Brazzil
Women
March 2003
International Women's Day (3/8) has been strongly commemorated throughout Brazil since the early 1970's. The focus of this day is to celebrate advances in equality for women and to focus on struggles within the context of eliminating all discrimination against women. The date is incorporated in the national calendar reaffirming the necessity to educate society in respect to equal rights between women and men as well as to formulate public policies that guarantee women's rights.
Advances in women's rights have been made throughout the years; however, much remains to be done to achieve true equality for women. This year, many groups are emphasizing key issues such as employment, health, merchandising of women's bodies, gender equality, eliminating violence against women, and being a voice for peace and against war.
Employment and Gender Equality
The concentration of wealth in Brazil is well documented—the richest 10 percent of the population possess 50 percent of the income; the poorest 50 percent of the population have less than 10 percent of the income. This concentration of wealth is also connected to sex and race. Women now constitute 41 percent of the economically active population in Brazil. However, according to a 2002 study, men earn 29.2 percent higher salaries than women for the same work.
More than one-half of women workers are in the informal sector receiving even lower salaries. Women are employed in manual and repetitive work which contributes to health problems while jobs in technology and information areas are reserved mostly for men. Unemployment of women grew 7.2 percent between 2001-2002 and has now reached 22.3 percent. This social inequality also shows itself strongly in the areas of inadequate housing, education, and day care centers for women.
Brazil has the second highest population of African descendants in the world, numerically lower only to the country of Nigeria in Africa. Afro-Brazilian women, on the average, receive a 40 percent lower salary than white women. Women are more likely to be poor than men and an Afro-Brazilian women over the age of 60 is three times more likely to be poor and 4 times more likely to be indigent than other women of the same age.
Workers' rights continue to be weakened. Law #9.032/95 (2002) reduced workers' compensation. Employers may now report a work accident or work-related illness as a common sickness. This releases the employer from obligations connected to worker compensation. Another effect is the lack of legal notification of worker-related accidents or illness. This has serious implications for women. The number of accidents at work has greatly increased among women because of the repetitive, and at times, dangerous work that they do. The weakness of workers' rights means even lower salaries and lack of rights in part-time work for women.
The 2002 national plebiscite against the Free Trade Act of the Americas (ALCA) indicated a strong rejection of Brazilians to the proposed treaty and showed strong support for a model of development that guarantees Brazil's sovereignty and equality. Women's groups, in particular, are concerned about the effect of ALCA in exploiting women even more in the area of employment. The privatization of services that would result from ALCA would make health and education less accessible to women and generate more exclusion and discrimination.
Half of the Brazilian population that lives in the rural area are women. According to the Minister of Agrarian Development (MDA), only 11 percent of the titles to land are in the name of women. MDA is working to eliminate discrimination against women and increase micro-credits to women in the Northeast so that they may remain on the land with their families. Thirty percent of leadership slots in MDA organizations are now reserved for women.
According to the Brazilian Electoral Tribunal, 50.8 percent of the electorate is composed of women. In the 2002 election, 43 women were elected to the Federal Congress resulting in a 48 percent increase since the 1998 elections. There was a 25 percent increase of women state and district representatives. The Workers' Party had the greatest increase in the number of women elected across the country. Women are occupying more and more public space but are still far from having political power due to machismo.
Health Issues
In 2000, the World Health Organization's analysis of health conditions in 191 countries, indicated Brazil in 125th place because of precarious or nonexistent health services. Especially for women the situation is serious. Where they exist, most health posts lack medical personnel and proper equipment.
Maternal mortality rates are very high as compared to other countries. The latest statistics indicate that 110 women die for every 100,000 infants born. Millions of women do not have access to prenatal programs or competent assistance at the moment of the birth of their babies. There is a lack of emergency services to aid women suffering from hemorrhages, eclampsia (caused by high blood pressure), and infections in the post-delivery period. There continue to be a large number of caesarian birth as well as insufficient hospital beds.
In Brazil, the number of women between the ages of 45 and 64 with hypertension has grown significantly since the 1980's. A recent study indicated that in Salvador, state of Bahia, there is one woman with hypertension for every 2 men as compared to one woman to 6 men in France or Finland.
AIDS is now a major cause of death of Brazilian women between the ages of 15-49 years. The growth of HIV contamination cases is greatest in married women infected by their husbands. In 1985, one woman was HIV contaminated as compared to 25. In only 4 years, between 1994-1998, the number of women contaminated grew 9 times more than men and continues to grow.
Violence and Sexual Exploitation
According to the latest statistics of Foundation Perseu Abramo, every 15 seconds a woman is beaten in Brazil and 43 percent of Brazilian women suffer domestic violence. Domestic violence is also an indirect cause of high maternal mortality rates. There are only 47 houses throughout the entire country to protect victims of domestic violence. Machismo and impunity of aggressors continue to be root forces contributing to the increase in violence against women. Women's groups are working to change the laws that allow for impunity and to improve the women's police stations in the country that deal with domestic violence cases.
According to Unicef (2002), 100,000 women and children are sexually exploited commercially in Brazil. They are taken through Manaus to Venezuela, through Suriname to Holland, or through Argentina to Spain. Some also remain in Brazil and are moved from state to state in order not to be found. The exploiters of these women and children are men, of whom 68 percent are Brazilians, a majority being lawyers, businessmen, police, politicians and employees of the judicial branch of the government.
The neoliberal model with its high levels of female unemployment and absence of economic and financial perspectives for women as well as the daily merchandising of women's bodies by the media has increased prostitution and trafficking in women.
(Sources: National Brazilian Report: CEDAW Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (2002); Policies for Women: National Council of Rights of Women and the Secretary of State for Women's Rights, 2002; SOF Newsletters: Women and Health, 2001-2003)
Joanne Blaney, an American Maryknoll missioner and former elementary school teacher and principal, works in Brazil with women who are prostitutes, prisoners or victims of domestic violence. You can contact her writing to sejup1@alternex.com.br
This material was supplied by Sejup, which has its own Internet site: http://www.oneworld.net/sejup/