Gender and right to the city based on the struggle of housing movements

Abstract

Difficulties in access to housing in Brazil, marked by the historical exclusion of the poor from the land and by their difficulties in accessing the labor market, encompass conditions that are even more dramatic when the person is a woman - and even worse conditions when the woman is black. In this scenario, the housing movements, composed mostly of women, establish themselves as a potentializing space for their empowerment and autonomy. This paper will address significant gains women have in their lives when they participate in these social movements, such as the restructuring of power hierarchies within the private space, safety against domestic violence, re-appropriation of the public/political space, among others.