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CIVIL SOCIETY REPORT ON BRAZIL’S RESPECT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PACT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS:

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS1

I. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO EQUALITY

Brazil ranks fourth in the world in terms of concentration of wealth, behind Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic and Swaziland. The average income of the richest 10% of the population is thirty times greater than that of the 40% poorest.

Inequality has increased systematically in Brazil. It is currently significantly greater than in the first half of the 1980s. There is much regional variation, however, with the most extreme disparity in the Northeast, where 45% of the population lives in poverty.

As well as regional disparities, one observes racial and gender aspects that cut across the various levels of inequality and social exclusion, hence indicating processes of ‘feminization’ and ‘ethnicization’ of poverty. In other words, poverty and socio-economic inequality affect women, Brazilians of African descent and the Indigenous population disproportionately.

Men earn on average 42% more than women. Black and mixed-race Brazilians earn on average 40-50% less than white Brazilians. In the formal labour market, women have the lowest wages and work under the worst conditions. Out of the total number of women who are part of the economically active population, 51.4% do not have a regular source of income, a labour right ensured by the Federal Constitution and the International Labor Organization (ILO). Among those with some form of regular income, almost 30% earn twice the monthly minimum wage or less. Pay inequalities become even sharper when one takes into account the ‘sex’ and ‘colour’ variables (as they are called officially in Brazil), even when the woman has a higher level of schooling. There is a hierarchy within the work force, with white men earning the most, followed by white women and black men and, at the base of the pyramid, black women with significantly lower incomes2. 

The HDI of the Afro-Brazilian population is between 0.575 and 0.607, depending on the criteria used to measure incomes, well below the national average of 0.796. The HDI of the black and mixed-race population would be considered, at best, medium-to-low and would rank 109th in the world, whereas in 2002 Brazil ranked 73rd out of 173 countries.

In Brazil, inequality of incomes and opportunities between men and women is coupled, perversely, with a high level of inequality among women themselves. Data of 1990 indicate that non-poor women (30% of the total) earned more than 90% of total female incomes. The incidence of poverty was greater among black and rural women.

Legally, however, it must be pointed out that Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, a legal milestone of democratic transition and institutionalization of human rights in the country, enshrines the principle of full equality between men and women, taking on board most of the demands formulated by the women’s movement. With regards to economic, social and cultural rights, the 1988 Constitution and subsequent legislation are in absolute conformity with the parameters of the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

II. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO FREELY CHOSEN OR ACCEPTED WORK

As for the placement of men and women in the labour market, the records show that whereas in 1976 women accounted for 28.8% of the economically active population, by 1998 they made up 40.7% of the economically active population (Annex 1). Considering the economically active female population, 55.4% are white, 43.7% are black and of mixed-race, 0.6% are yellow and 0.3% are indigenous (Annex 2).

With regards to women’s participation by occupation, they made up 38.4% of the workforce in administration, 17.9% in industry and construction, 34.9% in retail and related activities, 70.2% in service provision and 92.7% in paid domestic work (Annex 3). Comparing the 1980s to the 1990s, one notices that women’s participation in administration went up from 33.9% to 38.4% and in retail and related activities from 28.3% to 34.9%. On the other hand, in paid domestic work their participation went down from 95.6% to 92.7% (Annex 3). All the same, women still constitute the overwhelming majority of those employed in domestic work.

Domestic work accounts for the employment of 19% of the female economically active population (IBGE/PNAD, 1995). Of these, 56% are of African descent and 23% work over 48 hours a week. Ever since 1988, domestic workers have fought for a maximum legal working week but the issue has not had much repercussion within social justice debates. Domestic workers do not enjoy the same array of labour rights as other urban workers do3. In 1988, over 76% of domestic workers were undocumented and 88% earned less than twice the monthly minimum wage.

As for women’s participation in technical, scientific and related professions, one finds that, despite some growth relative to the 1980s, in 1991 women still only made up 12.2% of engineers and architects, 27.9% of economists and 30.2% of judges, magistrates and lawyers. On the other hand, they accounted for 88.5% of social scientists and 85.4% of teachers (Annex 3).

Women’s work is characterized not only by how precarious it is but also by occupational segregation and wage discrimination. Regarding segregation, one may state that the so-called female occupational ghettos remained practically unaltered between 1988 and 1998, according to the Ministry of Labour. Some occupations are eminently female, with participation rates between 70% and 94%, among them: seamstress, pre-school, primary or secondary school teacher, secretary, switchboard/telegraph operator, nurse, receptionist and laundry worker. All of them in some way reflect activities carried out by women in their ‘reproductive’ capacity such as caring, washing, ironing, cooking, teaching etc. The narrower spectrum of work opportunities and the segregation of women in traditionally ‘female’ occupations contribute to the low quality of women’s employment.

III. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO EQUITABLE AND SATISFACTORY PAY AND WORKING CONDITIONS

On the matter of women’s situation in the urban labour market by 1998, one observes rising levels of activity (57% of women were economically active) and a stable participation rate (44% of the total economically active population). At the same time, men’s levels of activity have fallen from 80% in 1991 to 73% in 1999. This explains women’s higher rate of activity with a stable participation rate.

Between 1992 and 1999, women’s unemployment rose and practically half of all female workers were in the informal sector. Of an economically active female population of 50 million, 19% were in domestic work, of whom 56% were black or of mixed-race. In other words, despite new tendencies, there persists a high degree of occupational segregation. This, associated with other discriminatory practices, explains the large pay differential between men and women: 40% on average but reaching 57% when one compares white male with black female head8s of households. Such pay differentials cannot be explained by schooling differentials alone. On this issue it is worth noting that in 1998, 5.3% of men and 7.5% of women had 15 or more years of schooling and 14.9% of men and 21.7% of women had 11-14 years of schooling. At the other end, 17.3% of men and 14.1% of women had 1-3 years of schooling (Annex 5).

Recent years have witnessed transformations in production, chief among which are more flexible labour relations that have led to women’s work being more likely to be informal, in the home and part-time. Worldwide, it is recognized that more precarious working conditions, loss of rights and low pay affect women disproportionately. In Brazil there is a huge pool of workers in the informal economy, most of whom are black women, who lack labour rights and access to the social security system. 4

IV. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO JOIN UNIONS AND TO STRIKE

In 1992, 10% of urban unions and 4.6% of rural unions were presided over by women (Annex 6). In that same year, women’s issues were present among the demands of 54.8% of urban unions but only of 11.5% of rural unions. Conversely, only 7.1% of urban unions had women’s groups or committees, but among rural unions the figure was 10% (Annex 6).

V. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO SOCIAL SECURITY

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 ensures the right to maternity leave without prejudice to employment or pay for 120 days (article 7, XVIII). Law 10.421/02 extends this right to adoptive mothers. The Constitution also lays down the right to paternity leave (article 7, XIX).

The Constitution outlaws the arbitrary or unjustified dismissal of pregnant workers or of workers who have given birth within the previous five months (article 10, II, b, Transitional Constitutional Measures Act). Law 9029/95 bans employers from demanding sterilization or negative pregnancy certificates, as well as other discriminatory practices, for purposes of admission or of continuing employment.

As for the right to breastfeed, two daily one-hour periods are guaranteed for as long as breastfeeding lasts. Remuneration is borne wholly by the employer. The Constitution also spells out conditions under which women prisoners are allowed to remain with their children during the period of breastfeeding (article 5, L).

VI. PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY, MOTHER AND CHILDREN

In 2001, the Ministry of Justice let it be known that during that year alone, there had been ten thousand reported cases of negligence, physical, sexual and psychological violence against children and adolescents. Such practices are present among all social classes. The data indicate that a significant portion of cases take place in the domestic realm. For example, in the state of São Paulo, of the six thousand reports heard by the Children’s and Adolescents’ Reference Centre, 90% involved domestic violence and 15%-18% included sexual abuse.

However, in the field of domestic violence, statistics are unreliable due to the phenomenon of under-reporting. In other words, the cases reported constitute the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of domestic violence committed against children and adolescents in any society.

Statistics show that reports of domestic sexual violence are on the increase. Girls bear the brunt of such violence. In 2001, of 1723 incidents reported, 350 had boys as victims, whilst 1373 had girls as victims. In 2002, a similar picture: 1728 reports, 326 against boys, 1402 against girls (Annex 8).

Patterns of violence against women can be understood through several studies on domestic violence, among which: a) a Human Rights Watch survey (‘Criminal Injustice x Violence Against Women in Brazil’) which indicates that 70% of murders of women take place within the domestic realm; b) research carried out by the National Human Rights Movement (‘Spring is Gone’) that demonstrates that 66.3% of those accused of murdering women are their partners; c) UN data which point out that domestic violence worldwide is the main cause of injury to women aged 15 to 44. This characterizes violence against women as a generalized phenomenon affecting a large number of women with no distinction of race, class, religion, age or any other condition. Further, domestic violence consumes 14.6% of Latin America’s GDP, some US$170 billion. This has serious consequences not only for women’s full personal development but for the social and economic development of countries as well. In Brazil, domestic violence costs the country 10.5% of its GDP.

There is not, as yet, specific legislation in Brazil that deals with the issue of domestic violence. Note, however, a normative advance: Law 10,455/02 allows for the removal of aggressors from their homes as a precautionary measure following a case of domestic violence.

On the issue of child labour, in 2001 there were some 4.5 million minors out of a total workforce of 78 million, in Brazil. Of these, 47% were 14-15 years old, 44% were 10-13 years old and 9% were 5-9 years old.

Studies show that a large number of rural estates employ child labour. Research done by Fundação Getúlio Vargas revealed that 30% of the workforce of small land-holdings in five Brazilian states is made up of under-14-year-olds. The survey was carried out between August and September 2001 and also found that in such farms women make up 31.3% of the workforce. Data collected at 2,055 ‘micro and small’ farms (10-100 hectares) in 25 municipalities of each state revealed that Goiás and Pernambuco have the highest rates of under-14s in the workforce: 40% and 35%, respectively.

São Paulo is the state that most employs women workers (45%) and least employs children (14.9%), followed by Rio de Janeiro (18.9%). Minas Gerais is the state with the lowest percentage of women workers on such properties (24.1%).

According to the ILO, there are 500,000 children and adolescents working as domestics in Brazil, most of whom are girls and half of whom are of African descent. Of this total, 30% started working between the ages of 5 and 11, 26% do not go to school, 53% work over 40 hours a week, 56% have no holiday entitlement, 2.5% do not receive any form of remuneration, 64% earn less than half the monthly minimum wage and most are unaware of their rights as children/adolescents or as workers. 5

VII. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIVING

The number of households headed by women in Brazil has increased steadily since the 1980s. Census figures show that in 1991, 18.1% of households were headed by women, while in 2000, 24.9% of households were headed by women. Out of 86.2 million female Brazilians, 11.1 were household heads in 2000. Their average income rose from R$365 in 1991 to R$591 in August 2000, a 60% increase. However, 5.5 million women household heads earn under R$276 a month. Median income rose 78% (it was the equivalent of R$155 at the start of the decade). In nine states of the Northeast region plus the state of Tocantins, the median monthly income of women heads of household was a mere R$151 in August 2001. The average monthly income of women heads of households was lowest in the Northeast at R$376 and highest in the Southeast at R$712. Income differentials relative to men remain large. The average monthly income of male heads of household is R$827 – R$236 more. In the Southeast it is R$1,023 on average. The lowest figure is for northeastern male heads of households: R$474. Also worth noting is the fact that 20% of women heads of households are illiterate and 37.7% are functionally illiterate, that is, have under three years’ schooling.

As the number of women-headed households grows, women’s responsibility for their own and their families’ subsistence increases. This generates a demand for family benefits and other public policies that tackle this gender imbalance. This situation is worsened by other cultural and social factors that designate to women the domestic responsibilities. This problem becomes especially acute when, for example, male partners do not cooperate with childcare, male children do not cooperate with caring for the elderly and public childcare facilities are insufficient. 6

In rural areas the number of women-headed households has increased significantly. Data from the national household surveys (PNADs) show that between 1981 and 1989, the number of single-parent households headed by women rose from 787,042 to 1,051,788. This represents an increase of 33.64%.

Within this context of structural inequality, promoting women’s full and egalitarian economic inclusion requires social development strategies that combine economic growth and effective redistributive actions with a view to combating gender, racial, ethnic and regional inequalities.

Incorporating gender into each and every political decision-making process does not mean simply ‘add gender and stir well’. It implies adopting a truly transforming perspective. This involves integrating the aims of gender equality through a non-market agenda which recognizes the vital importance of the non-market economy for decisions and recommendations related to development funding.7

In the words of Amartya Sen, “nothing is currently as important in the political economy of development as the adequate recognition of women’s participation and political, economic and social leadership. This is a crucial aspect of development as freedom.” 8

VIII. THE RIGHT TO FOOD

The North and Northeast regions of Brazil have the highest incidence of child malnutrition. In the Northeast, chronic malnutrition affects 18% of children. Although this is the highest among the country’s regions, it is down from 28% a decade ago. In other words, malnutrition has fallen by over a third in the region, but remains twice as prevalent in rural areas as in urban areas. (PNDS, 1997.)

Maternal malnutrition is one of the key factors in delayed intra-uterine growth (fetal malnutrition) in developing countries. If one takes as an indicator a body weight at or below 2,500 grams after 37 weeks’ gestation, data from 109 countries indicate that close to 75% of affected newborn babies are from Asia, Africa and Latin America. A high incidence of delayed intra-uterine growth must be interpreted as an urgent sign of a grave risk of malnutrition, disease and mortality for women of reproductive age – and not only as a sign of possible malnutrition, disease and mortality for newborn infants.

Regarding the fight against malnutrition, it is worth noting that rural women’s movements favour a model of agriculture that is sustainable, environmentally sound, balanced and diverse, in which production is geared towards a familial self-reliance likely to keep peasant farmers in rural areas and make migration unnecessary. This new model would demand new relations between people, the land, seeds, plants, the water and the means of production. Hence, male and female workers would develop sensitivities and capacities to think through, analyse and plan the future of the country. This requires women winning for themselves their role as subjects of the spaces they inhabit, with an active participation and under conditions of equality of work and decision-making. 9

IX. THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING

Brazil has the world’s second highest concentration of land. There are today some 4.8 million landless families in the country. The concentration of wealth, land and power in rural Brazil reduces or cuts off the access of rural workers and their families to a dignified existence. This leads to migration to urban centres and growing social inequality both in rural and urban areas. 10

Few peasant farmers, gatherers, riverside populations and ‘quilombolas’ (descendents of communities founded in the past by escaped slaves) hold legal deeds to their lands or have access to sufficient credit, which forces many families to leave the countryside and causes social injustice and violence. This situation affects rural, black and indigenous women disproportionately, increasing their poverty and exposing many to the risk of sexual exploitation.

Government settlement programs constitute an insufficient response to the clamour of social movements, especially of the rural landless, and only meet partly their main demand, that for agrarian reform.

Rural women are doubly discriminated against, as women and as rural workers. They have a double or triple workday, working on the land and at home and often do not have their work outside of the home recognized. Most do not even have basic documentation – identity card, working papers, birth certificate, farmer’s registration – which would be essential for their recognition as citizens and to be able to demand land, to squat public land legally and to have access to labour and pension rights, all ensured by the Brazilian Constitution.

Housing, one of the most elementary social rights, constitutes a minimal guarantee of social protection. However, women face extra difficulties to have access to this right. Proof of income is needed to obtain finance to buy a home or to be able to rent. This is an almost insurmountable obstacle for a significant percentage of the female population, i.e., those working in the informal sector, and especially relevant to female heads of households.

Self-build programs for low-income families fail to take into account women’s double workload and do not offer them training in construction skills. Once built, housing projects do not offer the necessary facilities to relieve the double workload, such as nurseries, communal laundries and refectories.

The scope, competence and quality of basic urban services vary greatly. The percentage of urban homes connected to the sewerage system was 52.5% in 1999, up from 48% in 1992 (IBGE/PPV). The precarious nature of these urban services worsens the domestic working conditions under which women must work.

X. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

Brazilian women need to receive more dignified medical attention over the course of their pregnancies. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of six pre-natal and one post-natal medical checks. This is fundamental to avoid maternal mortality. Such checks may detect eclampsia and pre-eclampsia (the specific hypertension illnesses associated with pregnancy), diabetes, hypertension and infections. Brazilian women are still dying due to the absence of simple care procedures such as the following up of blood pressure levels. Data from 1998 reveal that the percentage of live births of infants whose mothers had had fewer than 6 pre-natal checks was 62% in the North, 61.2% in the Northeast, 46.1% in the South and 43.7% in the Southeast (Annex 9).

When looking at the health situation of black women in Brazil, it is necessary to take into account certain socio-economic data: 85% of them are below the poverty line, they have less access to quality health care and are more likely to catch and die from certain diseases. The national data on black women’s access to pre-natal care are directly related to the social class to which they belong: 50% of low-income women have no access to pre-natal care. One may deduce that black women bear the brunt of this exclusion, given that they tend to belong to the low-income strata of the population.

Maternal mortality is one of Brazil’s most serious health problems. The rate during the early 1990s reached 114.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. Over the course of the decade it fell significantly: in 1995-7, it was 57.17/100,000 and by 1998, 40/100,000. But it is estimated that five thousand maternal deaths still take place annually and that 96% of them could be avoided.11 The four main causes (among the directly obstetric ones) are hypertension syndromes, hemorrhages, puerperal infections and abortion-related complications. Such causes are responsible for 66% of Brazil’s maternal deaths.

The North region is the one with the highest rate of maternal death, followed by the Centre-West, the Northeast, the South and the Southeast. This confirms that the rate of maternal death is indeed an indicator of social inequality and of the poor standard of women’s health care.12

Another major killer is cervical cancer. It kills some 7,000 women every year.13 Cervical and breast cancer account for some 15% of all malignant tumours detected in women. Data from INCA (the National Cancer Institute) show that in 1998, 5.7 million women between the ages of 35 and 49 had never had a smear test done.

As for the infant mortality rate, there was a significant drop over the course of the 1990s. In 1989, the national figure stood at 52.02/100,000 but had fallen to 36.10/100,000 by 1998. This improvement notwithstanding, regional differences are still glaring. In 1989, the rates were 47.42/100,000 for the North, 77.82/100,000 for the Northeast, 29.20/100,000 for the South and 35.86/100,000 for the Southeast. By 1998, they were 35.20, 57.91, 22.39 and 24.76, respectively, per 100,000 births. The North and Northeast continue to have significantly higher rates than the South and Southeast (Annex 10).

Regarding the practice of abortion, studies show that about a million women – including mothers – resort to it each year. Given that, in general, abortions are carried out clandestinely using methods that often lead to infection or even death, it is impossible to establish a precise figure. The illegality of abortions often means that those who carry them out are inadequately skilled and that help to victims of abortions gone wrong gets delayed. Unsafe abortions are the fourth main cause of maternal death in Brazil. The number of teenagers seeking medical care in the public health system as a result of abortion-related complications during the period 1993-1998 was over 50,000.

The interruption of pregnancies is the fifth main cause of women’s hospital admissions in the public health system, numbering 250,000 in the late 1990s. The setting up and expansion of services to treat legal abortion cases (pregnancy resulting from rape and risk to the woman’s life), as well as of family planning services, are urgent and fundamental to women’s health. The decriminalization of abortion still faces much resistance, especially from sectors of society linked to the Catholic Church. The Brazilian feminist movement has mobilized regularly to win support for progressive initiatives to review punitive and repressive anti-choice legislation, as well as that which considers abortion a public health problem. There are still major obstacles between Brazilian women and their right to decide autonomously on matters concerning their bodies. Conservative conceptions, especially those of a religious character, still link the exercising of sexuality to reproduction alone, hence denying women’s right to eroticism and sexual pleasure.

Barriers similar to those faced in the field of sexual freedom can also be observed in that of reproductive rights. In opting for motherhood, for avoiding or terminating a pregnancy, women are always risking their health or even their lives due to the deficiencies – if not complete absence – of the State in the field of reproductive health policy across the country.

Women who decide not to have children face difficulties in accessing information and contraception, whose supply through the public health system does not come near to meeting demand. The absence of an effective public family planning policy is the main cause of the large number of unwanted pregnancies, which often lead to unsafe abortions. This practice is common in Brazil and almost all over the world. The difference is that in many countries, abortion is legal and women can terminate pregnancies through safe public abortion services. In Brazil, unless the pregnancy resulted from rape or there is a risk to the woman’s life, abortion is a criminal act. This forces Brazilian women to seek clandestine services, which often cause health problems and even death.14

The health state of young Brazilian women is worrying and deserves special attention. According to DATASUS15, 24% of births given in the public health system were by adolescents. Also worrying is the number of post-abortion curetages carried out on girls aged 15-19 and the rising number of HIV-positive teenagers. Teenage pregnancies have been on the increase since 1993, confirming the findings of studies that pointed to sexual initiation at a younger age among Brazilian youth. Once again, in the North and Northeast the percentage of mothers under 20 – 31.2% and 26%, respectively – is much higher than in the South and Southeast – 21.5% and 20.7%, respectively (Annex 11). The data also suggest an inverse relationship between schooling and the incidence of teenage pregnancy. In other words, girls with fewer years of schooling are more likely to become pregnant, are less likely to use contraception due to insufficient public supply and are less likely to have access to limited sexual and reproductive health services. Other issues include teenagers’ lack of trust in the confidentiality of such services and even some legal obstacles to access to such services, like the requirement that a parent or guardian be present, for example.

As for HIV, epidemiological indicators show that its pattern of transmission has been changing in Brazil. Especially since 1991, the number of transmissions between heterosexuals and to women have both been steadily on the increase. The ratio of men to women who are HIV-positive has gone from 3:1 between 1990 and 1992, to 2:1 between 1993 and 1995, to 1:1 between 1996 and 1999 (Annex 12). Out of 170,073 known cases in Brazil (notified to the Ministry of Health from 1980 until 29 August, 1999), women were affected by 24.1% of them (41,052 cases).

Hence, although the number of cases among men is much higher, the growth trend among women is faster (Annex 12 – Table II), as much for Brazil as for other regions where the epidemic is rife. This so-called ‘feminization’ of the epidemic is accompanied by another phenomenon: the ever-larger number of children affected. Intravenous drug use plays an important role in this new pattern of HIV transmission, especially in the South and Southeast regions.

Considering schooling levels as an indicator of socio-economic conditions, another relevant aspect is that the data reveal a pattern of growing impoverishment alongside the changing pattern of transmission. The schooling levels of HIV-positive people have been falling continuously for both men and women. (In the case of women they were already quite low to start with.) Data from 1987 show that of the cases where the question was put, 40% of men and 76% of women had only 8 years of schooling or less, whilst by 1997 this had gone up to 70% for men and 81% of women. This fact has doubtless been influencing the context within which mother-to-child HIV transmission is taking place in Brazil.

What remains to be said is that the neo-liberal model has distanced Brazilian health policies from the egalitarianism that is the driving-force behind SUS (Single Health System, the official name of the Brazilian public health system) and compromised its funding. Health service money has been systematically re-routed and per capita spending on health approximates Brazil to the poorest of the world’s countries. Public health is far from meeting the basic needs of the general population and of women in particular. Hence the need to ensure that health service managers stick to the principles of SUS: universality, equity and an integral character. Finally, full attention must be paid within the system to women’s health, taking into account differences of age, race/ethnicity, profession and rural or urban residency.

XI. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Although Brazilian legislation guarantees equity and universality in education, the country is far from this reality in practice. Failure levels have been falling of late, but are still alarming. Less than half of Brazilian schoolchildren are in the adequate grade for their age. At the same time, the number of places in public adult education has been falling and access to university remains the privilege of a few. 16

Despite the fact that the national average number of years spent in education has risen, the black population remains at a great disadvantage (Annex 16).

In 1998, almost 20% of Brazilians aged 7 and over were illiterate, with women making up more than half of their number. In the Southeast, the illiteracy rate for people aged 15 and over was 6.8% for men and 8.7% for women. In the Northeast, it was 28.7% for men and 24.6% for women (Annex 17).

Despite serious problems with educational statistics, one may say that the number of children in school rose dramatically in the period 1986-2000, from 4,177,302 to 6,012,240 – a 43.9% increase. These figures must be taken with caution since there remains a large contingent of non-qualified teachers in activity and equipment and materials are seriously lacking in quality. It is a field that deserves special attention to the extent that the current political climate, with its emphasis on reducing the role of the State, threatens rights that were on the way to becoming consolidated. There is a fear, for example, for the future of full-time children’s education, which is a pre-condition for mothers of young children to remain in the labour market.

Further, one detects signs of a revitalization of ‘maternalist’ ideologies – that reduce women to their role as mothers – in recent documents produced by the ministries of education and of social security.

XII. WOMEN’S RIGHT TO CULTURE

Patriarchal ideology has been a part of Brazilian culture ever since colonial times. Women have traditionally been kept away from politics, discriminated against in the labour market and conditioned to confinement within the private sphere, linked to reproduction, domestic work and caring for children. Social practice has become rigid in several fields, such as education, the media, churches, the Law and others, to the point of rejecting the presence of women in positions of control and decision-making in public and private spaces. 17

The symbolic structures of Brazilian society – scarred as it is by deep social inequalities – cover up the meanings of its injustice. Such structures are built on positivist ideals that ‘naturalize’ inequalities and justify various forms of violence against women, black and indigenous people, contributing to the perpetuation of prejudice and of the arbitrary use of force.

The idealization of the family as a place of coziness and peace is another myth that masks several forms of violence (physical, psychological, sexual) against women, children, adolescents and the elderly. This idealization covers up the growing culture of violence in everyday life and makes it more difficult to promote the education and awareness-raising necessary for social transformation.

Under the command of the economically powerful, the mass media do not reflect adequately the cultural diversity of Brazilian society. At best, and in accordance with a market logic, they portray it as ‘folklore’, reproducing stereotypes and hegemonic values.

In Brazil there is a stereotypical view of women’s bodies and sexuality. This is supported by historically constructed myths that hark back to the country’s colonial past, such as that of the reserved, white wife, that of the seductive but untamed indigenous woman and that of the promiscuous black woman, owner of an irresistible eroticism. These myths forged a culture of denial and expropriation of women’s desire and of men’s appropriation of women’s bodies.

Currently, the profit-driven exploitation of sexuality turned banal, is deepening the abovementioned cultural trend and strengthening social practices derived from it. Sexuality is being exploited within a context of market-worship and restyled by the mass media. They are perverting the meaning of sexual freedom and equality by transforming them into consumable items. Hence, female bodies are being submitted to a brutal process of ‘commoditization’, which results in the grotesque exposure of nudity to sell any product whatsoever.

XIII. RECOMMENDATIONS 18

1) To develop economic reforms that increase women’s access to financial services, assets and resources, including land ownership, and to property, information, education and technology.

2) To create legislation which allows the regulation and monitoring of global capital flows and of the employment practices of global corporations to make them more sensitive to environmental and gender issues.

3) To incorporate a gender perspective and a social analysis into the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of official development aid projects.

4) To recognize the contribution of women to the economy in national statistics, including hours of unpaid domestic work, care for the family and the community, pay differentials for comparable work as a result of gender discrimination, the negative impact on women of economic processes etc.

5) To ensure women have the right to access essential services such as health, education, clean water and electricity.

6) To create, implement and monitor a national plan of action for the prevention of violence against women, which includes better cooperation and information exchange and support for the victims.

7) To set priorities to tackle the causes, consequences and costs of preventing violence and offer support to research in these fields, hence improving the capacity to gather data on violence against women.

8) To promote primary prevention responses to violence against women such as health care during and after pregnancy for mothers, improvements in pre-schooling, social development programs for children and adolescents, training in good parental practice and family management, improvements in urban infrastructure – both physical and socio-economic –, measures to combat gun-related violence and improve security and mass media campaigns aimed at changing attitudes, behaviours and social norms.

9) To integrate the prevention of violence with social and educational policies with the aim of promoting gender and social equality.

10) To monitor the broadcasting of acts of domestic violence by the mass media and to demand political responsibility from them in their approach to the issue, so that the visibility of such acts does not become yet another form of violence.

11) To ensure that women get full health care that is sensitive to differences of age, race/ethnicity, profession and place of residence (urban or rural).

12) To guarantee that the State remains secular in accordance with the Federal Constitution whilst respecting each and every form of religious manifestation and not allowing them to interfere with the exercise of sexual or reproductive freedom by means of undue influence over public policies.

13) To recognize women’s right to have or not to have children by ensuring access to quality public facilities or partner organizations offering contraception or conception services, by effectively enlarging and universalizing the right to information and to health services of excellence.

14) To recognize that the decriminalization and legalization of abortion as a citizenship right and as a public health issue.

15) To reformulate and strengthen sexual education programs in schools, adopting a perspective that takes into account the history of gender relations, to be able to overcome the ‘biologizing’ and deterministic views that have plagued the theme of human sexuality; to invest in training programs for youth, teachers, pedagogues and other workers in education at all levels to give the question a treatment free from the dogmas and taboos often associated with the free exercise of human sexuality.

16) To promote, in parallel with agrarian reform, a cultural renewal of the countryside that holds out the prospect of new gender relations, including within the context of family agriculture, through a wide-ranging movement in defence of the citizenship of rural women in order to recognize the value of their work and to promote their full access, free of charge, to documentation, social rights, land ownership and social security, with priority given to female heads of households.

17) To promote a culture of respect for diversity that is founded on the valuing of universal human rights and solidarity and on an affirmation of the right to difference and equity, and that combats patriarchal domination, racism, xenophobia, sexism and all other forms of discrimination.

18) To call upon the mass media to take on its social responsibility to help transform the collective imagination with regards to its chauvinistic, sexist, racist and homophobic traits, producing and broadcasting information and programs with a broad social reach.

19) To deepen democracy within families, in the streets, in companies, schools, workplaces and within the organizations of civil society, promoting policies that seek to transform institutions of learning and other forums of socialization, with the aim of discussing and reviewing values and of building relationships based on gender equality.

APPENDIX

WOMENS RIGHT TO FREELY CHOSEN OR ACCEPTED WORK
 

Annex 1

Men and women in the working market: Indicators of economic participation

BRAZIL

Source: FIBGE - PNADS 76, 81, 83, 85, 89, 90, 93, 95,97, 98 ( Tab. 15/ 4 / 3.1 / 4 / 3.1 / 4.2 )

Annex 2

Women in the working market: economic indicator according to race/colour in the Brazilian Regions

1998

SOURCE: FIBGE, PNAD 1998 Micro data

_ values not shown because the variation coefficient of the sample referred to the estimates of people is higher than 10%

~~ result not shown as probably distorted by the high variation coefficient of the sample

* this denomination includes: registered employees, without a National Insurance Number, working in black, military staff, public servants, statuaries

Annex 3

Female participation in technical, scientific and similar occupations

Brazil