In the context of globalization and State reform, the communities, socially, have covered protagonism, even to provide what nation-states have failed on providing, that in Latinoamerica we could resume on these words: conditions of citezenship. Based on this pressuposição, the article analyses the municipal councils in Salvador as an instrument of local development envolved with citizen participation. We retake the State reform theories brightened by the gender theories, where authonomy is a key question not resolved yet, and we also analyse women contribution to the construction of citizenship and participative democracy on the municipal councils. The analyse of this work is based basically on the interviewed declarations: members of the Health, Social Assitance, Education, Employment and Rent, Childand Adolescent, and Woman municipal councils, as well as meetings observations.