THE ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PUBLIC POLICIES FOR GENDER EQUALITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2020 AND 2024 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN ESPÍRITO SANTO

Abstract

The general objective of this research is to discuss public policies aimed at ensuring gender equality in Brazilian politics in order to answer whether parties have a duty to promote women's political participation, how they do so, and whether parties have fulfilled this duty, as provided for in Article 17, paragraphs 7 and 8 of the Federal Constitution. The methodological procedure of bibliographic and documentary review with a quantitative approach was used to conduct the research, in which the scientific articles, theses, and dissertations consulted in the construction of the work were found in digital repositories such as Google Scholar, Scielo, and BDTD. In the documentary part, electoral data from the municipal elections in Espírito Santo in 2020 and 2024 were also analyzed, especially to verify the number of female candidates and how many were elected, excluding other gender issues, since, in this work, the approach focuses solely on the issue of the female gender. Indeed, historically excluded from the public sphere and relegated to domestic roles, women face structural, cultural and institutional barriers that hinder their political advancement, perpetuating a scenario of underrepresentation. Although the 2020 and 2024 municipal elections in Espírito Santo maintained female participation at around 33% of the total number of candidates, election rates remain low, widely disparate in relation to male candidates. In 2024, for example, for every 45.8 men directly elected, only one woman achieved the same feat. This discrepancy reflects inequality of opportunities, as well as the lack of effective support from parties, which continue to prioritize white, heterosexual men with greater purchasing power and political experience.