THE FEMINIST AGENDA IN PUBLIC POLICIES:
CHALLENGES FOR ACTION IN FIGHTING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN NATAL
Social movement, feminism, gender violence, public policies for women.
This dissertation discusses the participation of the feminist movement as a proactive and strategic actor in ensuring public policies. It begins with a historical reconstruction that takes into account the emergence of policies for women with the country's redemocratization and the paths taken to develop them in the municipality of Natal. The role of specific government agencies for women's policies is highlighted, as well as the influence of feminists, who advocate specific demands as imperative to promote gender equality in the policies of governmental and non-governmental institutions. The conceptual discussion addresses the role of the feminist movement in public policies. The chosen methodological approach is fundamentally qualitative research, utilizing the pathway for information collection: documentary research and semi-structured interviews. Action research was also considered an option as part of the methodology, enabling the inclusion of characteristic elements from both everyday practices and scientific research into the discussion. The factors in the research process were identified through interviews with feminist movement activists, women parliamentarians, and managers of institutions within the Network to Combat Violence Against Women, involved with the National Pact to Combat Violence Against Women, created in 2007 and adopted in the municipality of Natal in 2009. It is concluded that, amidst the constraints and opportunities experienced from the daily routines of managers engaged in executing public policies for women and the feminist movement, the development of a shared agenda for advancements in women's policies still remains distant from the envisioned goal: the cessation of inequalities between men and women in the capital city of Natal.