly heterogeneous women's movement. Despite this considerably harmonious strategic partnership, a political crisis in 2015–16 and the ensuing governmental changes curtailed further policy advances. The femocrats remaining in the federal bureaucracy were called upon to act to block resistance and hostility to gender policy during the Temer and Bolsonaro years. Brazil is a paradigmatic example of how much femocrats can accomplish as GM catalysts, as well as of the constraints they face.

Keywords: Femocrats; Gender Mainstreaming; Gender Equality Machineries; Gender Equality Plan; Local Leaders; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035353415
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