As regards both their position in the economy and also in wider society, there's no doubt that women's contributions in Brazil are even more central and vital than they've ever been. In common with many other countries throughout Latin America, the status of females in the Country has steadily improved in recent decades. Equality is still not widespread however, despite the undoubted advances.
Since the most recent national constitution in 1988, both genders have, at least formally, enjoyed equal status in terms of rights and responsibilities. In practice, however, there are still some big differences between the two sexes. This is especially true in such areas as the economy, employment and public representation, let alone the (slightly!) greater contribution of males in the home. For instance, while it's illegal to discriminate between men and women in terms of wages, salaries and terms of employment, the average female wage tends to be lower in practice than the male one. Across the whole economy, the Labour and Employment Ministry has concluded that, worker-by-worker the average woman is paid about thirty per cent less than the average man on an hourly or yearly basis. Also the types of work undertaken tend to show quite marked gender patterns, despite numerous and growing exceprtions
This is noticeable at all levels. While Brazil has its first female President, Dilma Rousseff, less than ten percent of all other elected politicians at national level are women. The figure is higher at state and/or municipal level but only very slightly. It's a similar story in the judicial system where the UN found that only about five per cent of the most senior lawyers and judges were women. Elsewhere in society and the economy the pattern is an interesting one. Less than forty percent of Brazil's adult women are active, it seems, in the formal economy. But one must be careful because the alternative informal economy of unregistered and unregulated work is estimated to be large and growing.
As far as it can be measured, government statistics have found that most women in work are grouped into just a few main categories. For instance, 17% are occupied in wholesale or retail, 16% as domestic servants and employees in private households, 14% in agriculture or forestry pursuits and twelve percent in manufacturing, both large-scale and small-scale. In addition, a further 13% of women work in community services including health and social services and an additional ten percent in education, heavily concentrated at the low or middle levels of teaching or administration.
A really prominent example, though, of women's progress in recent years is in the field of education. Not only are there more female higher education students than males these days but the overall literacy figures throughout Brazil's society show that women slightly overtake men these days. In both cases the figure is just above 88%. This can only point positively to a workforce even better equipped these days to contribute well to the economy and to the life of the country on a wider scale. There's no doubt that this can only promise good results for returns on investment in Brazil, among many other aspects of this leading BRICS nation.
A highly respected Investment News Website is predicting that investments in Brazil will double over the next 12 Months, Many of these investments will be in the governments own Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing programme, meaning it's the ideal time to Invest In Brazil.
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