Abstract

This research aims to apprehend the advances and constrains of the state programs to generate employment and income for women in Brazil, developed throughout the last decade, by the National Secretariat of Public Policies for Women, at the national level, and the Women’s Secretariat of Pernambuco, at the local level. Considering the recent process of openness and absorption of historical feminist and women’s movements demands at the institutional discourse and policy-making through these organisms, this research aims to analyze to what extent the state opening to the participation of these social movements have been influenced the formulation and implementation of public policies at the national context, and also how the programs developed in this conjuncture have been realized as effective measures to promote women’s rights and combat gender inequalities. The analysis of these actions aimed to promote women's economic autonomy reflect deep distances among proposals, speeches and political practices, highlighting the fragility of the models and strategies adopted within this framework and the challenges and barriers to consolidate gender perspective at public policies in Brazil.