Unifem and IPEA release study on gender and race in Brazil
11/17/2005

Source: http://www.cidadania.org.br

In the week when the country celebrates Black Consciousness Day, the study Retrato das Desigualdades – Gênero e Raça (“A Picture of Inequality – Gender and Race”), carried out by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) and the Applied Economic Research Institute (IPEA), the latter a Brazilian government think tank, reveals that Brazil is far from being a country without racism. If the numbers already proved discrimination between men and women, the situation is even worse for black women. The study, conducted from March to October this year, was disclosed today by Matilde Ribeiro, head of the Special Secretariat for Racial Equality (Seppir).

In evaluating different indicators – such as education, health, job market, housing, digital exclusion, poverty and income distribution – the survey revealed the existence of a decade of racism putting black women at the bottom of the social pyramid. The average monthly income of black women in Brazil, according to the most recent National Household Survey (PNAD-2003) from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, the government census bureau) is R$279.70, versus R$428.30 for black men, R$554.60 for white women and R$931.10 for white men. In Brazil, 21% of black women are domestic workers (maids, cooks, nannies, etc.) and only 23% of them have a formal employment relationship (paying government mandated benefits such as retirement and severance pay) – against 12.5% of white women who are domestics, of whom 30% have a formal employment relationship.

“Black women earn only 30% of what white men do,” reported IPEA researcher Luana Pinheiro. She showed, using graphs, that there is a “ladder” that starts with black women, then rises to black men and white women, finally reaching white men – on the “top rung”.

The low access of blacks to schooling and health services is another alarming statistic. According to the data gathered, 46.27% of black women have never had a clinical breast exam, against 28.73% of white women. “It must be remembered when we speak of blacks and women, we are not speaking of minorities,” points out the coordinator of Unifem’s Gender and Race Equality Program, Vera Soares, recalling that this segment represents over 50% of Brazil’s population.

For the president of IPEA, Glauco Arbix, the study’s importance is exactly “to bring clearer objectives for the development of policies that can effectively diminish gender and race disparities.”

Government: dearth of date to support actions

According to Matilde Ribeiro of Seppir, there is a scarcity of data on which to base government actions. She stressed the importance of conducting studies like those carried out by Unifem’s Gender and Race Equality Program. “We still need more precise data to back our actions,” she says.

In response to the data presented, she stressed the actions implemented by the federal government to fight inequalities. She cited programs such as the Domestic Workers’ Citizenship Rights Plan, as set of actions aiming to increase the professional qualification and schooling of black female domestic workers. Besides this, the project calls for accompanying the pertinent legislation and increasing access to public policies.

Regarding the differences between black and white women in relation to access to public health services, Matilde Ribeiro reported that a guidance committee, created by the Ministry of Health with input from civil society organizations, will implement the National Health Program for the Black Population. “We need to ensure continuity of the government’s actions in the area of racial inequalities, always thinking of the transversality of public policies on race and gender,” she concluded.

The complete report is available at: www.ipea.gov.br.