São Paulo - Female participation in the working world is marked by far lower salaries than men who perform the same functions, as well as greater obstacles to pursuing a career. They are the first to be fired in times of crisis, and they face greater difficulties in finding new jobs.
These are some of the observations contained in the document, Companies' Commitment to Upgrading Women, launched on Wednesday (1) by the Ethos Institute of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Women represent nearly half of the country's Economically Active Population (PEA). Within this universe, nearly 38% of them are employed, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) for April, 2004. Nevertheless, despite their participation in the job market, women's working conditions are less secure than men's.
For Luci Ayala, editor of the manual, the working world is where female disadvantages become more apparent. According to her, "there are many indicators of this: Women, in general, earn less than men in similar positions, their careers are slower, the pace of promotions within firms is not the same, and women have less access to executive positions."
White females earn, on the average, 20.5% less than white males, while black females earn 19.4% less than black males and 61.2% less than white males. These data, which come from the IBGE's Monthly Survey of Employment and Unemployment for July, 2004, reflect the situation of women within organizations.
Ayala believes that the small percentage of women in executive posts is another indication of gender inequality. According to her, the Ethos Institute's 2003 study, Social, Race, and Gender Profile of the 500 Largest Brazilian Companies and Their Affirmative Actions, shows that 58% of the companies included in the survey have no females on their board of directors. "Only 9% of all executive positions in these companies are held by women, even though they represent 35% of the total number of employees. Only 0.1% of these posts are filled by black women, and only 3% of the companies in the survey have gender equality policies," she points out.
Women also form the majority among those who receive the smallest salaries. "The higher the salary, the smaller the percentage of women," Ayala explains. According to her, women account for one-fourth of the highest salaries, more than 30 minimum wages, and "this cannot be ascribed to educational levels or years of schooling. In education, from a formal standpoint, women have the same access as men in Brazil; moreover, their school performance is better and the number of years they spend in school, greater, than men's, especially at the university level."
Agência Brasil
Reporter: Fabiana Uchinaka
Translator: David Silberstein
09/03/2004
