Poder, Prestígio e Gênero: As estratégias de mobilização feminina na presidência da OAB e entre mulheres conservadoras na advocacia brasileira

Abstract

This monograph analyzes the influence of conservatism on Brazilian legal professionals, drawing on the speeches of presidents of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and the mainly online activities of conservative lawyers, placing the debate in the sociopolitical context that emerged after 2013. This period is marked by the intensification of a conservative wave in Brazil, linked to international processes of the rise of the far right and the resurgence of authoritarian discourses, and by the intensification of professional competition in the legal field, driven by labor market saturation and the growing precariousness of the legal profession. Between 2018 and 2025, these elements contributed to the reorganization of professional and political strategies within the profession. The analysis dialogues with the concepts of identity and gender by Butler (2018) and Scott (2017), the phenomenon of blurring professional boundaries by Liu (2018), and the notion of professionalism, gender, and differences in legal careers presented by Bonelli (2016). Based on this framework, the study demonstrates how contemporary conservatism permeates the forms of action and mobilization used by women lawyers in Brazil. The results indicate that female legal professionals (women who are actively registered with the OAB and therefore able to practice law) perceive the subordination they face in building their careers as women. For this reason, they use specific worldviews to articulate “being a woman” with the struggle for professional prestige within this conservative context. Furthermore, this political mobilization also aims at professional valorization in the pursuit of prestige—in a Weberian sense of “acquired social status.” This dispute is permeated by social markers of difference, relevant aspects observed in social indicators when applied to the Brazilian legal elite, which has historically been composed mainly of white men.