Gender and participation at the local level: study on municipal policy conferences

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

This article aims to discuss the participation of women in public policy conferences at the municipal level. Literature has pointed out that conferences are modalities of participation with the potential to reduce gender inequalities typical of traditional political institutions such as the Legislative Branch, at the three levels of government. However, even the conferences at their highest levels (national and state), seem to reproduce these same inequalities. We seek to understand the founding elements of this phenomenon by analyzing attributes of conference participants at the municipal level, focusing on the various sectors of public policy and the associative ties of these participants.

Materials and methods:

The empirical research focused on seven municipal conferences that took place in 2013 in the city of Piracicaba-SP, referring to the sectors of Education, Social Assistance, Cities, Environment, Culture, Racial Identity and Sports. Questionnaires were applied to the participants of these conferences, taking care not to include among these representatives of the local government. We obtained information about the respondent’s socio-economic and political-institutional profile. Then, we proceed to the tabulation and statistical treatment of the data obtained, with a chi-square test of independence, to verify the existence of an association between the variables analyzed and the type of conference, and subsequent analysis of multiple correspondences, once that we wanted to assess the association between categorical variables.

Results:

There is a strong association between female participants and the Education and Social Assistance conferences. This result is related to the professional activity of women in these sectors, as teachers and social workers, reinforcing the thesis that considering the specificity of public policy areas is important for understanding the inclusive potential of women in conferences. In addition, the non-connection of women with non-governmental organizations, social movements, unions and political parties, as well as the non-participation in previous councils and conferences, was quite significant.

Discussion:

The participation of women in municipal conferences is strongly related to their professional activity. The low presence of women in institutions and movements that organize civil society, as well as in political parties - in comparison with men - are factors that are not only correlated, but that taken together, enhance the restriction of women’s participation in the instances political decision-making by Brazilian society, including in spaces for institutional participation such as conferences, even at the local level.

KEYWORDS:
policy conferences; gender; participation; civil society; local government