WOMEN’S GROUPS IN THE STATE OF PARAÍBA IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW SPACES: a case study

Abstract

Despite the important and courageous role played by individual women in the political life of the State of Paraíba (Brazil) in the first half of this century, it is only towards the end of the ‘70s that the first feminist groups are formed. In this respect, the initial motivation of the Paraiban feminist movement differs little from the general Brazilian and Latin American tendency in which opposition to military dictatorships had the effect of concentrating the struggle on human and civil rights with little specific reference to the dimension of gender. In this paper we trace the specific development of the contemporary feminist movement in the State of Paraíba with reference to the broader Brazilian and Latin American context and point to its contribution to the creation of new spaces within civil society.