Empowered Homeowners, Responsible Mothers: Promises and Pitfalls of Maternalist Housing Provision in Brazil’s Minha Casa Minha Vida Program

Abstract:Brazil’s Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) program was touted as a “pro-female” policy to promote women’s autonomy and empowerment through subsidized homeownership. However, its design and discourse constructed motherhood as the primary basis of women’s inclusion. This article examines the gendered effects of a maternalist housing program through ethnographic research in São Paulo, looking at both movement organizations using MCMV to provide housing for members, and everyday life among residents in an MCMV-subsidized housing complex. It finds that while many women felt empowered by inclusion in MCMV, the program also produced gendered exclusions and reinforced unequal gendered burdens. First, it selectively prioritized low-income mothers while excluding other groups of women as undeserving “single people.” Second, it primed beneficiaries to view state-subsidized housing as conditioned upon their responsibility for home and family, expanding maternal obligations to include the financial management of homeownership without easing gendered burdens of care.