COVID-19 Pandemic Deepens Gender Inequality in Brazil

Women, some with their daughters, pictured in the streets of Brazil. Photo by Agencia Brasil.

In Brazil, the reactions to the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been gender-blind, ignoring how women have been disproportionately affected. Despite the increasing participation of women in the workforce over the last forty years, Brazilian women continue to be subjected to lower wages and higher rates of unemployment. Women are also the majority of victims of gender-based violence, with Brazil having one of the highest femicide rates in Latin America. In 2020, the economic downturn due to the pandemic has led to greater increase in female unemployment compared to male. Social isolation measures have aggravated the unequal gendered-division of hours spent on domestic work, burdening women with additional hours on caretaking and domestic chores. Those measures have also led to an increase in gender-based violence as  women who stay more at home are more vulnerable to domestic violence. So far, President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration has shown no significant plans to address the pandemic’s impact on Brazilian women. 

Despite the increasing participation of women in the labor market since the 1970s, much of the progress towards gender equality in Brazil remains incomplete. Women continue to be paid less than men for the same jobs. Even though more Brazilian women are likely to graduate from higher education than men, only three percent of executive leadership positions are occupied by women. 

The economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the pre-existing gender inequality among Brazilian workers. In June of 2020, the country reported its lowest rate of female employment since 1990. According to IBGE, between May and September of 2020, 1.7 million women lost their jobs compared to 300 thousand men in the same period. One of the main reasons is that the sectors that were mostly affected by the pandemic were tourism, food service, and domestic services, all of which are dominated by women. 

Brazilian women who cannot find a formal job have to rely on the informal economy. Common among developing countries, the informal economy is a sector that is neither taxed nor regulated by the government. In Brazil, it corresponds to 17.3 percent of the gross domestic product, which is equivalent to Switzerland’s entire economy. In Brazil, women occupy eighty percent of the informal jobs, such as freelance domestic workers, street vendors, artisans, and door-to-door saleswomen. Despite the importance of female informal workers for Brazil’s economy, they are not protected by labor laws nor receive most social benefits, such as health insurance and paid sick and maternity leave. They are also more vulnerable to regional and global economic fluctuations.

Informal workers were also deeply affected by the pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, almost 40 percent of freelance domestic employers have laid off their workers either due to social isolation or to reduce spending vis-à-vis the economic crisis. The majority of domestic workers are women and almost 70 percent are informal workers. For domestic workers who still kept their job during the pandemic, they are more likely to be exposed to the virus because of their commute and in the households they work at. Freelance domestic workers are employed in many houses and this interaction with different families can increase their exposure to the virus. 

Besides the gender inequality in the labor market, Brazilian women are also burdened by unpaid hours of domestic work. Women in Brazil spend 80 percent more time on domestic work and caretaking than men do, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Today, despite the growing participation of women in the workforce and their increased financial contributions to households, there has not been an effective redistribution of unpaid domestic work between the genders. Brazilian women are still expected to perform most of the domestic chores and caretaking, showing gender roles in Brazil that have not evolved at the same pace as women’s economic activity

During the COVID-19 pandemic, women have been overwhelmed by additional hours of unpaid domestic work, such as care for the children, the elderly, and the sick. With closed schools and day-care centers, working mothers have to continue doing their jobs with the increased demand for childcare. Women in Brazil are usually responsible for caring for the elderly, who are more vulnerable to the virus. Many families laid off domestic workers and, because of the unequal division of domestic work between genders, women found themselves burdened with additional hours of domestic work. In the long-term, these women are hindered from spending time investing in their careers, escaping economically vulnerable positions, and achieving better-paid jobs.

Violence against women is at the center of gender inequality in Brazil. In 2015, the country had the fifth-highest femicide rate in the world. In an interview, Brazilian public prosecutor Valeria Scarance said that, “Brazil is still one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women. And the most dangerous place for a woman is her own home.” According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), four women in Brazil were killed every day in 2019. Inside their homes, women are subjected to sexual and physical violence usually at the hands of  their current or ex-partners. Only in 2006 did the Brazilian government pass the first piece of legislation protecting women against domestic violence--the Maria da Penha Law. The Femicide Law, which increased the penalty for gender-based hate crime, was passed in 2015. But despite these legislations, the rate of violence against women remains stubbornly high. Domestic violence is usually motivated by a partner’s unwillingness to accept the end of a relationship and fighting or jealousy among couples. 

The pandemic has further worsened gender-based violence in Brazil. According to the Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights,  reports of domestic violence increased 40 percent in April of 2020 as a result of strict social isolation measures compared to the same month in 2019. In the first half of 2020, 1,861 women were murdered in Brazil. Between March and April of 2020, the number of femicides increased by 22 percent. Additionally, social isolation has made it more difficult for women to report domestic abuse since they spend most of their time at home around the aggressor. 

The Brazilian government has done little to support working women during the current economic crisis. Even though female unemployment has never been a priority for public policies in Brazil, the economic downturn in the country since 2014 and the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic demand immediate action by the government to support female workers. In July of 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed a bill that sought to prioritize female heads of households who are single parents in the emergency aid program, a cash-transfer benefit that seeks to offset the economic effects of the pandemic. Though Bolsonaro claimed that he vetoed the bill because it did not present a tangible financial impact, many senators claimed that, in doing so, the president failed to recognize the impact the crisis has on poor families with women as their main financial providers. 

It is unlikely that Brazil’s current government will recognize women’s economic potential and seek to reduce gender inequality. Bolsonaro has shown little respect for female co-workers during his career as a congressman, and his administration has so far reflected this misogynistic view of women. With a male-dominated cabinet, Bolsonaro’s government seems more worried about restricting women’s reproductive rights than supporting female workers.

Brazil should promote policies that reflect the importance of women in the workforce to support gender equality and, consequently, reduce gender-based violence. The government should expand the number of public daycare centers and schools with more flexible operating hours to support working mothers. In the long term, gender norms will have to evolve and families will have to adopt a more equal distribution of domestic work and caretaking. To prevent gender violence, Brazilians will also have to fight against gender stereotypes and norms which put women in a social position below that of men. Brazil’s government and people should strive for gender equality to make the country a safer place for women and to recognize their importance as economic actors. 

Julia Shimizu is a staff writer at CPR and a sophomore at Barnard College studying political science and economics. She is interested in political economy, international politics, and identity politics.