Gender Issues In Brazil Essay

Brazil is located in South America, takes up almost half of the continent, and is the fifth largest country in the world(1). The National Assessment on Gender and Science, Technology and Innovation study has shown that despite Brazil having a large amount of women in the fields of science and technology numbers are on the decline(5). Furthering women’s participation in and and access to the sciences and technology is a worldwide issue, throughout this paper we will discuss the issues and successes of Brazil so far, how they relate to the priorities of the UN and issues that women face around the world in workplaces of science and technology.

Poverty is prevalent in Brazil 40% of the county’s income goes to the top 10% of financially richest people where only about 1% of the income goes to the bottom 10%(1) about 35% of Brazil’s population lives in poverty(19). Since women

are one of the most susceptible to poverty, as well as indigenous and young peoples, 27% of poor people are accounted for by households headed by women(19). Main contributions to poverty include land tenure and lack of access to formal education(19). As of 2010 90.4% of Brazil's population is literate (17), out of Brazil’s total population approximately 50.8% are female, although women only take up 43.7% of the workforce (3). Of all tertiary students 56.9% were women in 2010 and yet the percent of women graduating in the field of science is only 31%, and unfortunately countries that have more women academically studying in the sciences and technologies do not always have more women in the workplace(7). There is also a considerable wage gap between male and female workers “In 2008, women's wages were only 84 percent of men's, and the gap increases at higher levels of education. Among those with 12 or more years of schooling, women earned merely 58 percent of men's salaries”(6). This gap is mostly unrelated to differences in schooling or experience, eleven to nineteen percent can account for these differences (6).
Thanks to a proposal by feminist Brazilian Bertha Lutz the Commission on the Status of Women was created by the United Nations, which helped to include “women as a category under international human rights.”(13). Women were allowed access to formal education as well as allowed to participate in the workforce in 1933 but it was not until 1988 that legal equality was decreed constitutionally (2). In 1985 Brazil became a democratic state and in 2010 President Dilma Rousseff is the first female to be elected in Brazil (4). Although certain health care is still unavailable, such as abortions(14), Brazil has produced some supportive policy for women; maternity leave consists of 17 weeks for Brazilian women, all of which is paid (3).
Former President Lula da Silva of Brazil supported significant budgetary resources to eliminate violence against women(9). Since practical application from “The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality” Brazil has seen increased condom use and decreased rates of sexually transmitted infections. Brazil has also implemented fatherhood training programmes to reach out to young men so they can be a part of eradicating violence against women. By increasing the participation of men with work in the household, such as childcare and chores, you can increase women acceptability in the workplace(9).
Both the UN and Brazil recognize in the fields of sciences and technology women are underrepresented. In order for women to participate in the fields of science and technology, there are multiple factors that need to be addressed. Women need proper representation, not only in the field they are pursuing, but also in governmental roles, although this won’t always render compensation with childcare or equal pay. Brazil has supported several treaties through the UN such as “The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality”(9) and “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”(8).

There is a significant limit to the growth of a country the more inequalities present(10).

“The mean score on the 100-point scale was 80 percent for post industrial societies, compared to 69 percent for industrial nations and 60 percent for agrarian societies.” (10) Brazil falls into the category of industrial nations and is somewhere in the middle of the gender equality scale. Anthropologists have looked at many differences in gender equality in separate cultures, some of the research they have accumulated has pointed to a correlation between equality and affluence. The most affluent societies are usually the most in favor of gender equality, there are exceptions of course but this correlation is mostly positive. Research has shown that even though there are significantly more women in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematical fields the flow of women in engineering and computer sciences have either plateaued or are even declining. This is a serious issue because engineering and computer sciences are the fast growing fields and require the greatest workforce demand

(11).
There are still many obstacles that keep women from continuing in the workforce once joined. Many of these obstacles are cultural differences throughout the workplace and the home. Trying to transition into the workplace can be difficult considering that for a long time women have been associated with household work such as taking care of children and keeping the house clean. Married women with small children are 30% less likely than a single man to be employed and a more than half of women say the most pertinent challenge in advancing their career is balance of career and family life(11). Family friendly policies are necessary in order to address some of these obstacles, but there are different obstacles for women in the workforce such as gender discrimination in the workplace. Nancy Hopkins (an MIT scientist) has documented “chilly climate issues” (12) which are very obvious practices of discrimination based on gender. She has found that women are welcomed initially, but usually find themselves in positions with very little to no real power, and not viewed as a substantial member of their field. Many female scientists, including anthropologists have studied this issue.
“Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy” published an article in 2006 about women's safety in the field and on the job. They have shown that sexual harassment is still very prevalent in these situations; “the strictly hierarchical structure inherent to the world of science and research makes women vulnerable to abuse, precisely because they tend to hold lower-ranked positions.”(12). This article goes on to say that not only are women scrutinized when they make the harassment known but the men who’ve harassed women are hardly ever taken action against because they add so much to a university's financial stability and reputation. This culture needs to be addressed by the universities taking responsibility and condoning this behavior as well as more education for men and boys (12).
Starting at the 2012 UN conference in Rio, Brazil, a new plan of action has come into play, it is called; Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. (8). This agenda is a detailed 15 year plan of how we, as a planet, can achieve an end to poverty and work to heal our planet. This agenda has five themes; people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership(8). A large part of is this is “promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls”(8), it acknowledges that human rights are integrated to the sustainability of economic, social and environmental development.
Continually pushing for more progress in gender equality the UN has passed several treaties on the subject. The Fund for Gender Equality is a worldwide grant-making mechanism that completely focuses on the empowerment of women politically and economically. This Fund provides grants of 56.5 million dollars in 72 countries to 96 different grantee programmes(15). These grants are provided to organizations and governments on a competitive base, depending on the priorities of women’s rights and strategic proposals(15). The UN recognizes the hardships and discrimination that women and girls face throughout their detailed Gender Inequality Index, which compares secondary education of males and females over 25, seats in parliament and participation rates. September 27th, 2015 UN Women and the People’s Republic of China will host an event where concrete commitments will be made by over 70 world leaders to overcome gender equality gaps.
Brazil is in favor of becoming a more equal society, women being involved in sciences and technology is important to us, although there is room for improvement we have already started to implement certain policies to make change happen. Acknowledging that men can contribute greatly to gender equality, by setting up more education geared towards men, such as our outreach to fathers programs(9), we have and hope to see even more of a difference in the way Brazilian men treat women. Supportive policies such as paid maternity leave are also made available to women.
Key points in improvement of the situation of women and their access to and participation in the sciences and technology can be made in first education. Making it more readily available for girls and young women so that they have more opportunities to be involved in these higher fields. The fact that only a third of children make it to grade six is unacceptable and our government is taking steps to change this. Also poverty being such an issue in Brazil we need to get more programmes and community initiatives to assist the financially strained. More education for men about their role in stopping harassment and furthering the interests of their country by treating women as equals. In conclusion, we feel as though there are still steps to be made in our quest for gender equality, but also feel as though recognition should be made for the steps we have already made and implemented in our country.