Participação de mulheres na saúde pública: narrativas de conselheiras municipais de saúde de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This paper presents a research that aimed to understand women's participation in public health policy, trough oral history interviews with health of Belo Horizonte. The focus of the research was women’s experience of social participation facing the decision-making processes in health. As methodological strategies, besides reviewing the literature on women’s participation in struggles for health, interviews were conducted, based on the contributions of oral history. Eight health counselors were involved in the study. The interviews with the counselors were held in two specific moments. At first, we worked with unstructured interviews, favoring an open mode of storytelling. In the second moment, a new interview with each counselor was performed, producing an effect of partial return of data to the interviewees. Social participation, as narrated by the women interviewed is engendered in their life histories, revealing the singular processes of the experience of participation, but at the same time, allowing us to understand their positions on the National Health System and the municipal health council. The data expose the ambiguities and potentialities of the council as a space for mobilization for health, but also as a mode of subjectivity and citizenship building.