Female empowerment of Amazonian riverine beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família program

Abstract

Today, policies of combat to poverty prioritize women as owners in programs of income transference, among them, Bolsa Família Program. Considering that women empowerment is influenced by this social policy, this research aimed to identify the dimensions of the process of empowerment achieved by riparian women, beneficiary of the program. The research was performed at Combú Island, Belém do Pará. Four riparian mothers took part in the study. For data collection, the Sociodemographic Inventory and semi structured interviews were used. As procedure of organization of information, content analysis was used. The categories, which appeared from the beneficiary perceptions were adapted from literature and defined as economic, family, social and psychological empowerment. The results showed that after the entrance in BFP the notion of a owned income and bigger control of resources were obtained by a parcel of the participants, providing a partial economic empowerment. The befit increased the purchase power, and gave to these women grater management over family decision-making. The ownership of the program’s card made them to feel benefited when following-up children, providing social visibility to these mothers, when not depending completely of the husbands’ intermediation. Lastly, the benefit generated in the participants a feeling of stability, for having money, security for the family monthly needs. The empowerment that riparian women achieved shows that they passed to interfere in the dynamics and providing of the family before the lack or not of their husbands’ income.