Salto 15 e Calibre.40: notas sobre as construções de gênero de delegadas da Polícia Civil do estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The present study addresses the gender performance constructions of police Commissioner of Police working in the State of Rio de Janeiro. A traditionally male stronghold, the Civil Police since its inception has treated men and women unequally. Only in the 1970s did the first women rise to the position of police chief. From 1988, with the promulgation of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, a public competition for the entry of the police chief into the career began to be required, expanding the possibility of women accessing the function. However, the police seem to maintain mechanisms to hinder the rise of women. To overcome such barriers, they need to build a place of prestige and respect, both inside and outside the institution. From the use of Cartography as a research method, we follow paths, connections and processes of construction of femininities, triggered and performed by our interviewees to constitute a place of respect and prominence inside and outside the Institution. Over the four years of research, we conducted semi-structured interviews with nine Commissioner of Police based in the state of Rio de Janeiro, aged between 30 and 59 years. Although the police value ideas recognized as masculine, such as strength and virility, the gender performativities operated by Commissioner of Police allow the feminization of the police. Here are presented three performance classes, the Delegata, the Delegada-Barbie and Mulher-De-Respeito-Also-Cares, which sometimes intertwine, sometimes move away, but which articulate themselves to compose the Commissioner of Police discussed here. Now essentializing, sometimes subverting old gender prescriptions, the perfected figures demonstrate limits and possibilities of femininities. A fragile place of prestige, police stations serving women are used as an analyzer to problematize gender issues and vulnerabilities, since they bring together women: those who work and those who seek care, the intersection produces tensions, denouncing the still fragile conditions of life women in our society, and inefficient public policies.