The article analyzes public policies for promoting equal employment opportunities in terms of race and gender in Brazil, with a double focus. First, seeking to reclaim the historical perspective in the policies' implementation, considering the difficulties they have encountered; second, through reflections on the policies' limits and potentialities. Since such policies have only been implemented recently in Brazil, the article focuses especially on how Federal government planning for 2004-2007 and 2008-2011 has dealt with gender and race inequalities.
gender equality; race equality; work market