“Não existe irmandade entre homem e mulher na política”: vivências do ser mulher militante em movimentos sociais na Paraíba, um estudo de caso.

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze how women leaders and references in social movements in Paraíba perceive and narrate their political actions. Therefore, we intend, then, to reflect from the tensions that involve the relationship between being a woman and being a leader in the spaces of political action. These spaces will be thought from the power relations understood under the analytical focus of the concepts of social space and symbolic power, undertaken by Pierre Bourdieu (1989; 1996). We rely on research instruments such as individual interviews, based on life trajectories, participant observation and oral reports. Three women leaders were interviewed, one from the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), another from the World March of Women (MMM) and another from the Levante Popular da Juventude (LPJ). The analyzes point to the existence of conflicts between gender and power relations experienced in political leadership spaces, raising questions about the tension and disputes perceived by them. The narratives presented the 'nuances' of the symbolic violence experienced and the challenges that women's political action faces for the effectiveness of the leadership and political reference they exercise. With this, their political experiences raise important questions for the advancement of the political-organizational theory and practice of the social movements they are part of.