A construção da transversalidade da perspectiva de gênero no Mercosul: alcances e limitações a partir das relações de poder

Abstract

The research in question has as its general theme the construction of mainstreaming a gender perspective in Mercosur from the action of three actors inside the Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities Woman of Mercosur (RMAAM): national mechanisms for the promotion of gender, the movement of women / feminist and international cooperation. For the success of such construction, throughout history of Mercosur, this happens to be also interpreted as an instrument of political and social integration between their companies and as an independent form of international position. Moreover, the transformations on the world stage for the performance of the feminist movement/women by guaranteeing their rights, the consequences of the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in 1995, the creation of institutional bodies which deal with the themes of woman and Gender influenced, in 1998, the created of Mercosur Specialized Meeting of Women (REM) with the intention to discuss the "equal opportunities" in Mercosur. In 2011, the legal and political status of Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities is achieved by connecting the meeting directly to the Common Market Council, conductor organ of block. Thus, this research aims to present the state of the art on the construction of gender mainstreaming in Mercosur, whose specific objectives are: a) analyzing the importance of the women's movement/feminist internationally and Latin American rights to conquer and transform patriarchal culture to another cultural landmark gender equity; b) presenting the relevance of the inclusion of gender in areas such as Mercosur, to visualize how the "high politics" is not yet open to participation of feminist/women; c) evaluate the relationships of power and domination that bare in mind the political transformation of this integration, when gender equality is to be mainstreamed put in their design and substance. To justify this work, weigh up the scope of the political practice of the women's movement/feminist in the Latin American scene, particularly, and their influence on the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in Mercosur. This research also aims to collaborate with transnational studies and with the inclusion of new actors in international relations and aims to contribute to desmarginalize the area of study of International Relations, that Gender and Feminism research in order to make visible their own epistemology and methodology, showing the relevance of their demands and analysis. That revealed, there will be a tour of the theoretical discussions of international relations to understand the link of internationalist feminist approaches to this field of study. The sense of the international category of feminism will be examined and how Mercosur fits into this scenario. The confluence of International Relations will also be considered with the movements of women/feminist in international scenarios and hispanic, in view of universality secondary category given to females, according to Ortner (1974). Soon after, the state of the art of mainstreaming a gender perspective by RMAAM and the main points of this forum agenda will be presented, from the conformation of this meeting through the advocacy of women's movement/feminist, international cooperation and exchange of experiences between national delegations that are part of the forum. Finally, the challenges and achievements of mainstreaming, from two phenomena that stood out during the study will be analyzed: international cooperation and the participation of women's movements/feminists, since they have a direct connection with the strengthening of RMAAM. As background, the power relations that influence positively and negatively in ranges or not the objectives of the forum will be visualized, it cames to the conclusion that there are already clear advances in the construction of gender mainstreaming and the complexity of actors and political settings involved in that case, the path is still long to achieve a culture of gender equality from the MERCOSUR level work performed. The analysis was done through literature review, desk research, the minutes and documents RMAAM provided on his official page on the web that show how was your constitution and general overview of your activity on the block. In addition, semi-structured interviews with representatives of social organizations that are within the RMAAM and representatives of national gender mechanisms that coordinate the meeting. The scripts were structured questions were asked not to stifle the response of the interviewees in order to increase familiarity the researcher with the social actors who directly participate in research object and proposed to modify/clarify concepts to support the synthesis result of this research. However, to achieve these objectives, we used the feminist epistemology, with the empirical research is concerned in visualizing what is unseen.