Women’s Police Stations: Gender, Violence, and Justice in São Paulo, Brazil

Women's Police Stations examines the changing and complex relationship between women and the state, and the construction of gendered citizenship, using women's police stations in Sao Paulo. These are police stations run exclusively by police women for women with the authority to investigate crimes against women such as domestic violence, assault and rape. Sao Paulo was the home of the first such police station, and there are now more than 250 women's police stations throughout Brazil. Cecilia MacDowell Santos examines the importance of this phenomenon for the first time, looking at the dynamics of the relationship between women and the state as a consequence of a political regime, and exploring the notion of gendered citizenship. Annotation Women's Police Stations examines the changing and complex relationship between women and the state, and the construction of gendered citizenship. These are police stations run exclusively by police women for women with the authority to investigate crimes against women, such as domestic violence, assault, and rape. So Paulo was the home of the first such police station, and there are now more than 300 women's police stations throughout Brazil. Cecilia MacDowell Santos examines the importance of this phenomenon in book form for the first time, looking at the dynamics of the relationship between women and the state as a consequence of a political regime as well as other factors, and exploring the notion of gendered citizenship Women's Police Stations examines the changing and complex relationship between women and the state, and the construction of gendered citizenship. These are police stations run exclusively by police women for women with the authority to investigate crimes against women, such as domestic violence, assault, and rape. Ŝo Paulo was the home of the first such police station, and there are now more than 300 women's police stations throughout Brazil. Cecilia MacDowell Santos examines the importance of this phenomenon in book form for the first time, looking at the dynamics of the relationship between women and the state as a consequence of a political regime as well as other factors, and exploring the notion of gendered citizenship." Women's Police Stations examines the changing and complex relationship between women and the state, and the construction of gendered citizenship. These are police stations run exclusively by police women for women with the authority to investigate crimes against women, such as domestic violence, assault, and rape. São Paulo was the home of the first such police station, and there are now more than 300 women's police stations throughout Brazil. Cecilia MacDowell Santos examines the importance of this phenomenon in book form for the first time, looking at the dynamics of the relationship between women and the state as a consequence of a political regime as well as other factors, and exploring the notion of gendered citizenship Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-13 The Birth of the World’s First Women’s Police Station....Pages 15-45 Engendering Policewomen’s Interests and Identities....Pages 47-81 Feminist Debates over the Meaning of Violence against Women....Pages 83-113 Constructing Crimes and Engendering a Contradictory Citizenship....Pages 115-149 Engendering Battered Women’s Sense of Rights....Pages 151-175 Conclusion: Toward a More Inclusive and Grounded Feminist Approach to the State and Gendered Citizenship....Pages 177-187 Back Matter....Pages 189-246 In the late 1970s and mid-1980s, pressure from social movement actors, such as women's and feminist groups, forced the military regime, established by the 1964 military coup, to initiate a process of redemocratization in Brazil.