O Programa Mulheres Sim e as repercussões para o desenvolvimento regional: vivências no contexto do Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina campus São Lourenço do Oeste

Abstract

This study falls within the field of Public Policies with a focus on the analysis of public policies and their repercussions for regional development. Public policies play an important role in addressing the problems faced by thousands of people. Despite the development of public policies aimed at social issues in Brazil, their implementation has led to different results, indicating more severe vulnerabilities in the relationship between poverty and gender. In this context, the study is structured based on dialogues between public policies, women, and professional and technological education, and presents as a theoretical and methodological framework the Mulheres Sim program, currently developed by Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina (IFSC), São Lourenço do Oeste's campus. The program was born from the so-called Mulheres Mil program, implemented through a national public policy aimed at women in situations of social vulnerability. Thus, the proposed objective is to analyze the Mulheres Sim program from the perspective of public policy analysis and its repercussions for regional development. To this end, qualitative, field, and documentary research was carried out. The research was conducted in the cities of São Lourenço do Oeste, Jupiá, and Galvão, where IFSC campus of São Lourenço do Oeste held editions of the Mulheres Sim program. Regarding the research subjects, the study involved important actors who participated in the project, considering political actors responsible for conducting the project, IFSC and CRAS, and women beneficiaries of the program. The study allowed important syntheses to be elaborated on the context in which the Mulheres Sim Program emerges in terms of decision-making agenda; to identify relevant political actors in its implementation; to characterize the profile of the participants; to identify the main repercussions in relation to the results originated by the Mulheres Sim program, from the perspective of the participants and the promoting institution. In summary, it is verified that the program's achievements indicate objective results evidenced in the lives of the participants, including learned practices, resumption of studies, formal and informal employment, entrepreneurship, involving homes in productive spaces. In subjective aspects, the participants' testimonies indicated changes in mentality, individual empowerment, facing gender challenges, and seeking independence. Regarding the program's limitations, it is noted that due to the short workload, it cannot overcome the barriers of schooling and the issues of informality in female work.