Dilma Rousseff was the first female president of Brazil and served from 2011-2016 after serving as chief of staff to her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005-2010. She was impeached in 2016 for allegedly breaking a Brazilian budgetary law.
Rousseff did not accept the impeachment as a fair conduct of business or anyone looking out for the country of Brazil. Instead, she calls it sexism. Upon further investigation, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff was shining a light on the problem of sexism in that country as a whole.
In 2016 women were largely “employed” as domestic help (Salek, 2016). Rousseff’s vice president took over from her upon the impeachment and appointed a newly formed cabinet of 23 white men, the first cabinet in Brazil made up with no female representation since 1979 (BBC Staff, 2016), during a time of a military dictatorship (Salek, 2016). It’s important to note that women make up 51% of the Brazilian population while only 22% of the nation identify as “white men” (BBC Staff, 2016). One member of the cabinet, Eliseu Padilha said “We tried to seek women but for reasons that we don’t need to bring up here, we discussed it and it was not possible” (BBC Staff, 2016).
According to Moran, Abramson and Moran (2014) psychological research identifies two types of sexist ideologies namely benevolent sexism and hostile sexism. Benevolent sexism is the belief that “women should be protected and taken care of” while hostile sexism “is rooted in the belief that women are inferior to men” (Moran, 2014). When I look at some of the statistics about women in leadership roles in Brazil, I am inclined to think that there is a sexist culture of the latter. Here are some factoids that make me think that:
- Brazil is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women to live—every two hours a woman is murdered (Garcia-Navarro, 2014)
- Only 11% of CEOs in Brazil are female (Moran);
- Of 81 members in the Brazilian senate only 12 are women (Salek, 2016);
- The “Party of Brazilian Women” has only one elected Member of Parliament – a man! (Salek, 2016);
- Between October 2015 and January 2016 the search for the word “feminism” on Google rose by 86% (Hao, 2016);
- 59% of Br
azilians believe that there would be fewer rapes if women knew how to behave (The Globalist, 2014); - Women receive 68% of men’s salaries (this plummets to 35% if a woman is either black or multiracial);
- 71% of all workers making less than one-quarter of the minimum wage are women (Doremus, 2016);
So can women in Brazil overcome the sexist culture in that country? I say YES! Women heading up the household is on the increase and female entrepreneurship continues to rise (Doremus, 2016). Rousseff maintains that there is large prejudice against women in Brazil, and while women still make up only a fraction of management positions in the country women do make up 52% of college grads (Novais, 2013) and women in that country continue to fight for their rights and their independence. You go (Brazilian) girl!
References:
BBC Staff (May 14, 2016). Brazil impeachment: Rousseff attacks cabinet for being all-male and all-white. BBC. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36292137#
Doremus, M. (May 17, 2016). Working as a Woman in Brazil. Plus 55. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from http://plus55.com/brazil-business/2016/05/working-woman-brazil
Garcia-Navarro, L. (March 16, 2014). Which Place Is More Sexist: The Middle East Or Latin America? NPR. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/03/11/289058115/which-place-is-more-sexist-the-middle-east-or-latin-america
Hao, A. (July 5, 2016). In Brazil, Women are Fighting Against the Sexist Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. The Guardian. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/05/in-brazil-women-are-fighting-against-the-sexist-impeachment-of-dilma-rousseff
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.
Novais, A. (March 15, 2013). Women and Business in Brazil. The Brazil Business. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/women-and-business-in-brazil
Salek, S. (May 16, 2016). How Rousseff has highlighted Brazil’s sexism problem. BBC. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36303001
The Globalist. (July 6, 2014). 8 Examples of Sexism in Brazil. The Globalist. Retrieved on 10/14/17 from https://www.theglobalist.com/brazilian-women-under-attack/
I enjoyed your post and thought you had some great references regarding sexism in Brazil. I remember having seen Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment on the news and was interested in the many ways the media painted her situation. In some cases, this same conversation about sexism came to light and doubt was cast on whether impeachment was appropriate. Others cast her in a far more malicious light and pressed for her removal. It made me curious whether Dilma Rousseff was impeached because of the insecurities of the men in Brazilian government or whether she leveraged that existing sexism to make a case for herself. I am inclined to think that her gender played a role in the decision given the outcome of her impeachment. The lack of female representation in Brazil speaks to some of the cultural norms commonly seen within the region. Moran, Abramson and Moran (2014) discuss how “some cultures have rigid rules for expected female and male roles” within a culture. I think this could potentially be the case with Dilma Rousseff. I am interested in how she gained her position initially and am curious what changed since the time she was placed in office and her impeachment. It may also be interesting to get feedback from the female citizens of Brazil about her removal from office and the overwhelming male representation currently in government.
Great job!
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. (9th ed.). London: Routledge.