Abstract:
This paper intends to shed light on and analyze the relationship between civil society movements and organizations and the State in the post-dictatorship period, with respect to the institutionalization of gender policies in Brazil and Chile. The data for this qualitative study, which is based on an interpretative and comparative methodology, were collected through bibliographical, documentary and semi-structured interviews with former government ministers of Michelle Bachelet and Dilma Rousseff and with representatives of feminists NGOs. The results of the research identify specificities between Brazil and Chile in the relationship between State and society, which in part resulted from the way that these countries conducted their redemocratization processes. It also shows that the legacy of the involvement of feminist women within and outside the State in the elaboration and implementation of a plethora of gender equality policies has led to the emergence of new forms of resistance in the current context of rising conservativism and authoritarianism.
Keywords:
Civil society; State; Gender perspective; Public policy