Gender Inequality in Brazil
- What is Gender Inequality?
Quoting the European Institute for Gender Equality, the definition of gender inequality is: "Legal, social and cultural situation in which sex and/or gender determine different rights and dignity for women and men, which are reflected in their unequal access to or enjoyment of rights, as well as the assumption of stereotyped social and cultural roles". This inequality might affect an individual's living experience, and while some differences are empirically grounded, others appear to be socially constructed.
- Gender Inequality in Brazil
The new report of the European Comission for the Latin America and Caribbean, published at the end of January, 2020, affirms that gender equality and women's autonomy should be the new model for the development and progress of the region.
This report, entitled "Women's autonomy in changing economic scenarios" highlights that "gender inequalities are an obstacle to the sustainable development, and the changes the region faces are a manifestation of the urgency on stepping forward, aiming the styles of development and progress that rely on gender equality and women's autonomy, always guaranting the rights for all people, no exception". Also, according to this study, this region is developing less, yet inequality and poverty are increasing, so, considering the challenges of technological, demographic and climatic changes bring, governments should hurry to achieve gender equality and women's autonomy.
Brazil has many issues regarding inequality, but gender inequality might be one of the biggest disparity present in nowadays brazilian population. Women have been fighting for equality since the 1970's in Brazil, trying to earn their rights to work, vote and stop violence, but Brazil is a very religious country and most of the population still believes women should not be allowed to work, their job is to stay at home taking care of the house, of their husbands, of their children, because they're less intelligent than men and so they don't deserve to even try an education or work.
Nowadays, women, on average, are more educated than men, but this is still not reflected in the labor market.Almost all of the female brazilian population (92,6%) that is 14 years old or more, representing more than 80 million people, do domestic chores and take care of people on a twenty-one hour per week job, according to data from Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua (Pnad Contínua), refering to the last semester of 2018.
The social roles seen as female or male still greatly influence career choices and social inequalities. For example, 94,1% of domestic workers are women and their average salary is R$846,12, while men receive an average of R$1.019,61. This difference is caused by the number of hours worked: while women usually work less than 40 hours a week to be able to reconcile with the tasks at their own home, men work an average of 42 hours a week. If we analyze all jobs, the average salary of women is R$1764, while men receive an average of R$2306 - of course, keep in mind this is statistically speaking, most of the population live with way less than R$800.
Another example is that brazilian organizations attempt to recover from years of recession and technology businesses, - which are the ones that can boost the economy significantly - must prioritize gender equality agendas to ensure the innovation delivery delivery their clients need, but there is simply not enough people to deliver such projects because, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), women are a minority in the technology market place, representing only 20% of sectors professionals, even if they're the majority of the population (52%). Also, at leadership level, the situation is even worse with IBGE data suggesting that men still occupy 97% of top seniority roles.
In the political spectrum, 10,5% of the deputies' chamber seats are occupied by women (worldwide, women occupy more than 23%), and in terms of management positions, men occupy 62,2% while women only occupy 37,8%. On International Women's Day, the president Jair Bolsonaro raised yet another controversy by saying that his Cabinet "for the first time ever" had achieved gender-parity, even though two out of the country's 22 ministers are women. "It means each women here is worth 10 men", he explained.
The social-economic differences between men and women are the reasons for such a difference, because often they have to choose between the family and career, leaving no space for political worries. Furthermore, the political environment is predominantly masculine, where they are verbally or morally attacked for being women, contributing to the removal of women from this picture - it does not encourage their participation. Women normally have a more active voice in manifestations for their rights than in the political matters.
Brazil has many issues regarding inequality, but gender inequality might be one of the biggest disparity present in nowadays brazilian population. Women have been fighting for equality since the 1970's in Brazil, trying to earn their rights to work, vote and stop violence, but Brazil is a very religious country and most of the population still believes women should not be allowed to work, their job is to stay at home taking care of the house, of their husbands, of their children, because they're less intelligent than men and so they don't deserve to even try an education or work.
Nowadays, women, on average, are more educated than men, but this is still not reflected in the labor market.Almost all of the female brazilian population (92,6%) that is 14 years old or more, representing more than 80 million people, do domestic chores and take care of people on a twenty-one hour per week job, according to data from Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua (Pnad Contínua), refering to the last semester of 2018.The social roles seen as female or male still greatly influence career choices and social inequalities. For example, 94,1% of domestic workers are women and their average salary is R$846,12, while men receive an average of R$1.019,61. This difference is caused by the number of hours worked: while women usually work less than 40 hours a week to be able to reconcile with the tasks at their own home, men work an average of 42 hours a week. If we analyze all jobs, the average salary of women is R$1764, while men receive an average of R$2306 - of course, keep in mind this is statistically speaking, most of the population live with way less than R$800.
Another example is that brazilian organizations attempt to recover from years of recession and technology businesses, - which are the ones that can boost the economy significantly - must prioritize gender equality agendas to ensure the innovation delivery delivery their clients need, but there is simply not enough people to deliver such projects because, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), women are a minority in the technology market place, representing only 20% of sectors professionals, even if they're the majority of the population (52%). Also, at leadership level, the situation is even worse with IBGE data suggesting that men still occupy 97% of top seniority roles.
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| President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro |
In the political spectrum, 10,5% of the deputies' chamber seats are occupied by women (worldwide, women occupy more than 23%), and in terms of management positions, men occupy 62,2% while women only occupy 37,8%. On International Women's Day, the president Jair Bolsonaro raised yet another controversy by saying that his Cabinet "for the first time ever" had achieved gender-parity, even though two out of the country's 22 ministers are women. "It means each women here is worth 10 men", he explained.
The social-economic differences between men and women are the reasons for such a difference, because often they have to choose between the family and career, leaving no space for political worries. Furthermore, the political environment is predominantly masculine, where they are verbally or morally attacked for being women, contributing to the removal of women from this picture - it does not encourage their participation. Women normally have a more active voice in manifestations for their rights than in the political matters.
Article written by: Adriana Santos
Sources:
https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-noticias/2012-agencia-de-noticias/noticias/25223-mercado-de-trabalho-reflete-desigualdades-de-genero
https://eige.europa.eu/thesaurus/terms/1182
https://educa.ibge.gov.br/jovens/materias-especiais/materias-especiais/20453-estatisticas-de-genero-indicadores-sociais-das-mulheres-no-brasil.html
https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-50845021
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