Between norm and practice

implementation of policies to combat violence against women and the reproduction of inequalities

Abstract

The article analyzes how the implementation of public policies aimed at combating violence against women can produce and reproduce inequalities, despite their formal objective of addressing them, based on a case study of the 1st Specialized Police Station for Women’s Assistance (DEAM) in Pernambuco. Grounded in an intersectional perspective on inequality and in studies on public policy implementation, the work assumes that everyday interactions between users and street-level bureaucrats are central to understanding the material and symbolic effects of policies. Methodologically, the study is based on a qualitative ethnographic research conducted between May and November 2022, including direct observation of the daily routine of the service, field diary records, and analysis of the practices of police officers responsible for the initial assistance provided to women. The results indicate that, during the implementation process, informal barriers to access are created, selective criteria not formally established are applied, and differentiated treatment is given to users, strongly shaped by markers such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and territory. These practices disproportionately affect Black women, poor women, and those in more vulnerable situations, generating both material inequalities in access to rights, services, and protections, and symbolic inequalities, expressed through processes of victim-blaming, moral suspicion, and the delegitimization of their claims. The article concludes that policy implementation constitutes not only a space for the operationalization of the State, but also an active locus for the intersectional reproduction of inequalities.