From Progress to Conservative Reaction: The National Policy on Women's Rights and its Impact on Local Legal Mobilization under the Lula/Dilma and Bolsonaro Governments

In this paper, we examine how the Brazilian national politics on women's rights, particularly relating to violence against women, changed and faced a backlash during Bolsonaro's government (2019-2022), and how the federal politics impacted legal mobilization for women's rights at the local level. We compare Bolsonaro's programs and discourse on women's rights with those of former presidents Lula (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016). We then examine their impacts at the local level. The city of Belem, in the North of Brazil, serves as a case -study. In addition to national plans to combat violence against women, we rely on interviews with local governmental and nongovernmental feminist actors to understand the dynamics of the relationship between federal and local legal mobilization. We approach legal mobilization as multiple strategies that go beyond litigation, carried out by both governmental and non -governmental organizations. The federal reactionary women's rights discourse impacts legal mobilization at the local level but does not determine it. The local organizations are under the jurisdiction of states and cities and can develop legal mobilization strategies in that context. We engage with the literature on progressive women's movements and reactionary (anti -gender) counter -movements.