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“Most of these women did not choose to work in theplantations, they usually went with their husbands orfathers,” Cristina Buarque, who led the Secretariat until late2014, says. “This patriarchal ‘machista’ culture infantilizedthem. We wanted them to know they had other options.”According to Cristina, women working in the fields werenot provided with the same training or compensationas their male counterparts. They were often victims ofdiscrimination, verbal and physical assault and domesticviolence.For Maria, who worked in the fields for five years, the jobwas draining.“It was very difficult. I would spend twelve hours under thehot sun picking sugarcane with my hands full of blisters,”she recalls. “After that, I would come home and have toclean and cook for myhusband and kids.”Chapéu de Palha Mulherprovides women with amandatory three monthcourse in public policy, anda small monthly stipendand childcare to supporttheir participation. Thecourse, taught by feministtrainers, teaches women“The patriarchal `machista’culture infantilized thewomen. We wantedthem to know they hadother options”about rights and citizenship, covering topics such asthe history of slavery; the struggle of women, black andindigenous people for equality; gender stereotypes; andthe government’s human rights commitments under theConstitution. Once the participants complete this stage,they choose a professional training course, often opting todevelop skills for traditionally male-oriented jobs.“The course is a key component to Chapéu de Palha Mulher,”Cristina explains. “We needed these women to understandhow their local government works and what their rights asindividuals are in order to train better professionals andbetter citizens.”Cristina was instrumental in designing the Chapéu dePalha Mulher programme. She was handpicked in 2007by the late former governor Eduardo Campos to leadthe Secretariat for Women’s Policies.“I wasn’t a politician, I camefrom an academic researchbackground,” Cristina says.“When I was approachedto do this work, I knew thiswas an opportunity to bringthe work I was a passionateabout to a larger scale.”When she joined the stategovernment, Cristina wasMaracatu de baque is an Afro-Indigenous dance typically performed by all men, but women in Pernambuco formed the first and only all-female group to performthe dancePhoto: UN Women/Lianne Milton