Women in Movement: Gender Roles,Networks & Informal Politics

The growing global presence of women in electoral politics is applauded as leaders such as Angela Merkel to Jacinda Ardem are presented as exemplary political leaders. In popular media narratives it is assumed that there is something unique about women that makes them better leaders. This research investigates how in the current context changing gender roles shape forms of political action and leadership. Brazil offers an interesting setting to answer this question because Brazilian women have a long history of collective action but also are underrepresented in electoral politics, a trend that is currently changing. The current political situation in Brazil, characterized by multiple level crisis and political polarization helps to understand the value political beliefs play into womens efforts to work collectively and support their communities, despite different political ideals. My previous research at the margins of Fortaleza, between 2015 and 2017, informs the research hypothesis of this project that paradoxically traditional gender roles come with both opportunities and limitations when it comes to shaping womens roles in urban politics. Women make most local leaders at the margins of the city and their positions as local leaders make them nodes between different local networks that connect the periphery of the city with the city administration. These networks are mobilized in advancing individual and collective agendas of improvement in life at the local level, blurring in this way the line between formal and informal politics. Yet, this form of power and influence that women have is invisible and unacknowledged by formal institutions. The overall objective of this project is to understand how changing gender roles shape forms of political leadership. I analyze this process taking as an example the work of low-income Brazilian women, situated at the outskirts of Fortaleza, Brazil. This project`s specific objectives are to (i) describe the reasons why women engage in political activism; (ii) identify the forms of political participation that women engage in, (iii) identify the problems that women solve and (iv) analyze the strategies for problem solving those women use and the networks that they rely on. To meet these objectives, I will conduct fieldwork at the periphery of Fortaleza, Brazil between 2021 and 2022. Taking an ethnographic approach, data collection tools include life histories, semi-structured interviews and social network analysis, and participant observation.

Women in Movement : Gender Roles, Networks and Informal Politics in Urban Northeast Brazil The growing global presence of women in electoral politics is applauded as leaders such as Angela Merkel to Jacinda Ardem are presented as exemplary political leaders. In popular media narratives it is assumed that there is something unique about women that makes them better leaders. This research investigates how in the current context changing gender roles shape forms of political action and leadership. Brazil offers an interesting setting to answer this question because Brazilian women have a long history of collective action but also are underrepresented in electoral politics, a trend that is currently changing. The current political situation in Brazil, characterized by multiple level crisis and political polarization helps to understand the value political beliefs play into women's efforts to work collectively and support their communities, despite different political ideals. My previous research at the margins of Fortaleza, between 2015 and 2017, informs the research hypothesis of this project that paradoxically traditional gender roles come with both opportunities and limitations when it comes to shaping women's roles in urban politics. Women make most local leaders at the margins of the city and their positions as local leaders make them nodes between different local networks that connect the periphery of the city with the city administration. These networks are mobilized in advancing individual and collective agendas of improvement in life at the local level, blurring in this way the line between formal and informal politics. Yet, this form of power and influence that women have is invisible and unacknowledged by formal institutions. The overall objective of this project is to understand how changing gender roles shape forms of political leadership. I analyze this process taking as an example the work of low-income Brazilian women, situated at the outskirts of Fortaleza, Brazil. This project's specific objectives are to (i) describe the reasons why women engage in political activism; (ii) identify the forms of political participation that women engage in, (iii) identify the problems that women solve and (iv) analyze the strategies for problem solving those women use and the networks that they rely on. To meet these objectives, I will conduct fieldwork at the periphery of Fortaleza, Brazil between 2021 and 2022. Taking an ethnographic approach, data collection tools include life histories, semi-structured interviews and social network analysis, and participant observation.