Municipal Elections
Trajectories and Disputes of Evangelical Women Legislators in the City of Guarulhos
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229998 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vinícius Gomes (Vinícius Gomes is a Brazilian scholar with a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of São Paulo and is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of São Paulo. His research focuses on evangelical political activism, Protestantism in Brazil, the relationship between evangelicals and politics, as well as issues of racism and education.) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 359-378 |
| Publication date | 2026-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in World Christianity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1354-9901 • E-ISSN: 1750-0230 |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/swc.2026.0569 |
| OpenAlex | W7221549992 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
This article examines the political activism of evangelical women in municipal legislatures, focusing on the 2024 elections in Guarulhos, Brazil. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of field, it explores how religious identity, habitus, and symbolic capital shape electoral strategies and parliamentary practices. The cases of two re-election candidates, Carlinda Tinôco (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Republicans) and Vanessa Jesus (Assemblies of God – Belém, Podemos), highlight different forms of articulation between religious institutions and electoral campaigns. Both rely on networks of pastors, congregations, and symbolic gestures such as preaching, prayer, and blessings to construct legitimacy within the evangelical field. Their trajectories, however, also reveal gender tensions and strategies of negotiation in a male-dominated political environment. The findings suggest that evangelical political activism constitutes a relatively autonomous social field, overlapping with, but not reducible to, Bolsonarism. By analysing electoral performances, campaign practices, and symbolic behaviour, this study contributes to the understanding of how religious habitus is converted into political capital. It argues that evangelical candidates represent not only a growing force in Brazilian politics but also a specific mode of engagement rooted in religious structures and practices.
2024 elections · Assemblies of God · Bolsonarism · gender and politics · Guarulhos · local elections · religious habitus · Symbolic capital · Universal Church of the Kingdom of God · Gender Politics and Representation · Politics and Society in Latin America · Religion and Society in Latin America
| Highly cited | No |
|---|