Structural Advocacy Organizations and Intersectional Outcomes: Effects of Women's Police Stations on Female Homicides

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Paulo Arvate,Sandro Cabral,Anita M. Mcgahan,Paulo Ricardo Reis
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13478

Research Article:

Race and Gender

Symposium

Structural Advocacy Organizations and Intersectional Outcomes: Effects of Women’s Police Stations on Female Homicides 503

Abstract: By introducing the concept of “structural advocacy organizations,” this study theorizes and tests the

boundary conditions within which organizations designed to protect the rights of disenfranchised groups promote

structural changes at the intersection of gender and race. We test these claims on Brazil’s “women’s police stations,”

atype of structural advocacy organization with greater female representation on staff and with specialized procedures

and an institutional mandate to address violence against women. The analysis indicates that homicides are lower

among the population of women in municipalities which have women’s police stations. However, within this group,

homicides committed against women who self-identify as “black” and “brown” are lower only in municipalities that

are characterized by high levels of female education and in metropolitan areas with infrastructure development.

The results suggest that improving intersectional outcomes for women who are disenfranchised on race requires

complementary policies and institutional mandates to address racialized violence.

Evidence for Practice

• Structural advocacy organizations are innovative arrangements to address the needs of disenfranchised

citizens at the intersection of gender, race, and social vulnerability.

• The combination of an institutional mandate, specialized procedures to address the needs of disenfranchised

citizens, and enhanced representation of targeted populations allows structural advocacy organizations, such

as women’s police stations, to improve intersectional outcomes.

• The support of innovative legislation greatly enhances the effectiveness of structural advocacy organizations

such as women’s police stations.

• Homicides against women are lower in municipalities with women police stations, but the effects are

concentrated among women who self-identify in the Brazilian census as white. Women identified as black

and brown (i.e., as persons of color) only benefit from women’s police stations in municipalities with high

levels of education and urban infrastructure.

• Complementary polices (i.e., in education, transportation, and communication) and clear institutional

mandates to address both gender and racial issues are critical for obtaining improved intersectional outcomes

for persons of color through women’s police stations.

Scholarship on representative bureaucracy

has informed our understanding of how the

inclusion of a higher proportion of individuals

from disenfranchised groups in public institutions

can improve conditions for underrepresented citizens.

Research suggests that enhanced representation

of the disenfranchised induces effort, attitudes,

and behaviors of bureaucrats (Keiser et al.2002;

Meier1975; Meier and Nicholson-Crotty2006;

Mosher1968) and activates trust on the part of

citizens that influences coproduction and helps

governments to achieve expected goals (Gade and

Wilkins2013; Riccucci, Van Ryzin, and Li2016).

Although intersectional social equity issues have

been gaining attention (Blessett et al.2019; Breslin,

Pandey, and Riccucci2017; Frederickson2015),

the organizational challenge of addressing the

heterogeneous demands of disenfranchised groups

at the gender and race intersection is not fully

understood.

This study develops the concept of structural

advocacy organizations and examines the role of

these organizations in improving the conditions of

disenfranchised citizens who are victims of structural

inequities. Structural advocacy organizations are

conceived as bundling three pillars of activity: an

institutional mandate to address the needs of a

specific disenfranchised group; resources, routines,

and practices especially designed to address the

needs of the group; and enhanced representation of

individuals belonging to the targeted population. The

Structural Advocacy Organizations and Intersectional

Outcomes: Effects of Women’s Police Stations on Female

Homicides

Paulo Arvate

Sandro Cabral

Anita M. McGahan

Paulo Ricardo Reis

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV-SP)

Insper Institute of Education and Research

University of Toronto

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

Paulo Ricardo Reis is an Associate

Professor of Public Administration in

the Institute for Urban and Regional

Research and Planning at the Federal

University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, PhD

in Management (Public Administration),

Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). His

research interests include diversity issues

in public management and public policy,

public service performance, and public

procurement.

Email: pauloreis@ippur.ufrj.br

Anita M. McGahan is a University

Professor and George E. Connell Chair in

Organizations and Society at the University

of Toronto. Her primary appointments are

at the Rotman School of Management

and the Munk School of Global Affairs and

Public Policy.

Email: anita.mcgahan@rotman.utoronto.ca

Sandro Cabral is a Professor of Strategy

and Public Management and Program

Director of the Master in Public Policy (MPP)

at Insper, Brazil. He is also an associate

professor (on leave) at the Federal U.

Bahia. His research focuses on intersections

between Strategy and Public Management.

Email: sandroc2@insper.edu.br

Paulo Arvate is an Associate Professor

at the São Paulo School of Business

Administration (Getulio Vargas Foundation/

FGV), Ph.D. Economics, University of

São Paulo, Brazil (visiting at the UCLA).

Researcher of the Center for Applied

Microeconomics (C-Micro/EESP-FGV);

Councilor of Finance Institute (I-Fin/EAESP-

FGV); Ethical Compliance Committee on

Research Involving Human Beings (CEPH/

FGV); and short visits: Visiting Professor

(MSU), Visiting Researcher (Nova de Lisboa).

Email: paulo.arvate@fgv.br

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 3, pp. 503–521. © 2022 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13478.

504 Public Administration Review • May | June 2022

general argument is that these three pillars allow structural advocacy

organizations to challenge privileges that are structurally embedded

and to offer effective responses in favor of disenfranchised citizens.

By drawing on the example of women’s police stations (WPSs)—a

type of structural advocacy organization with the specific mission

of serving, protecting, and remediating structural violence against

women—this study theorizes and tests the boundary conditions

under which these organizations benefit all women and, specifically,

women of color by nourishing different attitudes and behaviors

of both public bureaucrats and citizens. For governments, these

specialized structures with an institutional mandate to advocate

for women not only facilitate the deployment of capabilities from

misrepresented bureaucrats in the pursuit of the public interest but

also help cultivate behavior by bureaucrats from more privileged

groups that aligns with women’s causes. For disenfranchised groups,

trust and cooperation increases as the disenfranchised become aware

of the role of the structural advocacy organization.

To test the proposed hypotheses, the article employs 22,254

observations on homicide data from Brazilian municipalities

between 2004 and 2018. The analysis verifies the effects of WPSs

on homicide, which is one of the most severe forms of violence that

can be experienced by a person. To reduce endogeneity and selection

concerns, the analysis involves obtaining results before and after

an exogenous shock associated with newly implemented legislation

designed to reduce women homicides in Brazil (the “Maria da Penha

Law,” also known as “MPL”). A difference-in-differences approach

is used to examine the effects of WPSs before and after the new

legislation. In addition to fixed-effects panel regressions, the article

reports on event-study analysis and a battery of robustness checks to

address questions about confounding factors and selection bias.

Women’s police stations in Brazil are the setting in which we assess

intersectional inequities. Brazil was one of the last countries in the

Americas to end slavery, and the negative legacy is pervasive. As

in the United States, racial tensions in Brazil are prevalent as the

perceived status of an individual depends on color categorization

(Telles2014). In the United States, black or African American

citizens constitute 13.6 percent of the population, while in Brazil

56.2 percent of persons are self-identified as black and/or brown

(mixed-race). Even though these citizens are not in the minority, as

in the United States, persons in Brazil identified as black or brown

are victims of structural racism (Bailey et al.2017; Ribeiro2016)

and experience lower wages (Bailey, Loveman, and Muniz2013)

and increased racial violence (Alves2018). Sexism amplifies the

discrimination faced by women identified as black or brown in

Brazil. Persons in this group experience abuse, aggressions, and

intimate partner violence (Carneiro1999). Despite recent efforts to

increase racial consciousness in Brazil (Ribeiro2016; Telles2014),

the level of awareness about intersectional inequities is uneven

across the nation. Structural advocacy organizations have developed

to address the needs of disenfranchised individuals at the gender and

race intersection.

The article is structured as follows. First, the article develops the

concept of structural advocacy organizations from theoretical

precedent in the literature on representative bureaucracy and social

equity. We then develop testable hypotheses on the boundary

conditions within which organizations and institutions designed

to protect the rights of disenfranchised groups promote structural

changes at the intersection of gender and race. After a presentation

of methods, the article reports tests of hypotheses about WPSs. The

implications for theories of both representative bureaucracy and

intersectional social equity are then discussed. We call for further

research on the complementary policies necessary to stimulate

meaningful changes for vulnerable citizens affected by structural

social inequities.

Representative Bureaucracy, Social Equity, and

Structural Advocacy Organizations

Representative bureaucracy theory is particularly concerned with

how a more equal representation of different demographic groups

present in the society can improve public service performance,

build more inclusive bureaucratic processes, and reinforce

democratic values (Keiser et al.2002). Extant works posit that

a higher proportion in public bureaucracies of individuals from

disenfranchised groups, called passive representation, is likely to

result in active representation that improves the existing conditions

of citizens of similar groups by inducing efforts, attitudes, and

behaviors of bureaucrats (Meier and Nicholson-Crotty2006;

Mosher1968; Nicholson-Crotty, Nicholson-Crotty, and

Fernandez2017). Further, active representation may occur when

bureaucrats from privileged groups promote disenfranchised groups’

causes and act as allies (Bradbury and Kellough2011). The presence

of disenfranchised persons in bureaucratic posts may also lead to

symbolic representation in which enhanced representation enables

modifications in the attitudes of citizens from similar groups (Gade

and Wilkins2013).

Although increased representation of individuals from marginalized

groups in public bureaucracies is important for addressing the

needs of disenfranchised citizens, instances of violence and

disrespect against vulnerable populations, such as women and

people identified as of color, continue to be structurally prevalent in

most countries. In fact, current institutions at the core of modern

societies have made limited progress in attenuating the problems

of disenfranchised groups and oftentimes amplify the pervasive

effects of social inequalities (Amis et al.2018). Echoing concerns

from public administration scholars on the necessity of further

actions and theoretical advances to address social equity issues

(Blessett et al.2019; Meier2019), we argue that addressing the

demands of disfranchised groups requires more than racial or gender

representation in public bureaucracies. Structural change is required.

To advance this argument, this study introduces the construct

of structural advocacy organizations to designate the set of

organizations with the specific mission of serving and improving

the conditions of disenfranchised persons. We conceive structural

advocacy organizations as a bundle of three pillars: an institutional

mandate for representation and advocacy of a disenfranchised

group; specialized routines and practices designed to address the

needs of a specific disfranchised group; and enhanced representation

of disenfranchised citizens. These pillars form a tripod in which

macro institutional issues, macro–micro governance issues, and

micro organizational issues are bundled. We posit that, by mutually

reinforcing each other, these three dimensions contribute improved

outcomes in favor of disenfranchised populations.