State feminism: an analysis of the interactions between feminist movements and Brazilian National Congress

Does it make a difference, from the point of view of substantive representation, the interaction between feminist movements and the \"bancada feminina\" for the approval of legislative proposals related to gender equality? If so, how? This question is part of a recent and innovative research agenda in the literature on the relations between social movements and the State, which takes an interactionist and procedural approach, postulating the assumption of mutual constitution between the action capacities of social actors and the capacities of State operation. To answer this question, we carried out case studies of the legislative process and approving of three proposals related to gender equality: the law on quotas for candidacies, the \"Maria da Penha\" law and the \"PEC das Domésticas\". In theoretical terms, we will develop the concept of representative state feminism with the aim of creating an analytical category capable of identifying the peculiarities, similarities and differences in the forms of interaction between feminist movements and the Legislative power in Brazil. Thus, we join a growing Brazilian academic production that has been dedicated to broadening the theoretical lens of studies on the institutionalization of social movements based on qualitative case studies. We conclude that the interaction between feminist movements and femocrats made a difference for the approval of projects related to gender equality, despite the singularities of each case, characterizing the same democratic cycle of interaction between feminist movements and the State. We argue that the connection between descriptive representation and substantive representation happened, in the three cases analyzed, through the articulation between feminist activists and femocrats, which enabled the construction of multiparty coalitions and institutional arrangements that crystallized some of the historical demands of feminist movements in Brazilian legislation. (AU)