The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil - Center for Work-Life Policy

THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL 

The Battle for 

Female Talent 

in Brazil 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid 

with Anne Erni, Catherine Fredman, 

Laura Sherbin, and Melinda Wolfe 

Center for Work-Life Policy 

Study sponsored by Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer, Siemens AG


THE 

HIDDEN 

BRAIN DRAIN 

Task forcE 

CO-CHAIRS 

American Express 

Bloomberg LP 

Booz Allen Hamilton 

Bristol-Myers Squibb 

Cisco Systems 

Deloitte 

Ernst & Young 

GE 

Goldman Sachs 

Intel Corporation 

Johnson & Johnson 

NBCUniversal 

Time Warner 

Unilever plc 

As of November 2011 

*Steering Committee 

MEMBERS 

AIG 

Alcoa Inc. 

AllianceBernstein 

AT&T 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch 

Barclays Capital 

BlackRock 

Boehringer Ingelheim USA 

Booz & Company 

Boston Scientific 

BT Group* 

Central Intelligence Agency 

Chubb 

Citi* 

Cleveland Clinic 

Credit Suisse* 

Deutsche Bank 

Federal Reserve Bank of New York 

Freddie Mac 

Genentech 

General Mills 

Genpact 

Genzyme Corporation 

GlaxoSmithKline 

Google 

Hess Corporation 

HSBC Bank plc 

International Monetary Fund 

Interpublic Group 

Knoll* 

KPMG LLP 

Lloyds TSB 

Mayo Clinic 

McGraw-Hill Companies 

McKesson Corporation 

McKinsey & Company 

Merck & Co. 

Moody’s Foundation* 

Morgan Stanley 

New York Times Company 

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. 

Pfizer Inc.* 

SAIC 

Schlumberger 

Siemens AG 

Sodexo 

Standard Chartered Bank 

Swiss Reinsurance Co. 

Tupperware Brands 

UBS* 

United Nations DPKO/DFS/OHRM 

Vanguard 

White & Case LLP 

Withers LLP 

World Bank


The Battle for 

Female Talent 

in Brazil 


with Anne Erni, Catherine Fredman, 

Laura Sherbin, and Melinda Wolfe 

Center for Work-Life Policy 

Study sponsored by Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer, Siemens AG


THE 

HIDDEN 

BRAIN DRAIN 

Task forcE 

FOUNDER AND CHAIR 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett 

CO-CHAIRS 

Jim Bush 

Jennifer Christie 

American Express 

Anne Erni 

Melinda Wolfe 

Bloomberg LP 

Mark McLane 

Booz Allen Hamilton 

Wema Hoover 

Bristol-Myers Squibb 

Cassandra Frangos 

Cisco Systems 

Barbara Adachi 

Deloitte 

Carolyn Buck Luce 

Karyn Twaronite 

Ernst & Young 

Deborah Elam 

GE 

Gail Fierstein 

Goldman Sachs 

Rosalind Hudnell 

Intel Corporation 

Anthony Carter 

Johnson & Johnson 

Patricia Fili-Krushel 

Patricia Langer 

NBCUniversal 

Lisa Garcia Quiroz 

Time Warner 

Helen Wyatt 

Unilever plc 

FEMALE TALENT IN EMERGING MARKETS 

ADVISORS AND LEAD SPONSORS 

DeAnne Aguire 

Booz & Company 

Anne Erni 

Bloomberg LP 

Rosalind Hudnell 

Intel 

Denice Kronau 

Siemens AG 

Tracy Miller 

Pfizer Inc. 

Susan Silbermann 

Pfizer Inc. 

Melinda Wolfe 

Bloomberg LP

ABout tHE AutHoRS 

SyLvIA Ann HEWLEtt is an economist and the founding President of the Center for Work-Life Policy, 

a non-profit think tank where she chairs the “Hidden Brain Drain,” a task force of 70 global companies 

committed to global talent innovation. She also directs the Gender and Policy Program at the School of 

International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Dr. Hewlett is a member of the Council on Foreign 

Relations and the World Economic Forum Council on Women’s Empowerment. She is the author of 10 

Harvard Business Review articles and 11 critically acclaimed nonfiction books including Off-Ramps and 

On-Ramps and Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets (Harvard Business Press, 2011). Her writings 

have appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and the International Herald Tribune, 

and she is a featured blogger on Harvard Business Online and Forbes. In 2011 she received the Isabel 

Benham Award from the Women’s Bond Club and Woman of the Year Award from the Financial Women’s 

Association. She is a frequent guest on television, appearing on Oprah, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie 

Rose, the Today Show and Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo. Hewlett has taught at Cambridge, 

Columbia and Princeton universities. A Kennedy Scholar and graduate of Cambridge University, she earned 

her PhD in economics at London University. 

RIPA RASHId, Executive Vice President at the Center for Work-Life Policy, has worked across Europe, the 

Americas, and Asia-Pacific, and held senior diversity roles at Booz Allen Hamilton and MetLife. Prior to her 

focus on talent management, Rashid spent over 10 years as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, 

PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Mitchell Madison Group, where she served global clients in media and 

financial services. She is the coauthor with Sylvia Ann Hewlett of “The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging 

Markets” (Harvard Business Review), a series of BRIC country reports, and Winning the War for Talent in 

Emerging Markets (Harvard Business Press). Rashid has been featured by Fox News, Bloomberg, Newsweek, 

South China Morning Post, and China Radio International. She holds an AB cum laude in astronomy and 

astrophysics from Harvard University, an MA in anthropology from New York University, and an MBA from 

INSEAD. 

WItH 


AnnE ERnI is Head of Leadership, Learning and Diversity at Bloomberg LP. Her responsibilities include 

talent management initiatives such as succession planning, executive coaching and professional development 

programs. Prior to joining Bloomberg, she was the Chief Diversity Officer at Lehman Brothers whose global 

responsibilities included the recruiting, retention and advancement of women and under-represented groups. 

She led the development of cutting-edge strategies for workforce, marketplace and supplier diversity and 

the work-life integration agenda including the award-winning Encore program. Erni has more than 15 years 

of front line experience having spent 10 years on the trading floor in both fixed income and prime brokerage 

sales and five years in corporate banking. Prior to joining Lehman she worked for Bankers Trust and Swiss 

Bank Corporation. She holds a BA from The Johns Hopkins University and an MBA degree in international 

relations and economics from The John Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies. 

CAtHERInE FREdMAn is Managing Editor at the Center for Work-Life Policy. She collaborated on Winning 

the War for Talent in Emerging Markets: Why Women Are the Solution and Top Talent: Keeping Performance 

Up When Business Is Down, as well as contributing to numerous CWLP research reports, articles and blogs. 

She has coauthored five best-selling business books, including Direct from Dell with Michael Dell, Only 

the Paranoid Survive with Andy Grove, and Use the News with Maria Bartiromo, and has written memoirs 

with Andy Grove (Swimming Across) and for the Dell family. She is an award-winning magazine editor for 

consumer and corporate publications. Fredman is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. 

i

LAuRA SHERBIn is Senior Vice President, Director of Research at the Center for Work-Life Policy where 

she heads up CWLP’s survey research. She is an economist specializing in workforce issues and gender. 

She is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University 

teaching “Women and Globalization.” She is coauthor of Harvard Business Review articles “How Gen 

Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda,” “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited,” “The Relationship 

You Need to Get Right” and Harvard Business Manager article “Letzte Ausfahrt Babypause,” Harvard 

Business Review Research Reports The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering 

and Technology and The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling. She is a graduate of the 

University of Delaware and earned her PhD in economics from American University. 

MELIndA B. WoLFE heads Professional Development at Bloomberg LP, overseeing a full continuum 

of human capital management responsibilities. She has led talent management initiatives at five major 

companies over her career beginning at Merrill Lynch where she first served as an investment banker for 

public and private sector clients for 14 years before being selected to head the Office of Diversity Strategy 

and Programs. Subsequently she directed the Office of Global Recruiting and Training at Credit Suisse 

and later joined Goldman Sachs where she rose to Managing Director and Head of Global Leadership and 

Diversity. In 2007 she joined American Express as Senior Vice President, Talent Management and Chief 

Diversity Officer. Wolfe chairs the National Council for Research on Women’s Corporate Circle and serves as 

a Commissioner for the NYC Mayor’s Commission on Women’s Issues. She holds positions as Adjunct Faculty 

member and Advisory Board member at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. 

Wolfe received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and an MPA degree from 

the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

ii 

THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

ACknoWLEdGEMEntS 


the authors would like to thank the study sponsors—Bloomberg LP, Booz 

& Company, Intel, Pfizer, Siemens AGs—for their generous support. In 

addition, we are deeply grateful to the co-chairs of the Hidden Brain Drain Task 

Force—Barbara Adachi, Jim Bush, Anthony Carter, Jennifer Christie, Deborah Elam, 

Anne Erni, Gail Fierstein, Patricia Fili-Krushel, Cassandra Frangos, Wema Hoover, 

Rosalind Hudnell, Patricia Langer, Carolyn Buck Luce, Mark McLane, Lisa Garcia 

Quiroz, Karyn Twaronite, Melinda Wolfe and Helen Wyatt—for their vision and 

commitment. 

Special thanks to the Hidden Brain Drain “The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging 

Markets” advisors and lead sponsors: DeAnne Aguirre, Anne Erni, Rosalind 

Hudnell, Denice Kronau, Tracy Miller, Susan Silbermann, and Melinda Wolfe. 

We are indebted to Center for Work-Life Policy staff members Joseph Cervone, 

Courtney Emerson, Christina Farngoli, Claire Ho, Lawrence Jones, Melinda 

Marshall, Ripa Rashid, Peggy Shiller and Jessica Tregeagle for their research and 

editorial talents. We also want to thank Bill McCready, Stefan Subias and the team 

at Knowledge Networks who expertly guided the research and were an invaluable 

resource throughout the course of this study. 

Thanks to the members of the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force for their guidance, 

ideas and collaborative energy: Elaine Aarons, DeAnne Aguirre, Amy Alving, Rohini 

Anand, Renee Anderson, Diane Ashley, Terri Austin, Subha Barry, Ann Beynon, 

Brian Bules, Fiona Cannon, Daina Chiu, Chevy Cleaves, Ilene Cohn, Desiree Dancy, 

Nancy Di Dia, Melvin Fraser, Edward Gadsden, Michelle Gadsden-Williams, Trevor 

Gandy, Heide Gardner, Tim Goodell, Laurie Greeno, Kathy Hannan, Kara Helander, 

Henry Hernandez, Jr., Ginger Hildebrand, Kathryn Himsworth, Ann Hollins, Sunita 

Holzer, Gilli Howarth, Celia Pohani Huber, Nia Joynson-Romanzina, Someera 

Khokhar, Denice Kronau, Frances Laserson, Kedibone Letlaka-Rennert, Janice 

Little, Yolanda Londono, Yolanda Mangolini, Cindy Martinangelo, Lori Massad, 

Linda Matti, Donna-Marie Maxfield, Ana Duarte McCarthy, Piyush Mehta, Carmen 

Middleton, Judith Nocito, Lynn O’Connor, Juliana Oyegun, Pamela Paul, Sherryann 

Plesse, Monica Poindexter, Kari Reston, Farrell Redwine, Ellen Rome, Jody Russell, 

Carly Sanchez, Jeffrey Siminoff, Debbie Storey, Sarah Stuart, Eileen Taylor, Geri 

Thomas, NV “Tiger” Tyagarajan, Lynn Utter, Anne Weisberg, Jo Weiss, Maggie 

Williams, Joan Wood, Meryl Zausner and Fatemeh Ziai. 

Finally, thanks to Joanne Alam, Lisandro Ambrozio, Vanessa Bateson, Amanda 

Bennett, Patricia Braga, Samara Braga, Valentino Carlotti, Adriana Ferreira, Ariel 

Fleichman, Arine Hadidian, Kewal Handa, Leslie Goldenberg, Marcela Gomez, 

Betsy Silva Hernandez, Lisa Kassenaar, Satya Menard, Keerthana Mohan, Ieda 

Novais, Maria Ordenez, Maria Lucia Rocha-Coutinho, Yula Rocha, Elluany 

Rodriguez, Andrea Salgueiro Cruz Lima, Amy Schulman, Raquel Trindade, Robin 

Vince, Hildete Vodopives, Meriel Ward—and the women and men who took part in 

focus groups and interviews. 

iii


ContEntS 


About the Authors i 

Acknowledgements iii 

Abstract 1 

key Findings 3 

Introduction 5 

Chapter 1: the Changing Face of talent 9 

Chapter 2: A Complex Web of Pulls 13 

Chapter 3: Push Factors at Work 19 

Chapter 4: Conclusion 27 

Chapter 5: What Should Companies do? 29 

Appendix 45 

Methodology 54 

the Hidden Brain drain task Force 55 

Index of Exhibits 59 

Endnotes 60 

v


ABStRACt 


Heralded for decades as “the land of the future,” Brazil today is a country 

whose future has arrived. The seventh largest economy in 2011, Brazil is one 

of the fastest-growing markets in the world. Further fueled by such high-profile events 

as the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

presents the best conditions among the BRICs for sustained growth over the next few 

years, and by the end of the decade, it is expected to leapfrog Germany, Great Britain 

and France to become the fifth largest economy in the world. 1 

Yet the continued economic success of Brazil—and that of the multinational 

corporations whose growth plans depend on this expanding market—depends on 

solving a looming problem: a cut-throat war for highly skilled, qualified talent. Topnotch 

talent is hard to find. A 2010 Towers Watson study found that 81 percent of 

businesses in Brazil reported difficulties identifying talent with critical skills, a situation 

described in another analysis as a “brain strain.” 2 With the demand for skilled, highly 

qualified workers continuing to outpace supply, competition for the best and the 

brightest in Brazil is sure to remain intense. 

This new study from the Center for Work-Life Policy, a New York-based think tank, 

sponsored by Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer and Siemens AG, finds that 

the solution to Brazil’s talent crunch is hiding in plain sight: educated Brazilian women. 

Forget stereotypes of supermodels and bikini-clad beauties on Copacabana 

beach. Female talent in Brazil is seriously impressive. Women represent 60 percent 

of the million-plus university graduates entering the Brazilian labor force. Indeed, 

there is an“achievement gap” with women outplacing men in terms of performance 

in the tertiary education sector. In addition, like their counterparts in other emerging 

markets, the vast majority of college-educated Brazilian women are highly ambitious: 

80 percent aspire to hold a top job, compared to 52 percent of their American 

counterparts. 

Yet little attention has been devoted to understanding a female talent pool newly 

essential to the success of any employer wanting to “win” in the Brazilian marketplace. 

What attributes do well-qualified Brazilian women share? As the first generation 

to graduate from university in sizable numbers, what is the scope of their aspirations? 

How does their culture support or derail their career progress? And given an 

unprecedented opportunity to craft “first out of the gate” policies and processes, 

what can multinational organizations—both U.S.- and Europe-based and Brazilianheadquartered—do 

to attract and retain this key tranche of talent? 

1

2 


Pulls and Pushes 

As in all other realms of life in Brazil, attitudes towards women and work are in 

rapid transition. In spite of the lingering influence of patriarchal traditions, Brazilian 

society is more supportive of female careers than other BRIC nations: 92 percent 

of women and 86 percent of men find it socially acceptable for women with small 

children to pursue a career. Still, so much is expected of Brazilian women in their 

roles as wives, mothers and daughters that “pull factors” still have the power to 

derail promising careers. 

In Brazilian culture, the home is seen as the woman’s domain. “It’s okay to be 

a successful professional as long as you know your priorities,” explains a Brazilian 

news correspondent. “Career ambition is well-regarded so long as you are 

perceived as being a good mother and a good daughter.” 

Working mothers can aim high, in part, because they have more shoulders 

to lean on than their American and European peers. Thanks to the parentela—the 

network of extended kin—parents and in-laws frequently pitch in to help care for 

the grandchildren. Almost half of full-time working mothers in Brazil rely on parents 

or in-laws for childcare. And 91 percent of women and 87 percent of men find 

daycare solutions socially acceptable. 

But while childcare may not be a heavy burden, eldercare is—and will only 

get worse, as longer lifespans and an aging population stretch an already strained 

social security system. More than two-thirds—69 percent—of the women surveyed 

already have eldercare responsibilities; a third provide regular financial support 

to their parents (contributing an average of 23 percent of their annual income) and 

some 44 percent experience “daughterly guilt,” and see the trade-off between time 

spent at work and time spent with elders as a point of pain in their lives. 

“Push factors” rooted in the workplace also shape Brazilian women’s work 

experiences. Male chauvinism isn’t flaunted in Brazil, as it is in, say, Mexico, or 

some other Latin American countries, but deeply rooted prejudices about a 

woman’s ability and commitment to work can impact career in a range of ways, 

from curtailed assignments to smaller salaries to penalties for taking maternity 

leave. More than a quarter (26%) of Brazilian women and 23 percent of men 

believe that women are treated unfairly because of their gender and 40 percent of 

educated Brazilian women have encountered bias severe enough to make them 

consider scaling back their career ambitions or leaving the workforce entirely. Role 

models are rare, and Brazilian women were among the least likely among BRIC 

women surveyed to have a sponsor (30%) or mentor (58%). 

A particularly powerful push factor in Brazil is safety. Brazilian women routinely 

experience violence and danger on the streets. Sixty-two percent of our female 

survey participants—the highest among all the BRIC countries—report feeling 

unsafe while commuting to work. All of our interviewees either knew someone 

who had been assaulted at gunpoint or had first-hand experience of dangerous 

encounters. According to one woman, the attacks are especially violent in large 

cities. “In a small city they break your car window and steal your radio. In São 

Paulo, they put a gun to your head and say, ‘Let’s go to the ATM.’” 

Particularly because women see themselves as more vulnerable than men, 

safety concerns exert a disproportionately large influence on their decisions about 

whether to work and where to work. Unless companies do more to ensure the 

safety of their female employees, highly qualified Brazilian women may quit or look 

elsewhere.


Conclusion 

The rapid expansion of Brazil’s economy has opened up an unprecedented range 

of professional opportunities for educated women. Many multinationals already 

rely on this growing cadre of “white-collar” professional women. Yet they have 

done so with little understanding or systematic analysis of the complicated career 

dynamics of this rich talent pool. 

For global companies operating in Brazil, a deeper understanding of the 

aspirations, challenges and opportunities facing educated women is the surest 

route to solving a looming talent constraint. By creating the policies and practices 

that tap into the vast potential of female talent in Brazil, forward-thinking companies 

can gain lasting competitive advantage. Of all of the dreams in “the land of the 

future,” this has the most power to propel and sustain growth. 

key Findings 

• Women represent 60 percent of the million-plus university graduates entering 

the Brazilian labor force, contributing to an “achievement gap” between 

women and men. 

• 80 percent of well-qualified Brazilian women aspire to top jobs, compared to 

52 percent of their U.S. counterparts; 59 percent consider themselves very 

ambitious, compared to 36 percent in the U.S. 

• These women display impressive levels of commitment to career: 81 percent 

love their work, a figure higher than in the U.S. (71%), and 95 percent are loyal 

to their employer, with 58 percent intending to stay at their current job for three 

or more years. 

• More than a quarter (28%) of highly-qualified Brazilian women working fulltime 

out-earn their husbands. 

• Although Brazilian women professionals have multiple “shoulders to lean on” 

for childcare, cultural pressure to place family above career can be heavy, 59 

percent experience maternal guilt and 44 percent deal with daughterly guilt. 

• Some 69 percent of Brazilian women have significant eldercare responsibilities 

and many provide financial support for their parents. This support averages 

approximately 13,000 reais—23 percent of their annual income. 

• More than a quarter (26%) of Brazilian women and 23 percent of Brazilian 

men believe that women are treated unfairly in the workplace because of their 

gender. 

• Brazilian women are among the least likely among BRIC women surveyed to 

have a sponsor (30%) or mentor (58%). 

• 40 percent of educated Brazilian women consider scaling back their career 

ambitions or leaving the workforce because of bias and discrimination. 

• For Brazilian women, the public sector is an attractive alternative to privatesector 

employment, with 65 percent describing the public sector as very 

desirable, a much higher number than those who see a U.S.- or Europeanbased 

multinational (53%) or a local company (49%) as very desirable places 

to work. The top reasons: job security, benefits and work-life balance. 

• Safety is a significant concern: 62 percent of our Brazilian women—the highest 

among BRIC countries—report feeling unsafe while commuting to work. 

3

4 


IntRoduCtIon 


In 1941, Austrian novelist and playwright Stefan Zweig traveled to Brazil and fell 

in love. His infatuation found expression in a book, Brazil: Land of the Future, 

in which he predicted that the country “was destined to become one of the 

most important factors in the development of our world.” 3 Zweig may have been 

Brazil’s most eloquent advocate but he was neither the first of a long line of foreign 

adventurers, entrepreneurs, investors and seasoned businessmen to promote the 

country’s potential nor the last to watch their dreams of wealth implode in a series 

of booms and inevitable busts: lumber, sugar, cotton, gold, coffee, rubber… so 

many that Zweig’s book became the basis for a joke: “Brazil is the land of the future 

and always will be.” 

Today, though, the consensus is that the future is finally here. The Brazilian 

economy has been on a steady upswing over the last decade. Under the marketwise 

policies of Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the 1990s and his successors, 

Brazil has managed to conquer triple-digit inflation, pay off foreign debt and 

expand at an average rate of 4 percent per year over the last decade. These days, 

Brazil is among the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world, one of the 

vital quartet of “BRIC” (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations. 

As such, Brazil is pivotal to the ongoing shift in global economic power from 

mature to developing markets. Notwithstanding vast class inequities, epitomized 

by the entrenched desperation of the infamous favelas, or slums, unemployment is 

at record lows and the growth of the middle class continues to surge. 4 The seventh 

largest economy in the world in 2011, Brazil’s economic miracle is projected to 

continue full force, further fueled by such high-profile events as the 2014 Football 

World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. 5 According to Goldman 

Sachs, Brazil presents the best conditions among the BRICs for sustained growth 

over the next few years, and by the end of the next decade, is expected to leapfrog 

Germany, Great Britain and France to become the fifth largest consumer market in 

the world. 6 

One key ingredient of the Brazilian economic phenomenon, however, is 

seldom discussed and little analyzed: the invaluable contribution of Brazilian 

women to their country’s metamorphosis. Much of the existing literature on gender 

in Brazil derives from the field of development economics and focuses exclusively 

on empowering women in the lower half of the socio-economic scale. Although 

5

12 

10 

Figure 1: 


Brazil’s annual GDP growth rate 1991 - 2011 (percent) 

8 

7.5 

6 

4 

5.9 

4.9 

4.2 

3.4 

4.3 

6.1 

5.7 

5.2 

4.0 

3.2 

4.5 

2.7 

2 1.0 

2.2 

1.3 

1.1 

% 0 

0.3 

0.0 

-0.5 

-0.6 

years ‘91 ‘92 ‘93 ‘94 ‘95 ‘96 ‘97 ‘98 ‘99 ‘00 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 

-2 Source: International Monetary Fund database. 

y91 y92 y93 y94 y95 y96 y97 y98 y99 y00 y01 y02 y03 y04 y05 y06 y07 y08 y09 y10 y11 extra extra extra extra extra extra 

150 

120 

90 

60 

30 

Figure 2: 

0 

2000 

G7 BRICs 

6 

2010 

poverty is an indisputable and critical 

reality for a multitude of Brazilian women, 

our research seeks to draw attention to 

an altogether different narrative, that of 

the growing legions of highly educated 

“white-collar” women professionals in 

Brazil. 

What is remarkable about the story 

of women in Brazil is the incredible pace 

and scale of change. Women received 

full legal equality only in 1988; now, a 

mere generation later, a woman is the 

head of state. In 2010, Dilma Rousseff 

was elected Brazil’s first female president 

and has since emerged as a star on the 

global stage. Her inaugural year in office 

has not been without bumps, with GDP growth slowing from 7.5 percent in 2010 to 

an estimated 4 percent in 2011. 7 The country has also been plagued by a series 

of high-profile corruption scandals within her government and concerns about 

overvaluation of its currency and rising inflation. Still, Ms. Rousseff’s leadership 

clout has been recognized far and wide: in 2011, she was ranked the third most 

powerful woman in the world (behind Angela Merkel and Hilary Clinton) by Forbes 

and in September of the same year, she became the first woman in history to open 

the United Nations General Assembly. 8 Since taking office, she has named at least 

eight women to cabinet posts—more than have ever held positions in a Brazilian 

government. 9 

Women have also gained clout in Brazil’s business sector. Fifty percent of 

all jobs in the “Best Companies to Work for—Brazil” in Rio de Janeiro are held 

by women. 10 Even more impressive, Brazilian women are striding into senior 

management in far greater numbers than in the United States. According to recent 

reports, women hold 29 percent of senior positions in privately held companies 

and comprise 11 percent of CEOs 

BRICs will have a larger US$ GDP than the G7 in less than 40 years 

GdP (2007 uS$ trillions). 

124.2 

63.9 

56.6 

32.2 

38.8 

46.6 

42.7 

22 

9.3 

2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 

2020 

2030 

75.9 

2040 

Source: Projection data from Goldman Sachs, most recent available as of May 17, 2010. 

of large companies (compared to 20 

percent and 3 percent, respectively, in 

the United States). 11 Among privately 

held firms, 59 percent have female 

participation in ownership, one of the 

highest figures for the BRIC countries 

and significantly greater than the OECD 

average of 32 percent. 12 

BRIC 

G6 

The Brazilian business 

landscape offers many examples of 

successful women, whether at locally 

headquartered companies or in 

multinationals: Fatima Raimondi became 

the first Brazilian and the first woman to 

test become the president of telecom giant 

Ericsson’s Brazilian business unit; Nadir 

Moreno, promoted to UPS Brazil country


manager in 2007, is the first female executive to lead the company’s operations 

in the region; Regina Nuñes heads up Standard & Poor’s in Brazil. Others have 

succeeded in building and growing their own businesses. After a successful career 

in hotel management, Chieko Aoki founded Blue Tree Hotels, one of the largest 

hotel chains in Brazil. Ana Lucia Sierra launched Age with two (male) partners 

in 2000. Today, it’s one of Brazil’s leading advertising agencies, twice winning 

Brazilian advertising’s top industry award. 

These women represent the vanguard of a host of ambitious and qualified 

women pouring into the Brazilian workforce. Between 1980 and 2008, Brazil had 

one of the highest increases in women’s labor force participation rate in the world, 

from 38 percent to 60 percent of women age 15 and up, a figure close to that in 

the United States and Western Europe. 13 Access to education has played a big 

part. Today, one in three college-age women are enrolled in tertiary education 

and women represent an extraordinary 60 percent of the nation’s annual class of 

university graduates. 14 

This influx of talent into Brazil’s educated workforce can’t happen a moment 

too soon, as a growing number of global companies pin their hopes for growth on 

Brazil’s burgeoning economy. “Brazil is becoming as relevant as the U.S. and some 

European markets for global companies in certain industries,” observes Ariel 

Fleichman, a principal with Booz & Company. As the economy shifts from low-cost 

manufacturing and commodity-based industries, Fleichman notes, “It is becoming 

a center of excellence and, of course, that increases the demand for 

talent.” 

In fact, Brazil is already embroiled in a war for top talent that 

is as heated as in any of the emerging markets. As the economy 

expands, the hunt for talent “has accelerated a lot,” says Satya 

Menard, executive president for Sodexo Central and South 

America. “A week doesn’t pass without me personally having to 

intervene with an employee who is lured by another [company’s] 

offer.” With the company’s Brazilian operations growing at 20 

percent a year, Menard says, “this is a real challenge—not only for 

us but for our clients.” 

A 2010 Towers Watson study found that 81 percent of 

businesses in Brazil reported difficulties identifying talent with 

critical skills, a situation described in another analysis as a “brain 

strain.” 15 In certain specialized and highly technical disciplines, 

such as engineering, the shortage is especially acute: in 2009, 

for instance, Brazil generated 38,000 engineering graduates for a 

market that has an estimated demand for 60,000 engineers. 16 With the demand for 

skilled, highly qualified workers continuing to outpace supply, competition for the 

best and the brightest is sure to remain intense. 

The solution to the talent crunch has been hiding in plain sight: educated 

Brazilian women—who remain relatively under-utilized and under-leveraged. But to 

effectively recruit, develop and advance this valuable talent pool, employers need 

a clearer understanding of the unique needs and aspirations of qualified female 

talent in Brazil. 

Our research rests upon two fundamental premises: first, that educated women 

in Brazil in no way lag behind their counterparts in developed markets; and 

second, that they are not Latin American clones of Western women professionals. 

It is only through a nuanced understanding of the complex realities of this 

valuable talent pool that employers can begin to “get it right,” that is, to establish 

the processes and systems for managing talent which allow qualified women to 

flourish and contribute as fully as their male peers. 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Figure 3: 

Female participation in the labor force 

Percent of female population ages 15-64 

64% 69% 

36% 

75% 

Brazil Russia India China 

u.S. uk 

7 

69% 69% 

Source: World Bank database, 2008 data, most recent 

available.

8 


1 

CHAPtER 1: 

the Changing Face of talent 


those whose concept of Brazilian female talent is based on stereotypes of 

supermodels and bikini-clad beauties on Copacabana beach are in for a 

surprise. In actuality, Brazilian women have become central to the nation’s economy 

as they have availed themselves of a vastly expanded array of educational and 

professional opportunities that were simply not there a generation ago. 

unprecedented opportunities 

Consider the representation of women in Brazil’s universities, one of the largest 

tertiary education systems in the world: women comprise 60 percent of the 

million-plus university graduates, contributing to an “achievement gap” over 

men. 17 The tranche of educated women in Brazil is by no means limited to an elite 

or exceptional slice of the population; in fact, 34 percent of all college-age women 

are enrolled in tertiary education, a figure sure to rise in 

parallel with the expansion of Brazil’s middle class. 18 

It’s impossible to overemphasize the impact of Brazil’s 

burgeoning middle class in broadening horizons for smart 

and ambitious women. With more and more so-called 

“Class C” families making the leap out of poverty— 

contributing to the expansion of the middle class from 37 

percent of the population in 2003 to 55 percent in 2010, as 

noted by economist Marcelo Neri—an increasing number 

of parents are able to invest in their daughters’ education. 19 

And as their families move up the economic ladder, these 

women are imbued with a deep-seated belief in the value 

of hard work and opportunity. “Always work hard, be 

successful at what you do,” was a family mantra for one 

banking executive we interviewed, while an HR leader 

underscored how her aspirations had been shaped by the 

confidence that “you can do better than your parents.” 

60 60 60 60 60 

50 50 50 50 50 

40 40 40 40 40 

30 30 30 30 30 

20 20 20 20 20 

10 10 10 10 10 

Our survey findings reflect the tremendous increases in opportunity for 

Brazilian women over the last two decades: 52 percent of female respondents 

are the first in their immediate family to graduate from college, on top of which 

0 

Figure 1.1: 

Women as percent of college graduates in BRIC countries 

60% 

0 0 0 0 

57% 

39% 

47% 

58% 58% 

Brazil Russia India China u.S. uk 

(enrollment) (enrollment) 

9 

United United Unite Sta Un U 

us us us us 

China China Chin Ch C 

India India India Ind In 

Russia Russia Russ Ru 

Brazil Brazil Braz Bra Br

Figure 1.2: 

Percent of college age population enrolled in tertiary education 

in BRIC countries 

60 60 60 60 60 

45 45 45 45 45 

30 30 30 30 30 

15 15 15 15 15 

0 

34% 

26% 

0 

0 

0 

Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Russia Brazil Russia Russia Russia Russia India India India India China India China China China China UAE UAE UAE UAE 

W M W M W M W M W M 

Brazil Russia India 

Women/Men 

China uAE 

an impressive 31 percent have graduate-level 

education. While fewer than half (44%) come from 

families where their mothers worked, 75 percent 

are themselves active in the labor force. 

The life journeys of first-generation college 

graduates such as Tania Mijas, a senior executive 

at GE Brazil, illustrate the impact of these shifts. 

The daughter of an illiterate farm worker, Mijas 

grew up picking cotton alongside her mother 

and brothers before she was ten years old. 

She worked her way out of poverty, put herself 

through university, and today is in charge of GE 

Healthcare’s Latin American sourcing operations. 

“When I was little, we didn’t have electricity. And 

now imagine: I’m at GE,” she marvels. She lives in 

an impressive house, drives a company car, sends 

her sons to private school, and makes twice as 

much money as her husband. When her two 

boys visit her at work, they admire her office, her 

laptop, her many awards. “They say, ‘I want to be 

just like my mom.’” 

In fact, mothers are a major force in 

shaping the ambitions of today’s generation of 

educated Brazilian women. Behind the scenes 

of a traditional patriarchal society, mothers have 

pushed their daughters not to follow in their 

footsteps, a factor mentioned time and again in 

our interviews. Maria Lucia Rocha-Coutinho, a 

professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro 

(UFRJ), and at Salgado de Oliveira University 

who has studied Brazilian women in leadership, 

explains, “Young women today were commanded 

by their mothers: ‘Don’t be like me. Be financially 

independent. Have a career.’” 

Her finding was echoed by many women in 

our focus groups, regardless of their economic 

10 

0 

86% 

64% 

10% 14% 


23% 23% 

35% 

status or education level. “There’s the 

sense that now is different from the 

past,” observed one female banker. 

“Many of us grew up with mothers 

who were financially dependent on our 

men men men 

fathers, women women women and that is one of the reasons 

we are so motivated to strive to be 

financially independent.” 

15% 

A Highly Motivated talent Pool 

UAE 

We find that the extraordinary drive, 

ambition and motivation propels 

record numbers of Brazilian women 

into tertiary education continues 

full-force into their professional lives. Like their 

counterparts in other emerging markets, the vast 

majority of college-educated Brazilian women are 

highly ambitious, and incredibly committed and 

engaged in their work. The survey results speak 

for themselves: 80 percent aspire to hold a top 

job, 81 percent love their jobs and 95 percent are 

loyal to their employers. 

Figure 1.3: 

Brazilian women’s increase in access and opportunity 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

men men 

women women 

52% 

college 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

First in immediate 

family to graduate 

from college 

100 

This last finding roundly counters conventional 

portrayals of top talent in emerging markets as 

fickle and prone to job-hopping as they’re lured 

by ever more lucrative paychecks. These figures 

appear even more impressive when compared to 

similar data for the United States, where a mere 36 

percent of college-educated women claim to be 

very ambitious and 93 percent loyal. 

What fuels these overwhelmingly positive 

attitudes towards work? A 2009 special report 

in The Economist observed that Luiz Inacio Lula 

da Silva, Brazil’s charismatic president between 

2003 to 2010, was often mocked for beginning 

80 

60 

40 

31% 

20 

75% 

0 

0 

degree collegeactivedegreecollege 

big activedegree 

big active 

Have a 

graduate 

degree 

Active in the 

labor force 

big


Figure 1.4: 

Brazilian women’s attitudes towards work 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

80% 

aspire 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

Aspire to hold 

a top job 

100 

80 

81% 

60 

40 

20 

0 

0 

love aspire loyal love aspire big loyal love 

his sentences with the phrase “never before in 

the history of this country…” 20 An explanation of 

women’s ambition and aspiration in Brazil might 

well begin with this very phrase. Simply put, 

ambition and engagement among professional 

women are influenced by the unprecedented 

opportunities opened up by the nation’s 

economic boom. 

When we consider the top professional 

motivators for Brazilian women, we discover that 

a number of aspects of work are valued as much 

as or more than pure compensation or prestige: 

being oneself at work (99%); job security (98%); 

quality of colleagues (97%); having access to a 

new range of experiences (96%); and intellectual 

stimulation (96%) are all top picks for women. In 

sharp contrast, compensation—the centerpiece 

of the traditional employee value proposition— 

was the top pick of most, in fact 100 percent, of 

educated Brazilian men. 

Employers are noticing these trends— 

and hiring accordingly. “When you look at 

the statistics, [women] are graduating at rates 

higher than average from some of the best 

schools and institutions, so they’re among the 

best trained,” observes Valentino Carlotti, who 

heads up Goldman Sachs Brazil. For me,” he 

concludes, “when you look at who’s coming into 

the workforce and what they can mean for the 

development of human capital, it’s a no-brainer 

that women are a competitive advantage.” 

Brazilian women are keenly aware of 

the importance of recognition and career 

development opportunities. A number of 

the senior women we spoke to noted that 

they had turned down more lucrative offers 

with competitors, preferring to work for an 

organization that allowed career growth and 

leadership opportunities for women. “Work for 

women is not just for the money, it’s the content 

big 

95% 

loyal 

Love their job Loyal to their 

employer 

big 

and doing something you believe in,” said a 

female managing director at an investment bank. 

“For women, it’s easy to say, ‘I’m not going to 

work, I’ll just take care of my child.’ Women who 

work do so because they really like the job and 

they like what they do.” 

Work as a necessity: 

the Rise of the dual-Income Household 

In reality, economic pressures mean that work is 

increasingly a necessity rather than an option for 

educated Brazilian women. The cost of living and 

inflation have skyrocketed, especially over the last 

two years. In 2011, Mercer Consulting ranked São 

Paulo and Rio the 10th and 12th most expensive 

cities in the world, far ahead of New York (32nd), 

London (18th) and Oslo (15th), which have been 

long known to be enormously expensive. 21 In 

this environment, dual-career households have 

become a way of supplying the basics of a 

middle-class life. 

Figure 1.5: 

Brazilian women’s top motivators at work 

Being able to be myself 

Job security 

Quality of colleagues 

Access to a new range 

of experiences 

Intellectual stimulation 

Compensation 

99% 

a 

ba 

ba 

b 

98% 

b 

c 

97% 

dc 

dc 

d 

96% 

d 

e 

e 

f 

0 

f0 

f 0 

20 

20 

20 

20 

40 

40 

40 

40 

60 

60 

60 

60 

96% 

80 100 

80 100 

80 100 

80 96% 100 

0 

20 

20 

40 

40 

60 

60 

80 

80 

100 

100 

At the same time, as many Brazilian 

professionals have grown accustomed to a 

higher standard of living, women’s incomes have 

become more critical to financing discretionary 

expenses such as vacations and luxury goods. 

One executive, commenting on the trend among 

Brazilian women of returning to work after a 

relatively abbreviated maternity leave, cited 

the “need to work to complement the family’s 

income.” 

Interestingly, we find that women in Brazil are 

11

not merely complementing household income 

but in many cases bringing in the lion’s share. 

Among the BRIC countries, Brazil has the highest 

percentage of educated women working full time 

who earn more than their spouse, 28 percent, a 

figure not far off from that for the U.S. (39%). 

The growing financial responsibilities of 

women have also meant shifts on the home front, 

Figure 1.6: 

Women working full-time who out-earn their spouse 

60 60 60 60 60 60 

50 50 50 50 50 50 

40 40 40 40 40 40 

30 30 30 30 30 30 

28% 

20 20 20 20 20 20 

10 10 10 10 10 10 

0 0 0 0 0 0 

Brazil Russia India China uAE u.S. 

a complex dynamic in Brazil’s traditionally maledominated 

society. Many of the successful women 

in our interviews spoke of having extremely 

supportive husbands who were more hands-on 

in the domestic sphere than the typical Brazilian 

male. Yet change is slow. For each professional 

woman with a supportive spouse, there are 

several with a radically different experience—of 

a husband who feels threatened by her income 

and professional clout, or with expectations for 

perfection on the home front. “A large portion 

of the male population in Brazil can still be 

considered chauvinists and do not accept the fact 

that their wives earn more money,” says a finance 

executive. The unfortunate fact is that Brazil has 

shockingly high levels of domestic violence, 

with ten women killed by domestic violence 

every day. 22 

For the present, the nature of Brazilian gender 

roles is in transition. Having a wife who has a 

successful career and is financially independent 

gives a man status, Maria Lucia Rocha-Coutinho 

explains, but only up to a point. “Men want a wife 

who works, who earns her own money, as long as 

they don’t earn much more money than he does. 

If it’s just a little more, that’s okay. If it’s much more, 

that’s not okay.” 

12 

19% 16% 20% 

42% 


39% 

A new Generation 

Samara Braga remembers that when she began 

working in finance some twenty-five years ago, 

“financial markets were not a place for women 

in Brazil—not at all. Then, finance and insurance 

companies and banks were places for men to 

work.” Today, the financial markets leader for 

Ernst & Young estimates that some 40 percent of 

the people working in the field are women. “Of 

course, these women are not yet at the same level 

of men,” she acknowledges. “But in ten years they 

will be.” 

United States States 

They certainly expect to be. “The new 

extra extra 

generation of women coming into the market 

uae doesn’t uae uae uae even think about when women were 

China a China minority China China in the workplace,” observes Booz 

& Company’s Ariel Fleichman. “They take it 

India India 

for granted that there is equal opportunity for 

Russia Russia 

everybody. It’s no longer an issue,” he says. “It’s 

Brazil Brazil not even a question.” 

There’s no doubt that ambitious Brazilian 

women are reshaping the workforce and the 

workplace. But given the demands that society 

places on them at home, it can be a struggle 

to balance their career ambition with family 

obligations. 

United States 

extra 

uae uae 

China 

India 

Russia 

Brazil

2 

CHAPtER 2: 

A Complex Web of Pulls 


Cristina Adib, Vice President of Value Team, a Brazil-based multinational 

consultancy, and the mother of a young daughter, observes that the more 

a woman “climbs” in life, the more challenges she faces. However, she feels this 

enriches a woman’s professional equity. In this way, she explains, “a woman today 

is paving the road of tomorrow.” 23 

Maybe so, but it’s a road peppered with potholes. Social pressures weigh 

heavily on Brazilian women; much is expected of them in their roles as wives, 

mothers and daughters, so much so that these “pull factors” have the power to 

derail promising careers. 

In Brazil’s traditionally machismo culture, the home is seen as the woman’s 

domain. “It’s okay to be a successful professional as long as you know your 

priorities,” explains Yula Rocha, a New York-based news correspondent for Brazil’s 

second-largest television network. “Career ambition is well-regarded so long as 

you are perceived as being a good mother and good daughter, and capable of 

doing everything.” 

Trying to balance demands at work and responsibilities at home is a “complex 

game,” says one executive, “fraught with the possibility of disappointment.” In a 

similar vein, a senior manager at a multinational bank tells us, “Society judges 

success to the extent to which I manage my home and family, not by how well I do 

at work.” As might be expected in a country that places such a high premium on 

physical attractiveness, women professionals are expected to excel at their job 

without sacrificing their appearance or femininity. An Austrian financial analyst, 

who moved to São Paulo after postings around Europe, was surprised by the 

importance of looking elegant and well-polished. “It’s hard to find time to get out of 

the office to get my nails done, but that’s important in Brazil,” she notes. 

Marriage and Motherhood First 

“A woman must never lose sight of the notion that her place is still the caretaker of 

the home,” says Patricia Braga, a senior manager at Pfizer Brazil. She explains what 

that entails: “She has to take care of the children’s homework, participate in school 

meetings, drive them to the doctor, plan the vacations, take care of domestic 

13

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Figure 2.1: 

Less encumbered by childcare 

Childcare options, full-time working moms 

47% 44% 

problems, go to the supermarket to supply 

the refrigerator and pantry, keep on top of her 

husband’s health, and take care of herself.” 

In spite of the emphasis placed on women’s 

household responsibilities, Brazilian women have 

plenty of shoulders to lean on on the childcare 

front. Within the close-knit parentela—the network 

of extended kin—parents and in-laws frequently 

live nearby and are willing to pitch in to help 

care for their grandchildren. Some 70 percent of 

our female respondents agree that it is socially 

acceptable for young children to be cared for 

by a family member other than the mother; 

among full-time working mothers surveyed, fully 

47 percent rely on their parents or in-laws for 

childcare. 

When it comes to childcare solutions outside 

the family, 75 percent of our female respondents 

find it socially acceptable to delegate the 

responsibility to a nanny or babysitter; in fact, 

25 percent of mothers working full time use 

domestic help. However, unlike in years past, the 

reliance on nannies is becoming a more difficult 

proposition for urban professionals as salaries 

for caregivers shoot through the roof. A recent 

article on the growing professionalization of 

childcare in Brazil cites a 34 percent increase in 

salaries for domestic workers between 2003 and 

2009, according to economist Marcelo Neri, with 

salaries for the most experienced and skilled 

childcare workers ranging as high as $3,000 to 

$4,000 per month! 24 

Still, the majority of the white-collar 

professionals we spoke to were able to afford 

some level of domestic help. “All of my friends 

have full-time nannies who sleep in the house 

14 

69% 

82% 

25% 

50% 


32% 

37% 

Parents/In-laws 

9% 

nanny/Caregiver daycare 

parents nany 


49% 

44% 

60% 

five days a week. Then they 

have a second nanny for 

the weekend,” says Yula 

Rocha. The heavy reliance 

on household help among 

Brazilian female professionals 

is giving rise to new 

terminology—some tonguein-cheek—which 

attempts to 

disguise the degree to which 

childcare is delegated: one 

daycare interviewee test spoke of her 

professional friends as having 

a “home secretary” in parallel 

to her “work secretary,” while a lawyer married to 

a CEO told us she was considering promoting her 

nanny to a personal assistant. 

As in all other realms of life in Brazil, attitudes 

towards women and work are in rapid transition. 

In spite of the lingering influence of patriarchal 

traditions on the home front, Brazil has the 

highest degree of social acceptance of working 

mothers among the BRIC countries: 92 percent of 

women and 86 percent of men finding it socially 

acceptable for women with small children to 

pursue a career, and 91 percent of women and 

87 percent of men find daycare solutions socially 

acceptable. 

Figure 2.2: 

Social acceptability of women with young children to work 

60 60 60 60 

45 45 45 45 

30 30 30 30 

15 15 15 15 

0 

92% 

86% 

81% 76% 

72% 68% 

77% 

70% 

W 

0 0 

M 

0 

W M W M W M 

Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Russia Russia Russia Russia India India India India China China China China UAE UAE UAE UAE 


Women/Men 

Perhaps as a result, our research finds 

that more Brazilian women consider it socially 

acceptable to place their children in daycare than 


India 

Russia 

Brazil 

men men menm 

women women womw

60 60 60 60 

45 45 45 45 

30 30 30 30 

15 15 15 15 

0 

Figure 2.3: 

Social acceptability of young children in daycare 

91% 87% 87% 85% 

60% 61% 

0W 

0 0M 

W M W M W M 



Women/Men 


87% 

80% 

their counterparts in other emerging markets. 

However, as our discussion of terminology 

implies, “outsourcing” childcare still raises 

eyebrows, even though 37 percent of full-time 

working mothers surveyed use daycare, and 

there’s a growing institutional infrastructure of 

nurseries, crèches and daycare centers. When 

Samara Braga decided to put her two young 

children into an all-day preschool, the financial 

markets leader for Ernst & Young encountered 

criticism from an unexpected source: her own 

family. “There were not many schools where kids 

could be all day long, but I found one that took 

them from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I was happy with the 

arrangement, and my husband was, too. But my 

two sisters were horrified. These are my sisters. 

Both have careers and are independent-minded 

women. But they were saying, ‘It’s too much for 

the babies being left all day when they are young.’ 

That’s the Brazilian mentality.” 

One other element of the Brazilian mentality 

that makes life a juggling act for working mothers 

is the hands-off philosophy of many Brazilian 

fathers. The availability of help notwithstanding— 

and for most professional women, domestic help 

is of paramount importance—the role of “minister 

of the interior,” that is, the management of the 

household and children, falls primarily to women. 

Among our survey respondents, 74 percent of 

full-time working mothers in Brazil bear more 

than half of the childcare responsibilities, the 

highest number in all the BRIC/UAE households 

surveyed. Among their U.S. counterparts, by 

comparison, only 56 percent of full-time working 

mothers shoulder more than half of the childcare 

duties. “I talk to my friends in Brazil—their 

husbands have never changed a diaper,” reports 

a Brazilian expatriate living in New York. “I don’t 

think they even wash a glass.” “It’s not easy being 

an executive and a mother,” confesses a partner 

at one of Rio de Janeiro’s top corporate litigation 

firms who has a 10-year-old daughter. “It’s 

extremely rewarding but it’s a double shift—no, 

really, a quadruple shift because I still have the 

routines with the house and the husband.” 25 

men men men men 

women women women 

Yet there are sure signs of change both 

among the younger generation just entering 

the workforce as well as women in their 30s and 

40s. “My husband helps a lot with the children. 

He does all the grocery shopping—that’s a big 

help,” notes a banking executive with two small 

children in a dual career household. “Although 

I’m the one who does the heavy lifting in terms of 

coordinating childcare, when I need something 

and ask, he’s willing to help.” 

Eldercare Pulls 

The role of “minister of the interior” for Brazilian 

women extends beyond managing the household 

and children. Brazilian women also bear 

substantial responsibility for taking care of their 

elders. Vast social changes notwithstanding, 

strong family ties remain an integral feature of 

Brazilian society, with eldercare pressures an 

important reality for the majority of educated 

Brazilian women: 69 percent of our female 

respondents report shouldering eldercare 

responsibilities, a significantly larger proportion 

than for the U.S., where the figure is 48 percent, 

(see figure 2.4). 

Brazilians’ definition of “family” extends 

beyond the immediate nuclear unit. Traditionally, 

as in most emerging markets, unmarried 

men and women live with their parents until 

marriage. Even after they marry and establish 

their own households, most Brazilians prefer 

whenever possible to live in close proximity 

to their families, and it is not uncommon to 

live in a multigenerational household with 

parents or in-laws. Fully 31 percent of Brazilian 

women over 30 in our survey live with their 

parents, a figure exceeded only by China and 

India. In spite of the unequivocally modern 

spirit among contemporary Brazilian women, 

15

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Figure 2.4: 

Eldercare responsibilities and options 

69% 

78% 

family is one arena where the force of tradition 

remains unaltered: a third of college-educated 

women provide regular financial support to 

their parents, contributing an average of 23 

percent of their annual income. Such support is 

not just appreciated but necessary, as an aging 

population and longer lifespans stretch a meager 

and strained social security system. 

In addition to financial support, Brazilian 

women are keenly aware of the emotional aspects 

of eldercare. We find that 44 percent of Brazilian 

women working full-time experience “daughterly 

guilt” as they juggle the trade-off between time 

spent at work and with their elders. 

Figure 2.5: 

Guilt: mothers and daughters working full-time 

44% 39% 

daughterly guilt Maternal guilt 

daughter maternal 


As in other aspects of family life, Brazilian 

women bear the lion’s share of eldercare 

responsibilities. Helping elderly parents with 

daily needs such as shopping or doctors’ visits 

16 

94% 95% 

Have eldercare 

eldercare 

challenges 

70% 

88% 

53% 

24% 

Willing to use 

hired help 


51% 

59% 65% 62% 


70% 

86% 

is commonplace, yet 

regardless of how heavy 

the pressure, eldercare is 

seldom perceived to be 

an obligation or burden. 

Instead, Brazilian women 

48% 

view their eldercare duties 

as a central and fundamental 

27% 

aspect of life, performed 

17% 

5% 

without question and out 

Willing to put in of affection. “My sisters 

assisted home living/home and I test support our parents, 

not only financially but 

also emotionally,” says a 

partner at a top professional 

services firm. “We stayed with my mother for six 

years when she was in and out of hospitals with 

cancer. We slept in the hospital, took her to the 

doctor. Yes, you take care of your parents but you 

feel good about it.” 

Further evidence of the strength of these 

emotional ties to elders is our finding on eldercare 

solutions: only 17 percent of Brazilian women 

would even consider institutional eldercare, one 

of the lowest figures among the BRICs. “We help 

my in-laws with everything, such as money and 

support. We try to do our best and try to give 

them all the security they need,” says Raquel 

Trindade, a senior manager at Sodexo. She and 

her husband contribute 16 percent of their annual 

income towards the care of his parents, in addition 

to which they spend one day every weekend 

with them. 

Raquel’s case illustrates that the assumption 

that daughters are the primary caregivers for 

elders in Brazil is slowly changing: her husband 

is clearly accountable for and heavily involved 

in caring for his own parents. “I see women 

asking more and more from their brothers and 

husbands,” says Samara Braga. “They say, ‘I’m 

taking care of my mother, yes, but I’m asking 

my brother to share this.’ Now in the office I hear 

many nomen 

complaining that test they’re sharing duties 

with 

their wives.” 

As yet, eldercare remains relatively 

manageable. As Brazil’s population remains 

overwhelmingly young, many professional 

women are fortunate enough to have parents 


India 

Russia 



India 

Russia 



who are still healthy and able, and readily able 

to provide childcare support to their daughters. 

Andrea Salgueiro Cruz Lima, Vice President of 

Unilever Brazil and head of personal care, one of 

the company’s biggest global business units, is a 

working mother of two girls ages 12 and 8. “My 

mother picks up my kids from school, plays with 

them, helps with their schoolwork,” she says. “She 

complements me and is an important person in 

my life.” 

Brazil’s prosperity is driving life expectancy 

up and birth rates down—trends which have 

already occurred in mature economies. As a 

consequence, eldercare is sure to become a more 

pressing concern for society as a whole, and for 

working women in particular. For someone like 

Andrea Salgueiro Cruz Lima, these shifts portend 

a wholesale reversal in the roles played by her 

mother and herself: in fact, in the future, she will 

be the one providing support and care for her 

mother rather than the other way around. 

17

18 


3 

CHAPtER 3: 

Push Factors at Work 


In December 2009, a multinational consumer-products company hired 

consultants specializing in gender diversity to assess the issue of bias in its 

Brazil operations and find out why so few women were making it into the higher 

levels of the organization. The company held focus groups and personal interviews 

with approximately 200 employees, both men and women. When one of its human 

resources directors saw the results, she recalls her first reaction: “Wow! We have 

two different companies here. There is one company where men are working and 

then there’s a different company where our women are working.” When men in 

the focus group were asked for their perception of career development, they gave 

overwhelmingly positive answers, “It’s great. We have great career opportunities. 

There is no difference between men and women.” When women were asked the 

same questions, their responses were the exact opposite: “You need to be twice as 

good as a man to get a better position.” 

How can the two very different sides of the same company be understood? 

The answer is complex and revolves around the “push factors” that shape 

Brazilian women’s career experiences. In this chapter we consider the top push 

factors identified in our research: hidden bias, international mobility, and safety 

considerations. A rigorous examination of these factors is essential for any forwardthinking 

company seeking to create an environment where highly qualified 

Brazilian women can contribute and flourish. 

Workplace Bias 

In spite of the tremendous gains in women’s status in Brazil over the last two 

decades, gender bias remains a subtle but indisputable reality of the workplace. 

Among our survey respondents, 26 percent of female respondents feel that women 

encounter bias in the workplace on account of their gender and 40 percent report 

that problems of bias are severe enough to make them consider quitting or scaling 

back. While these figures for Brazil are lower than our findings for India and China, 

they are significant nonetheless and have an influence on women’s vision of their 

own possibilities. Interestingly, 23 percent of male respondents feel that women 

encounter workplace bias, a share very close to that of their female counterparts. 

The similar response levels indicate that gender bias in Brazil is often overt and 

19

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

Figure 3.1: 

Women treated unfairly because of gender 

60 60 60 60 

45 45 45 45 

30 30 30 30 

26% 

23% 

15 15 15 15 

0 

0 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

0 0 0 

W M W M W M W M 



Women/Men 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

explicit, recognizable to both men and women, in 

contrast to the more “hidden” nature of biases in 

most mature markets. 

The most commonly encountered types 

of biases involve lingering stereotypes about 

women’s abilities and commitment to work. These 

deeply rooted prejudices can impact women’s 

careers in a range of ways, from curtailed 

assignments to smaller salaries to penalties 

for taking maternity leave (see “The Maternity 

Penalty,” page 24). Male chauvinism isn’t flaunted 

in Brazil, as it is in, say, Mexico, or some other 

Latin American countries. Instead, the issue of 

bias is more sub rosa. Yula Rocha compares it to 

the topic of race in the United States. “We know it’s 

a big deal but there’s a kind of ‘let’s not talk about 

it’ feeling. And I think the same applies to Brazilian 

women and discrimination. It’s the kind of subject 

that no one acknowledges.” 

“No man would ever say, ‘You can’t do this 

because you are a woman,’ but women in general 

need to prove themselves every day,” says a 

business operations director at a multinational 

pharmaceutical corporation. A colleague in 

20 

19% 

13% 

45% 45% 


36% 36% 

Figure 3.2: 

Problems of bias severe enough to make women consider 

scaling back/quitting 

40% 

13% 

55% 

48% 


men men men men 

human resources agrees. “The way [male 

women women women 

colleagues] ask questions or how they test your 

knowledge is different than the way they interact 

with their male peers. They try to go deeper and 

deeper into details,” almost like an interrogation. 

“I’ve learned that I always have to be 150 percent 

prepared. Before having an interaction with them, 

I try to think about all of the questions and all of 

the resistance that might come up during the 

conversation, and I try to prepare for that before I 

see them.” 

These daily challenges reflect how maledominated 

Brazilian corporate culture remains. 

While we certainly came across isolated 

examples of explicit workplace harassment, 

United United States States 

our research reveals a larger pattern of implicit 

behaviors us us and attitudes that inhibit women and 

impede their progress. It also remains a huge 

struggle for women to establish a network of 

China China 

support in a workplace where the majority of 

India India 

leaders are male. As a consequence, “many more 

Russia Russia men mentor men than women,” and exclude 

women—whether Brazil Brazil intentionally or otherwise — 

from the workplace relationships that matter. 

Brazilian women are among the least likely 

of the BRIC countries to have a sponsor (30%) 

or mentor (58%). In spite of the informality and 

warmth of Brazilian culture—a feature of the 

Brazilian workplace that many expatriates remark 

on with appreciation—women experience an 

increasing sense of isolation as they move up 

through the ranks. “The market is getting better 

on this point, but most of the time, I’m the only 

woman on an executive team and [the men] 

patronize me,” says Raquel Trindade, a senior 

executive at Sodexo. “It’s only when I speak that 

they realize I have strong views as well.” 

Raquel’s experience further illustrates 

the way in which issues of style and executive 

presence surface for many successful Brazilian 

women.“I don’t think it’s a lack of ambition or 

talent that’s stopping women,” says Vanessa 

Bateson, a Brazil-based human resources director 

for HSBC Latin America. “It’s that you have to 

change your personality. Many women think, ‘I 

don’t want to be someone I’m not.’” 

Clearly these “style compliance” issues stem 

directly from the male-dominated nature of the 

Brazilian business environment. “With male bias, 


us 

us 


India India 

Russia Russia 

Brazil Brazil


women don’t feel free to be who they are, but they 

should keep their authenticity no matter what,” 

comments Andrea Salguiero Cruz Lima, voicing 

a concern echoed by many of the women in our 

study. Balancing femininity with the assertiveness 

can be tough, says Hildete Volopives, a management 

consultant and founder of the blog “Brazil 

Global,” explaining that “In Brazil, a woman can be 

sexy and it’s not a problem to use your femininity. 

At the same time, when it comes to standing up 

for what you’re entitled to or fighting to get the 

position, that’s where it’s difficult to get women to 

fight. It’s a very difficult persona to craft.” 

Authenticity is of paramount importance to 

Brazilian women—87 percent of those surveyed 

responded that “being able to be myself,” is a 

very important aspect of work, outstripping the 

importance of having high-quality colleagues 

(77%), high compensation (75%) or a powerful 

position (40%). Yet as a participant in a CWLP 

focus group notes, “it’s a challenge to reconcile 

being feminine and being a leader, especially 

when the leadership [paradigm] is driven by the 

other gender.” In order to fit into the “boys’ club,” 

the first generation of Brazilian women to break 

into senior management often found themselves 

forced to change their personalities. “Women 

who get into senior positions are women who 

act in a male way and have male leadership 

characteristics,” observes an expatriate working 

for a multinational. “They have to be very tough, 

very aggressive in their style.” 

As the first female director at a multinational 

consumer goods corporation, Renata knows 

exactly what this means. 26 “Throughout my career, 

I needed to fight every day. It’s a horrible thing 

to say, but it’s a reality. When you are growing in 

a company, you need to prove your competence, 

your intelligence, and a woman needs to act much 

harder to have the same results as a man. I don’t 

want to be hard,” she continues, “but I need to be. 

If I enter into a discussion with my colleagues on 

the board of directors and I am not firm, they don’t 

respect me. And that is not good.” 

Age can be another factor for professional 

women in Brazil. Fabiana became the office 

manager for a multinational news organization 

when she was 25. “I would sit down at a meeting 

and a 50-year-old man would look at me and say, 

‘Who are you? You’re representing this company?’ 

When I’d negotiate over the phone, I’d get the 

respect. But when I’d meet them in person, they’d 

all ask, ‘How old are you?’ Every one, without 

exception.” 

Age discrimination will continue as long as 

senior leadership is comprised primarily of older 

men. Having started their careers at a time when 

the professional workforce was almost all male, 

many leaders are as yet unaccustomed to treating 

women on an equal footing. Promotion is rarely 

based solely on a person’s capability,” says an 

expatriate working in finance. In her company’s 

UK operations, there’s a 35-year-old director. “That 

would not happen in [Brazil].” 

When these various forms of bias are added 

up, it’s not surprising that the result is a sizable 

wage gap. Brazilian women may have achieved 

legal equality with men but when it comes to pay 

parity, there’s a ways to go. A 2009 study by the 

Inter-American Development Bank found that 

on average, women earn only 79.5 percent of 

men’s wages and 30 percent less than men of the 

same age and an equivalent level of education. 27 

Despite its powerhouse economy, Brazil sits at the 

bottom of a list of 18 countries in Latin America 

when it comes to the gender pay gap. 28 

Wage inequality exists even in multinational 

corporations that have a policy of gender pay 

parity, indicating a persistent bias on the part of 

Brazilian male bosses who simply don’t see why 

a woman should earn as much as a man. “Every 

year, my annual evaluation is excellent, but I’ve 

never received a merit increase,” says Beatriz, 

who has worked at an American multinational 

corporation for nearly 25 years and has been in 

charge of its Latin American sourcing operations 

since 2006. “My responsibilities and the volume of 

work have increased, but I am at the same wage 

as 2006.” 

Recently, her boss, a Mexican man, hired 

a man into a lesser position. “In six months, 

he had a higher salary than me and two direct 

reports, whereas I have only one direct report. 

These things make you frustrated. Even if you 

meet your goals and objectives, you still don’t 

receive a salary increase.” Beatriz isn’t alone. 

“This is happening to other women too, in other 

departments. They have a lot of responsibilities 

21

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

but they don’t receive a salary increase. Most of 

them are frustrated, too.” 

Mobility, travel and 

International Assignments 

Women also have to fight cultural stereotypes 

that bar them from coveted assignments. More 

than half of the women in our survey (53%) see 

an international assignment as critical to their 

career advancement. Yet because it’s assumed 

that a woman’s responsibilities to her home, 

husband and children take precedence over her 

commitment to her career, she is often passed 

over in favor of a man who is assumed to be 

mobile because he has a wife and family who can 

follow him wherever he needs to go. 

Lisandra Ambrozio ran into this barrier 

at a previous employer when she and a male 

colleague applied for a posting in the United 

States. “The feedback I had from my manager 

was, ‘You know, Lisandra, you were a great, great 

candidate for this position, but we were afraid of 

sending you to the U.S. because you are a woman, 

and you’re very young, and you might miss your 

family. We also might have the risk that when 

you come back to Brazil, you might more easily 

decide to leave for another opportunity. So we 

prefer to send another candidate because he’s 

male and he’s going to move with his family, so 

we believe they’re going to adapt more easily. 

And since he’s older than you, we believe our 

investment in him is better, because when he 

returns to Brazil, he will think much more than two 

Figure 3.3: 

Experience safety concerns on a regular basis 

62% 

31% 

unsafe while 

commuting 

22 

52% 

31% 

39% 

26% 

unsafe while travelling 

travelling 


54% 


31% 

or three times before leaving the company.’” 

As it turned out, the company was wrong on 

all counts. “His family didn’t like living abroad, so 

six months later they returned to Brazil. He stayed 

[in the U.S.] and when he came back to Brazil after 

his appointment was up, he left the company.” So 

did Ambrozio. 

For many women, though, their desire to 

enhance their careers through international 

assignments is countered by the cost of frequent 

travel in their personal lives. One executive at a 

consumer goods multinational observed what 

happened to her female colleagues when they 

agreed to relocate for a bigger position. “Most 

women succeeded in transferring their family but 

the marriage didn’t last. It’s a high price to pay,” 

she says. 

That’s why she has insisted on being excused 

from international travel. “Maybe when my kids 

are older. But right now, it’s clear that my family 

comes first. Because if my personal life fails my 

entire professional life fails. This is non-negotiable 

and the company knows that.” In any case, this 

executive says, there’s no reason for her to accept 

an international assignment. “Brazil is the country 

where every company needs to be right now.” 

Safety Concerns 

Educated women have always put up with a 

lot in order to have a career: overt bias in the 

workplace, wage inequality, penalties for taking 

the full amount of a maternity leave allowed by 

law. But few face the threats to their safety that 

Brazilian women routinely 

experience: 62 percent of our 

female survey participants— 

the highest among all BRIC 

female respondents— 

report feeling unsafe while 

commuting to work and 39 

percent feel unsafe while 

traveling for work within the 

39% country. 

33% 

27% When one of our 

19% 

focus group participants 

relocated from Brazil to New 

York City, she recalls that 

Concern for family’s 

safety 

the most test striking difference 

was that she felt safe on the 


India 

Russi 


city streets. “I could walk by myself at night and 

not feel terrified. I would never do that in São 

Paulo. You’re always looking to see if someone is 

following you.” 

With favelas, Brazil’s desperately poor 

urban slums, sprawling literally in the shadows 

of glittering high-rise condominiums, it’s not 

surprising that São Paulo and Rio are notorious 

for the high incidence of crime; according to a 

recent U.S. State Department report, “assaults 

and burglaries continue to be a part of normal 

everyday life.” 29 

Armed hold-ups of pedestrians and motorists 

by “motoboys”—young men on motorcycles— 

are a common occurrence. As a result, in Rio de 

Janeiro, motorists are allowed to treat stoplights 

as stop signs between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 

a.m. to protect against attacks at intersections. 30 

“Most of my friends drive low-key cars with 

darkened windows so you can’t see who’s inside,” 

says an equity analyst for a multinational financial 

firm in São Paulo. She doesn’t own a car, so has 

to rely on taxis, most of which don’t have tinted 

windows. “What happens is you’re using a cell 

phone or a BlackBerry and you get caught in a 

traffic jam. People on motorbikes see you and do 

a quick robbery. If they have a gun, you open the 

door. When I’m in a cab, I take care to keep my 

bag on the floor and to not be seen on a mobile 

phone.” 

Robberies on the street are also common, 

with laptop computers and cell phones the first 

choice. “If you’re walking with a laptop on the 

street, you’re making yourself a target,” says the 

analyst, adding, “I’d never use a BlackBerry or cell 

phone on the street, to avoid calling attention to it.” 

Despite the presence of armed security guards 

around the building, she and her colleagues have 

to exercise constant vigilance. Knowing that “there 

could be someone hiding and watching—it’s 

become part of the reality,” she says. 

All of the female professionals we interviewed 

for this study either know someone who has 

been assaulted or has had first-hand experience 

of being assulted. One focus group participant 

had her cell-phone stolen at gunpoint when she 

stopped her car at a traffic light. Another was 

driving with a friend from a prominent family 

who suddenly and terrifyingly became a kidnap 


target; they were followed and fired at on a major 

highway. According to one interviewee, the 

attacks are especially violent in large cities. “In a 

small city, they break your car window and steal 

your radio. In São Paulo, they put a gun to your 

head and say, ‘Let’s go to the ATM.’” 

Many employers have introduced safety 

provisions in response to the urgency of safety 

concerns. These range from secured parking 

lots to company buses and transport with guards, 

with a lucky few even having access to armored 

cars with tinted windows. Nonetheless, vigilance 

is critical, and one senior executive stresses how 

vulnerable she feels in spite of the protective 

measures put in place by her employer, “You 

have to pay attention at traffic lights. We get 

training in dealing with threats—it’s mandatory. 

I know how to escape from a kidnapping, from a 

shotgun situation. And I have to train my family, so 

they all know.” 

In Brazil, safety concerns exert an 

unexpectedly large influence on preferences 

about where to work, what role to take and what 

type of career to pursue. And women—partly 

because they are caregivers and partly because 

they see themselves as more vulnerable—tend 

to give these concerns more weight than men. 

“I could make more money and have a more 

comfortable life in São Paulo,” said Carolina, a 

Brazilian national and mid-level manager at a 

global financial services company, now based 

in corporate headquarters in the United States. 

“I would have a comfortable life, have great 

professional opportunities, but, frankly, the 

violence is too much.” 

23

the Maternity Penalty 

In July 2010, Brazil’s Congress extended paid 

maternity leave to six months for both public 

and private sector employees. This more 

robust policy is a double-edged sword. As well 

as helping working mothers, the new law puts 

women in a “fragile situation,” says Sodexo 

Brazil’s executive president Satya Menard. “We 

have women who are afraid to tell their boss 

that they’re pregnant because they’re very 

insecure about how the boss will react.” 

A particularly negative element of the 

Brazilian labor code is that a woman out on 

maternity leave cannot work part-time for 

her regular employer, making it difficult to 

participate or even stay plugged in to what’s 

happening at the office. According to some of 

the women we interviewed, this “out of sight, 

out of mind” situation means that a woman 

who takes the full six months may find when 

she returns that her substitute may have 

supplanted her, or her responsibilities may 

have been diminished.“The risk of being 

dismissed is high, because the law does not 

guarantee that she will keep the job,” warns 

Ieda Novais, corporate director of consulting 

firm BDO Brazil. 

Sonia ran head-on into these challenges 

when her annual contract with her employer 

came up for renewal one month into her 

maternity leave. Her new contract stipulated 

that her employer could fire her at any time 

without paying severance. When she objected, 

she was told that everyone was being asked 

to sign similarly open-ended contracts. “I 

was in a vulnerable position, because I had a 

one-month-old baby and needed the money. I 

couldn’t take any risks, so I signed.” 

After she signed, she discovered that 

none of her male colleagues had received 

that kind of contract. “I felt really discriminated 

against. Because I was a new mother, they 

took advantage of my vulnerability to give me 

something that in a more normal phase of my 

life I would never have signed.” Her baby is 

now almost a year old and “so far, so good— 

they haven’t revoked my contract,” Sonia says. 

“But every month I wonder, am I going to keep 

my job or will I be fired tomorrow?” 

24 


the Lure of the Public Sector 

More than in any of the other countries in 

our large emerging markets study, Brazil’s 

public sector offers stiff competition to private 

sector companies (both multinational and 

local). 

Some 65 percent of educated Brazilian 

women describe the public sector as very 

desirable to work in, head and shoulders 

above female respondents in China (57%), 

India (51%) and even the UAE (48%). In 

Figure 3.4: 

Public sector very desirable to work for 

80 80 80 80 80 

70 70 70 70 70 

65% 

60 60 60 60 60 

50 50 50 50 50 

40 40 40 40 40 

30 30 30 30 30 

20 20 20 20 20 

10 10 10 10 10 

32% 

51% 

57% 

48% 

0 0 0 0 0 

Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Russia India India India India India China UAE UAE UAE UAE UAE 

Brazil Russia India China uAE 

contrast, only 39 percent of educated Brazilian 

women see U.S.-based multinationals as very 

desirable, while 49 percent say the same for 

local Brazilian companies. 

Their reasons have little to do with power, 

prestige, interesting projects or advancement 

and everything to do with benefits, job security 

and work-life balance. When we delved 

into the factors that make the public sector 

attractive to Brazilian women, we discovered 

the following attributes: 79 percent of our 

female respondents opted for job security, 64 

percent pinpointed family-friendly benefits, 

and 60 percent cited paid time off. The 

emphasis on job security is not surprising in 

an economy that not long ago experienced 

triple-digit inflation and has a history of booms 

and busts. Salaries may not be as hefty as in 

the private sector, but thanks to one of the 

world’s most generous pension systems, 

employees can retire at their full salary and 

receive the same pay-scale increases as their 

successors.

Working wives and mothers struggling 

with societal expectations of their roles 

at home, or who just want to spend more 

time with their families, appreciate the civil 

service’s legal maximum workweek of 44 

hours—plus overtime pay of 150 percent of 

one’s base salary—something that’s barely 

given lip service in private companies. 31 The 

public sector mandated a six-month maternity 

leave one year before implementing it in the 

Figure 3.5: 

Why is public sector attractive? 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

79% 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

64% 

0 

0 

Brazil Russia Brazil India Russia China India UAE China 

0 

Job security Family-friendly Brazil Russia India 

benefits 

60% 

UAE China 

private sector by granting tax incentives to 

participating companies. 32 Time off for vacation 

and medical reasons is generous. Retirees 

from the public sector receive pensions equal 

to their last paycheck plus increases in the 

same amount as employees still working. Most 

attractive, however, is job tenure; regardless 

of performance evaluations, a public service 

employee may not be fired except for willfull 

misconduct. 33 

Until recently, Brazilians used to talk about 

“asking” for a job in the civil service, rather 

than “applying” for one, a legacy of the days 

when the government doled out positions 

as political favors. Today, all candidates are 

screened through a rigorous entrance exam, 

the concurso publico. But though the public 

sector is no longer a sinecure, few view it as 

offering great career development, interesting 

assignments or professional recognition. One 

of our focus group participants went so far as 

to say that it “stains résumés.” 


Paid time off 

UAE 

That view may be changing. “I think the 

public sector in Brazil has been improving a 

lot,” says Booz & Company’s Ariel Fleichman. 

The 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics 

offer opportunities to work on big public 

projects that are fast-tracked and high-profile. 

As Brazil takes a more prominent position 

on the global stage, state-owned flagship 

companies such as Banco do Brasil and energy 

giant Petrobras are becoming talent magnets. 

A 2010 survey of approximately 11,400 

university students ranked Petrobras as the 

employer of choice, beating out even Google. 34 

Meanwhile, if the majority of public sector 

organizations aren’t as dynamic and complex 

as their private sector counterparts, they offer 

a comfortable safety net that supports women 

weary of deflecting the pushes and pulls of a 

traditional society in transition. 

25

26 


4 

CHAPtER 4: 

Conclusion 


As multinational corporations and local companies alike pin their hopes for 

future growth on Brazil’s robust economy, figuring out how to find and keep 

top talent is more than an important issue: for many organizations, it’s an urgent 

imperative. 

Brazil’s educated women represent a rich talent pool that no company can 

afford to ignore. They are making their mark as Brazil moves into a prominent 

position on the world stage, staking out important roles in business and politics, 

and claiming an ever-larger share of Brazil’s growing wealth. Yet their qualifications, 

achievements and potential remain shadowed by societal expectations. This report 

seeks to remedy that situation and shine a spotlight on their valuable contributions 

and attributes. 

In some ways, Brazil’s new career women are following a path trodden by 

American women in the 1960s and ‘70s as they seek professional success in a 

society that has long restricted female ambition to motherhood and marriage. They 

are successfully fighting for a place in the management hierarchy, sometimes even 

adopting male characteristics that directly contradict their cultural definition of 

femininity. 

Although they share many of the challenges that their mature-market sisters 

faced earlier, it shouldn’t be assumed that Brazilian women are lagging behind. 

If anything, they are catching up much faster, and, in some arenas, have already 

surpassed their counterparts in advanced countries. But while the presence of role 

models such as President Dilma Rousseff and Regina Nuñes of Standard & Poor’s is 

impressive, the real evolution is happening outside the headlines, in the everyday 

lives of educated women who are newly in touch with their ambition and plunging 

into the opportunities at hand. 

Another piece of good news: employers in this dynamic emerging market 

have an unprecedented opportunity to “leapfrog” established human resource 

models by creating policies and practices that enable highly qualified women to 

flourish. Getting their talent models right the first time around will ensure that they 

attract and retain the brightest and the best. By creating the structures that tap into 

the vast potential of female talent in Brazil, forward-thinking companies will gain a 

lasting competitive advantage and ensure continued growth. Of all of the dreams in 

“the land of the future,” this has the most power to become reality. 

27

28 


5 

CHAPtER 5: 

What Should Companies do? 


Brazil’s educated women have the talent, ambition and commitment that 

no company can afford to ignore. At the same time, deeply rooted cultural 

and social shibboleths too often prevent them—and their employers—from 

realizing their full potential. The good news: employers can bridge those barriers 

by creating processes and practices that enable these highly qualified women 

to flourish. The 12 innovative programs described here come from a variety 

of emerging markets. Even when they are not specific to Brazil, many of the 

key elements can be adapted and adopted. Laying the foundations for the full 

realization of female talent in Brazil involves implementing an agenda comprising 

three essential action steps. These are: 

Becoming a talent magnet 

As multinationals expand and solidify their presence in Brazil and other emerging 

markets, they have a rare opportunity to gain a powerful advantage in the cut-throat 

competition for top talent. Being known as a standout employer has an enduring 

impact on a company’s image and reputation, enabling it to attract and retain the 

brightest and best, right from the start and over the long haul. 

Companies can create the conditions that allow talented women to flourish, that 

keep them motivated and feeling valued, by paying attention. Our data makes it 

emphatically clear what educated and ambitious women want from their employers: 

intellectually stimulating work, plentiful opportunities to learn and develop, smart 

colleagues and a supportive work environment, fair compensation and reliable 

job security. When employers satisfy this side of the value proposition, they will be 

repaid in above-average levels of engagement, commitment and loyalty. 

Examples 

• Boehringer Ingelheim USA: China Council 

• Bloomberg: Women Moving Markets 

• Goldman Sachs: New Markets Mobility Exchange 

29

30 

Claiming and sustaining female ambition 

Confounded by the escalating pressures of extreme jobs, the dissonance between 

conflicting social and professional expectations, and confusion about where they 

stand in a cultural tug-of-war, many talented women downsize their ambitions for 

themselves. This is a huge and significant issue. An employer cannot promote a 

woman if she is not enormously vested in this endeavor. 

How can ambition be rekindled and nurtured? How can a woman gain the 

confidence and skills to feel comfortable—and excel—in a leadership role? 

Ensuring that talented women in Brazil and other emerging markets feel 

valued is of fundamental importance in multinational organizations, particularly 

those headquartered in the U.S. or Western Europe. Networking and relationship 

building, essential to strengthening engagement and commitment, help women 

develop the ties, visibility and organizational know-how essential to their 

professional success. 

Examples 

• Citi: Latin American Banker Mobility Program 

• IBM: Building Relationships and Influence 

• Intel: Women in Intel Network 

• Siemens: “Z Leadership” in São Paulo 

• Sodexo: Mentorship in Colombia 

dealing with pulls and pushes 

Women in Brazil and other emerging markets face unique family-related pulls and 

society- and work-related pushes that conspire to derail their career ambitions 

and cause them either to settle for a dead-end job or leave the workforce entirely. 

These factors are highly specific to the emerging markets context, reflecting 

entrenched cultural perspectives and modern global complexities. 

Responding to these challenges with imagination, sensitivity and flexibility can 

be a tall order. What solves the problem in one country may have little impact in 

another. Training mostly male senior managers to become aware of the difficulties 

and to respond appropriately takes time and dedication. Finding solutions involves 

a delicate balance of a global mindset and local knowledge. 

Examples 

• Boehringer Ingelheim: Extended Business Trips 

• Booz & Company: Middle East Flexibility 

• Google: A Safe and Comfortable Commute 

• Pfizer India: Creating a High-Performance Community 

Becoming a talent magnet 


Boehringer Ingelheim uSA: China Council 

How does a multinational pharmaceutical headquartered in Germany forge 

partnerships in emerging markets that manage to harness both the R&D engines of 

local biotech firms as well as the consumer might of the countries’ patient pools? 

With its newly formed China Council, Boehringer Ingelheim may have hit upon 

the solution for MNCs doing business in Latin America as well as Asia: an in-house 

advisory board of ex-pats who have the network, cultural smarts, motivation, and


cross-function expertise from the U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical industry to see 

their firm succeed “back home” by acting as ambassadors, translators, and cultural 

guides to executives doing business there. 

The China Council is “an ERG within an ERG” at the U.S. affiliate’s 

headquarters in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Chaired by Dr. Helen Hsu, a Sr. Associate 

Director of Oncology clinical research, the Council emerged in early 2011 as 

a sub-team of Chinese Americans within the firm’s Asian employee resource 

group (AERG). Many of them were already returning home twice a year to visit 

parents, siblings, and grandparents; they perceived they could readily help 

drive Boehringer Ingelheim’s business in China by lending their language skills, 

personal contacts, cultural understanding, and local networks. They could assist 

business leaders in making introductions to Chinese biotechs, help recruit within 

their network for Chinese staff management positions, identify business gaps 

between the US and China affiliates, increase the firm’s visibility in China, and 

foster closer ties with China-based leaders. 

Dr. BJ Bormann, the SVP responsible for bringing novel compounds into BI 

from around the world, including China, immediately embraced the idea. She 

sponsored the Council in April 2011 to help her develop and vet candidates for a 

business-development leader position that had opened in China, allowing her to 

focus on the most qualified and motivated candidates and conduct face-to-face 

interviews. Dr. Roger Hill, Executive Director of Global Licensing & Business for 

BI, turned to the Council for cultural insights that might shape his presentation 

to the Bio Network Asia Conference in Singapore in August 2011—as well as 

logistical input to ensure that his first visit to the region went smoothly. Upon his 

return from that event, Hill met again with the Council to share his experience and 

solicit their help in refining Boehringer Ingelheim’s presentation in October to the 

BIO International conference in Shanghai. “The Council made subtle edits to the 

presentation which were quite appealing to the Chinese audience,” commented 

Dr. Bormann. In myriad ways—from coaching execs on how to conduct conference 

calls to providing translation at key leader meetings as well as creating ‘Asianfriendly’ 

corporate presentations for Boehringer Ingelheim—the Council 

has proven itself a critical bridge for Boehringer Ingelheim in a marketplace 

characterized by both extreme competition and disruption. 

Not only have Boehringer Ingelheim execs and the firm benefitted, however. 

The Council members, each of whom heads up an initiative, are not only adding 

value to the firm’s business in a key emerging market, but are also providing 

career advancement opportunities for AERG members in the U.S. and Boehringer 

Ingelheim employees in China. Drawing on their cultural heritage allows them to 

make a meaningful contribution to the firm as individuals, not just as scientists, 

observes Nancy Di Dia, Global Head of Diversity at Boehringer Ingelheim—a 

connectivity that in turn drives engagement. “It’s a win-win, really,” she notes. 

“They’re helping their own culture fit better within the Boehringer Ingelheim 

world—and their cultural input is critical to our success in the Asia-Pacific region.” 

Bloomberg: Women Moving Markets 

In 2010, Bloomberg made a formal commitment to increase its overall coverage of 

women, both in individual profiles, feature articles about women-related topics and 

columns that are written by and addressed to women. 

In retrospect, says Amanda Bennett, executive editor/projects and 

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investigations, “Women Moving Markets,” the rubric for the shift in emphasis, is an 

idea whose time had come. “We do profiles of women in the news anyway, so why 

not increase the number of profiles of women of significance to all of our clients? 

Everybody in the Bloomberg universe should know of Sheryl Sandberg, who is the 

COO of Facebook, or Irene Rosenfeld, the CEO of Kraft, who faced down Warren 

Buffett, her largest shareholder, to make an acquisition she wanted. There are lots 

of women to focus on, not just because they’re women but because they’re worthy 

of coverage.” 

The new lens will be directed to all aspects of newsgathering, including: 

• Polling. “We never broke out the results by gender before, but we do now,” 

says Bennett. 

• Demographic coverage. Bennett envisions broad investigations into such 

topics as China’s one-child policy and its effects on the country’s growth, 

how women’s increased access to capital in developing markets will affect 

GNP growth, and how the increased educational ambitions of women in Arab 

countries will change the workforce and local economy. “We’re looking at 

women’s issues that will be of interest to all readers, men and women,” says 

Bennett. 

• Columns. In addition to opinion columns written by Margaret Carlson and 

Amity Shlaes, there will be more contributions from women analysts who are 

experts in their own field and whose comments move markets. 

In addition, all stories will be coded so that a simple search for “new 

information and women” on the Bloomberg site will produce all women-oriented 

stories. 

“There’s no opposition,” says Bennett. “It’s not even controversial. When we 

asked the people who do the polling to split the results by gender, they said, ‘Sure.’ 

When we said, ‘There are 10 women in Brazil and eight women in India whom 

everyone ought to know about,’ everyone said, ‘Sure.’ This is not rocket science. It 

just requires someone who notices in the first place and says, ‘I’m really interested 

in this. Let’s get it done.’” 

Because the initiative is still in the development phase, Bennett and her deputy, 

Lisa Kassenaar, chose to engage Bloomberg’s women reporters first. To their 

surprise, at the first meeting, the women moved to include their male colleagues, 

too. That’s fine with Bennett, who looks forward to the time when female-focused 

news coverage will no longer be “a 100-percent women-driven issue” and will 

occur “as much by osmosis as by fiat.” Pragmatism also has a part: “Since we have 

more men reporters than women, more men will have the opportunity to do these 

stories.” 

Bennett and Kassenaar meet weekly to approve stories and suggest new 

assignments. They’re in the process of setting specific numerical goals to measure 

coverage, based on the number of female-focused stories that ran in 2009 and the 

number they’d like to achieve in 2010. “Once we get our baseline down, we’ll see 

that the amount of coverage we currently offer is pretty feeble,” Bennett says. “It will 

be easy to double or triple what we’re doing pretty quickly.” 

Bennett anticipates a lot of impact, thanks to the wide spread of Bloomberg 

outlets, including the Bloomberg terminal to the website, television, radio, news 

feeds to local affiliates, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “We can’t guarantee where 

a story will end up, but if we double our output of profiles on women or increase 

our female focus in small but meaningful ways or do more stories on genderrelated 

global issues, those will begin to seep out everywhere.”


Goldman Sachs: New Markets Mobility Exchange 

Early into his career at Goldman Sachs, Robin Vince, then based in London, was 

asked to pack a bag and spend six months in New York. “It was a great experience 

to see the business from a slightly different angle, to form new relationships, to see 

the technology and tools and market practices in this new location, and then have 

the benefit of importing some of the best practices back to my home location.” 

Four years later, Vince was asked to move to New York permanently to run the 

very business he had sampled earlier. “I know my career would not have turned 

out the same way had I not spent those six months” in New York, says Vince, now 

Goldman Sachs’ head of operations. “It was an invaluable part of the foundation 

that ultimately helped me build a successful career.” 

So invaluable, in fact, that the investment bank hopes to replicate the experience 

through the “New Markets Mobility Exchange.” The program, to be launched in 

the late summer of 2010, will choose 50 to 60 individuals in this year’s graduating 

class of the firm’s Operations Analyst program to spend up to six months working 

in Goldman Sachs offices including Brazil, Russia, India, China and other key hub 

locations. 

“Countries like the BRICs and other growth markets are central to our strategy 

over the medium and long-term,” explains Vince. “We need to reduce the barriers 

and improve the comfort people have interacting with people from different 

cultures.” His view is that if people get accustomed to mobility early in their career, 

they will be more open to mobility later in their career. By offering this opportunity 

to people in their early 20s, who are still young enough to be unencumbered 

by spouses, children and career expectations, Vince hopes they will gain “the 

experience and sensitivity to doing business in places they are less familiar with, 

bring the value of their own experience to bear on those situations, and re-import 

the experience back to their home location.” 

The firm operates its analyst academies, a three-year training program for 

recent college graduates across Goldman Sachs’ global offices including Salt Lake 

City, New York, Jersey City, Bangalore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London. The New 

Markets Mobility Exchange is an aspirational program, targeted at people who are 

successful at what they already do and are familiar enough with Goldman Sachs’ 

culture to be able to leverage their skills in different locations. Participants were 

nominated based on who might benefit most from the experience, who had the 

curiosity and appetite for adventure, and who had the foreign language skills. 

Managers nominated 120 applicants from a pool of 500 trainees. They selected 

a Korean national presently working in Tokyo who will be transferred to Seoul, an 

American fluent in Portuguese who will spend time in São Paulo, and an analyst 

of Russian origin who will go to Moscow. Close to 60 percent of the program 

participants are women. 

“One of the factors is building a pipeline of returning nationals,” notes Meriel 

Ward, Vice President and co-head of the operations HR generalist team. “Growing 

the future leadership pipeline in smaller local offices is a big part of this program.” 

To ensure that none of the participating offices suffer headcount shortages, 

all managers who send someone in the program also receive someone. All 

participants are assigned a “buddy” to help them integrate into their destination 

office, as well as a mentor; senior-level sponsors are responsible for ensuring that 

host managers know what to expect and for the program’s success in their region. 

Both home and host managers will team up on feedback and performance reviews, 

so the participant won’t “get lost” during the duration of the program. 

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The most complicated part of the program was matching participants and 

destinations, said Tami Rosen, Managing Director and divisional HR head for 

operations. The actual relocation process is similar to setting up a short-term 

assignment: Each person is assigned a corporate apartment, gets a round-trip 

ticket plus one home-leave trip, and receives immigration assistance and a per 

diem based on the location. 

Rosen expects the program to be a major selling point in attracting new 

recruits. Although the program had not yet launched, it was already included in the 

marketing material on college campuses and, she says, “was well received.” In fact, 

the program is already changing the focus of the recruitment effort for the analysts’ 

program. “Now we aim to hire people in every one of our offices with diverse 

language skills,” she says, noting that 80 percent of the trainees in the Salt Lake City 

office speak at least one language other than English. “It will make it easier down 

the road for them to go to different locations.” 

“We’re a human capital company, so investing in our people is our version of 

research and development,” concludes Vince. “It’s particularly appropriate to have 

this type of investment, crossing borders and cultures, in those markets that are 

growing. And there’s an enormous amount of commercial value by making a big 

firm feel just a little bit smaller and more connected.” 

Claiming and sustaining female ambition 

Citi: Latin American Banker Mobility Program 

In 2009, in response to employees’ requests for increased lateral development 

opportunities and international exposure, Citi instituted the Latin American Banker 

Mobility Program. The program offers short-term international assignments to its 

Latin American bankers, providing them with exposure to Citi’s other offices in the 

region. 

The Banker Mobility Program targets high-potential bankers at the midmanagement 

level. Managers are asked to nominate direct reports who have 

specific developmental needs which have been identified in their personal 

development plans and can be addressed with an international placement. For 

example, one participant requested a placement in a bigger market so that he 

could gain experience working with more developed products. 

Assignments typically last three months. During the assignment, participants 

temporarily replace a banker in another Latin American country. They assume all 

of that individual’s responsibilities and work as a part of their team. Additionally, the 

participant is assigned a mentor in the area where their assignment is located, who 

can offer feedback and guidance. The participants’ goals for this assignment are 

to learn specific products and/or practices that can be developed or strengthened 

in their home country, improve their current banking skills, and share their own 

knowledge in the new market. 

The program works primarily as a swap—participating offices both send out 

a banker and receive a new one, so that there is always back-up. In this way, the 

program creates a chain of movement within Citi’s Latin American offices. A banker 

from Venezuela may go to Costa Rica; a banker from Costa Rica may go to Peru; in 

turn, the Peruvian banker may go to Venezuela. 

Elluany Rodriguez, who works in Citi’s Costa Rica offices, took the place of 

a banker in Peru for three months. Her goal was to understand best business


practices in Peru, where Citi’s offices represent a bigger market than they do in 

Costa Rica. “The people in Peru were wonderful. They made it so easy for me to 

work there,” she says. Rodriguez was able to bring what she learned back to Costa 

Rica, and she credits her recent promotion to Systems VP to the Banker Mobility 

Program. 

The program’s first year saw eight participants. Maria Ordonez, HR Generalist 

for Latin America, anticipates ten to twelve participants in 2010. Through the 

program, participants improved both their managerial skills and their technical 

skills. After the program, participants work with their managers to keep up the 

skills they have learned and continue to make progress on their goals. 

IBM: Building Relationships and Influence 

Five years ago, bolstered by an advisee’s thesis work on barriers to women’s 

advancement, IBM executive Liz Brown launched what she hoped would help 

break down those barriers: an intensive 2.5-day seminar for rising stars in the 

firm’s Europe-based consulting business. From that modest beginning, Building 

Relationships and Influence emerged—an award-winning program with more than 

1,000 alumnae that is changing the lives of IBM women in 29 countries today. 

“It’s so much more than a class,” explains Leslie Goldenberg, who leads and 

has implemented the program in Brazil, China, India, Korea, Mexico, and the 

U.S. “The program enables women to personally address factors that may affect 

their advancement, including sponsorship. They acquire the skills and support to 

influence changes for themselves.” 

Typically one part of a broader leadership development program, the initiative 

targets high-potential women who are one or two jobs away from an executive 

appointment. Once tapped, they consult one-on-one with an alumna of the 

program, and then join 17 other participants and three facilitators (one of whom 

is an alum) for a three-day intensive coaching experience. The core instruction, 

provided by senior leadership-development professionals, focuses on nurturing 

leadership and networking skills—“understanding your personal power,” as 

Goldenberg says—but includes modules on goal setting, personal branding, and 

executive presence. Video exercises and peer feedback reinforce the learnings. 

“There are no PowerPoints,” Goldenberg clarifies. “The women are not only 

building their influencing skills, but practicing a whole range of leadership models 

in a group whose support is likely to be ongoing.” 

One big challenge for many women is overcoming their distaste for 

networking. In Brazil, as in India, forming instrumental relationships is viewed 

negatively by some men and women, according to Goldenberg. “We pretty much 

have to say, ‘To get ahead, you have to be visible, and to be visible you have to 

network.” The personal nature of the program, she adds, helps effect that shift 

in mindset. Once they understand the importance of creating a network of both 

mentors and sponsors, the women write out a strategic plan identifying whom they 

plan to target, how they will reach them, and how they’ll persuade them of their 

worthiness as a protégé. 

One of the key features of the program is giving the women an immediate 

opportunity to deploy their new skills with senior management. An executive 

sponsor—IBM’s regional general manager for a business unit, for example—will 

kick off the session, explaining the business purpose, and then also attend a 

networking dinner with two other executive speakers (a man and a woman) who 

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share their personal journeys around leadership. During the dinner, each executive 

sits with a table of six participants for the duration of one course and then switches 

to another table. In this way, participants practice building relationships and 

influence with those in a position to further their careers. But senior management 

likewise learns a lot from the encounter, since participants describe not only what 

they’ve gotten out of the program but also the challenges they’ve encountered 

in their careers to date. “It’s an eye-opening discussion for the executives,” 

Goldenberg observes. “One told me, ‘I have three daughters and I want them to 

have every opportunity.” 

While global metrics on the program aren’t yet available, the feedback from 

Europe shows positive outcomes. The attrition rate for the 120 alumna of the 

2006-2009 programs implemented in Europe was only 2.5 percent per year. The 

promotion rate for these same participants was 24 percent, versus 12 percent in 

the comparison population. 

It’s the shift in mindset, however, that Goldenberg believes signals real 

progress. “One woman said at the close, ‘I’ve come to realize I don’t have to be 

right all the time, that it would be better to build a bridge’—and then her boss 

separately came to me and said, ‘What did you do, I’ve never heard that attitude 

from her before!’ Everyone goes away with more openness, seeing that people can 

truly change.” 

Intel: Women at Intel Network 

The goal of Intel’s global women’s initiative is to ensure that Intel is a great place 

to work for women—worldwide. But making this happen is a highly local process, 

says Kim Warren, manager of women’s initiatives for the department of global 

diversity and inclusion. Intel seeks to understand how the challenges facing women 

in China may differ from those confronting female employees in Russia or Europe. 

That’s why the company’s 13-year-old “Women at Intel Network” (WIN) is going 

global—in a grassroots way. 

Since 2007, the employee networking group, which is open to all employees, 

regardless of gender, has added 14 international chapters. China was the first to 

initiate a chapter outside the United States, with a group in Chengdu. Offshoots 

in Shanghai and Dalian soon followed. In spring 2008, nearly 300 participants 

from across the country attended the first Chinese WIN Leadership Development 

Conference in Shanghai Zizhu science-based industrial park, attending sessions 

on work-life balance, stress and growing technical skills. As well, women in Russia 

and Brazil are working to start local branches of the global networking group. 

In practice, WIN chapters endeavor to strike a balance between global aims 

and local needs. Chapter chairs from around the world hold virtual meetings each 

quarter to establish global goals in areas ranging from membership to professional 

development, which are then adopted according to local priorities and cultural 

contexts. “Each site implements what’s best for them,” says Warren. Each time a 

new chapter is started abroad, in-country representatives work with U.S.-based 

managers to establish rules and guidelines that fit local needs. New WIN chapters 

are paired for about a year with established U.S. “sister” branches so that the 

newcomers can learn best practices. 

In the long run, the company hopes to offer women in emerging markets 

the kind of careers that they may not easily obtain in male-centric cultures, says 

Rosalind L. Hudnell, director of global diversity and inclusion. “Companies such as


Intel are leading the way to achieve, inside of our organizations, what the world has 

yet to accomplish,” says Hudnell. “In the end, the more successful we are within our 

walls, the more positive change we will see in society as a whole.” 

Siemens: “Z Leadership” in São Paulo 

Since 2008, establishing career development networks for top-tier women has 

been a priority at Siemens. Recognizing that a 400,000-strong workforce could not 

be transformed simply by a top-down mandate, however, CEO Peter Loescher and 

his diversity team created a network of ambassadors to operationalize the firm’s 

diversity agenda worldwide. These 160 executives are charged with structuring 

and implementing programs that help Siemens’ talent achieve their leadership 

potential. 

Among these ambassadors is Adriana Ferreira, head of the firm’s Building 

Technologies division in São Paulo, Brazil. When she was nominated for the role in 

2008, Ferreira pondered how to translate her mandate into action within Siemens 

Ltda. Ferreira decided to focus on gender and generation aspects of diversity. “It’s 

one thing to embrace the goal of ensuring that everybody has the same access to 

every position,” Ferreira observes, “but quite another to figure out how, as a woman 

and senior manager, to be a transformation leader here.” 

In early 2010, she formed Z Leadership to catalyze that transformation. 

Comprising eight female senior execs in the Brazilian subsidiary, the group met 

over breakfast to hammer out a four-pronged approach to moving women up 

the pipeline. First, they agreed to foster more open and constant communication 

among themselves, coaching and encouraging each other through regular 

meetings and informal contact. “We wanted specifically to offer the possibility 

of formal and informal mentoring between women, because there are so few of 

us,” Ferreira says. Second, the group would structure itself as a learning forum, 

assigning reading in critical professional development topics and bringing in guest 

lecturers every quarter for a debate. “Women in Brazil are more connected with 

the necessity of having a better education,” Ferreira explains, “but with all of the 

tasks they perform at work and at home, it can be a real challenge to get this kind 

of enrichment.” Third, the group determined it would play a much stronger role in 

the immediate community as volunteers. “We found women wanted to be socially 

active but as individuals, not as executives,” says Ferreira. Fourth, the women 

charged themselves with finding ways to support the firm’s broader diversity 

initiative as leaders. 

After the first meetings, the group elected to broaden its base by inviting 

women just below senior leadership to participate, swelling its membership to 

32. This presented some logistical difficulties, as participants were too numerous 

and spread out to meet over lunch or happy hour, but with teleconferencing, the 

network now meets every quarter, fulfilling its very first mandate of connecting 

women better between silos. The education component has proven “very 

motivating” as a draw, Ferreira says, citing the lively debate at the last quarterly 

gathering over how to manage the 32-and-younger workforce at Siemens Ltda. 

Similarly, by partnering with a local non-profit that cares for abandoned children, 

the group is fulfilling its social mission. Initially, they raised money for the charity to 

fund better nutrition for the kids; in the near future they’re poised to provide handson 

assistance in terms of the children’s education and social development. 

Ferreira is most proud of a recent organizational decision to grant women a 

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six-month maternity leave. By law in Brazil, women are entitled to four months’ 

leave, but the Siemens subsidiary adopted a government program named 

“empresa cidada,” granting each woman the option to extend the maternity leave 

up to six months. “It’s been very motivating to see that we can support as a group 

the specific demands of women in our organization,” she adds. 

While the impact of Z Leadership is not assessed in any formal way, it’s clear 

to Ferreira that in achieving its four objectives, the network represents a long-term 

transformative lever for Siemens Ltda female staff. The younger cohort actively 

coaches each other as the older generation reaches out to help them navigate, she 

says. “This is a living laboratory,” Ferreira observes. “Those of us who’ve become 

CEOs can share our good experience to facilitate the career path of women willing 

to develop their leadership skills. That’s what will ultimately change the way women 

are perceived as leaders in organizations.” 

Sodexo: Mentorship in Colombia 

With the creation in 2008 of SWIFt, a team of 20 female executives charged with 

accelerating gender balance in Sodexo’s leadership worldwide, CEO Michel 

Landel unleashed a powerful force for change. Under the direction of SVP and 

global chief diversity officer Rohini Anand, senior director Betsy Silva Hernandez 

is advancing mentoring and gender initiatives with human-resource partners in 

Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. The onsite solutions group in Brazil, for example, has 

formed a diversity council and is currently building out a comprehensive strategy. 

“The solutions group is particularly hungry for a mentoring program, something 

that can match women with their own personal executive as a sponsor,” says 

Hernandez. 

They won’t have to look far to find one. In consultation with Marcela Gomez, 

head of HR in Colombia and Costa Rica, Hernandez and Anand created and 

launched in 2009 a mentoring program to further the skill sets and development 

opportunities for middle managers in Colombia. The initiative targets men as well 

as women because middle management is virtually 50-50 in gender balance 

already. “We wanted a diversity initiative that was truly inclusive,” Gomez says. 

Using performance assessments, Gomez and her team chose 10 high-potential 

mentees from a pool of some 80 managers and paired them with 10 senior 

executives who volunteered for the year-long program. The executives worked 

with a trainer to develop their coaching skills. In January, 2011, the pairs began 

meeting, using the first occasion to map out objectives for the year. Since then, 

most have succeeded in getting together in person at least monthly, spending 

upwards of an hour and a half discussing tactics and methods. 

The key to the program’s success, according to Gomez, is the complementarity 

of the pairings. Managers are matched with executives who may not have line 

of sight or similar functional expertise but who can help them build out their skills 

and gain the exposure they need to advance. In addition, Gomez sought to make 

the pairings inherently diverse in terms of mix of gender and ages, a dynamic 

which she has personally found “very instructive” as a mentor to a district manager 

in techno-chemicals. “I’m developing my coaching skills by mentoring a man,” she 

observes, “and he’s developing confidence in his client management and selling 

abilities, not just his technical expertise. We’re both learning to develop skills we 

didn’t know we had.” 

Mentors and mentees submitted self-assessment surveys in July 2011, giving

Silva, Anand, and Gomez early feedback on the program’s impact. The mentees 

were particularly positive, noting that just being tapped for the program was an 

important affirmation of their worth. One participant said it changed her vision 

of what was possible in her career at Sodexo: “Before, I didn’t know where I was 

going, but now I feel I can identify goals and act on them.” The mentors reported 

feeling they’d learned a lot in coaching their mentees, but wished they had 

ongoing training—and more time to devote to the relationship. Finding time for 

face-to-face meetings continues to be a challenge, according to Gomez. “In our 

culture, it’s very important to have eye contact, and a personal approach,” she 

explains. “A videoconference or telephone call just doesn’t feel as effective.” 

But the executives may not be the best judges of their own efficacy. Two-thirds 

of the way into the program, Gomez’s mentee was promoted: he now oversees 

eight client contracts where he used to be in charge of one. “The mentors must 

be doing a great job,” she says, “because the mentees are definitely seeing great 

results.” 

dealing with Pulls and Pushes 


Boehringer Ingelheim: Extended Business Trips 

Gaining international experience and visibility can be a challenge to both men and 

women in multinational corporations. Knowing this, Boehringer Ingelheim created 

a short-term assignment program to augment its long-term offerings and allow its 

less-mobile employees to gain international exposure. 

Boehringer offers two different types of international assignments. The first 

requires employees to spend one to eight years on assignment. Families are 

expected to come along on these traditional longer-term postings. Within the last 

few years, Boehringer has also implemented a short-term assignment program 

called the “Extended Business Trip.” 

Extended Business Trips are regulated by tax laws, which limit employees’ 

time in the country to 183 days (6 months). These “trips” range between three 

and six months. In addition to providing development opportunities, Extended 

Business Trips allow for knowledge transfer on a short-term basis. In one case, a 

woman from Germany was brought into the U.S. to provide coverage for a U.S.based 

employee who was out on maternity leave. Extended Business Trips are 

offered around the globe, with the focus currently on the Americas. Participants 

are all high-potentials ranging in level from director to senior manager. Boehringer 

provides participants with housing and transportation in the host country. 

In 2008 Boehringer refined the guidelines for the program in order to better 

accommodate participants with family obligations. “We’ve become much more 

flexible in terms of how we address family issues, both with the Extended Business 

Trips and with our long-term assignments,” says Gwendolyn Doden, recently 

retired corporate vice president of Human Resources for the Americas. 

To that end, the company now provides support for the family members of 

participants on Extended Business Trips. In the case of dual-career couples, the 

partner usually stays home; however, the company provides for monthly visits 

between the home and host countries. Visits may last for up to 90 days, although 

they are generally for a much shorter period. “Separation is difficult, but it’s a lot 

less stressful than having to uproot your entire family, especially if you’re only going 

for a year,” Doden says. 

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In some cases, participants’ family members may join them on Extended 

Business Trips. A woman’s stay-at-home husband came with her on assignment 

in Latin America. Childcare and eldercare may also be provided. When a woman 

from Venezuela went on an assignment to Ecuador, Boehringer brought her 

mother along with her. When a German woman on assignment at Boehringer’s U.S. 

headquarters in Ridgefield, Connecticut, brought her two-and-a-half year-old with 

her, the child was able to use the on-site childcare center. 

The flexibility of the Extended Business Trip has made it extremely appealing 

to employees who have traditionally been less mobile, such as women with 

childcare and eldercare responsibilities. The program benefits both men and 

women, with about a quarter of participants in the United States and Canada being 

female and a nearly equal gender breakdown in South America. 

Booz & Company: Middle East Flexibility 

The calculus of work-life balance is especially challenging for consultants at 

Booz & Company, whose clients demand their attention 24/7. It’s even more so in 

emerging markets and the Middle East, where family-rooted forces that can derail 

talented women from their career tracks have unexpected pull. 

Booz doesn’t have a formal flexible work practice for the region, but that 

doesn’t mean the company isn’t aware of and sympathetic to the difficulties 

confronting some of its high-performing women employees, many of whom would 

otherwise leave the workforce. Instead, the firm takes a flexible approach to flextime, 

leaving it up to the manager to customize a plan for each employee and have 

the two of them work out the details together. Although nebulous in concept, this 

approach has had tremendous success in practice. 

As a consultant, Joanne Alam traveled five days a week. “Our projects take 

us anywhere across the region, from Jordan to Dubai to Syria. That’s the nature of 

the job,” she explains. But when she became pregnant with her first child in 2006, 

“I knew I couldn’t keep traveling if I wanted to be there for my children. I love the 

firm, I love the people and the nature of the work, but that’s my priority.” Regretfully, 

she tendered her resignation. 

Her project manager, Vice President Karim Sabbagh, had another idea. Rather 

than lose one of his top talents, he suggested she apply her brainpower to a new 

and different opportunity: starting up a marketing communications department in 

the region. She could put in a 60 percent schedule and have the flexibility to work 

out of her home. 

Having already forged relationships with the partners when she was doing 

client-facing work made it easy for Alam to slip into this new role. “Booz by nature 

is very virtual, so partners often don’t see each other for months. We build the 

relationships by productivity. We don’t always have to see each other in meetings.” 

Three years later, the marketing communications department has tripled in size 

and Alam has been promoted twice, most recently to Senior Manager. The projects 

she oversees have expanded from a regional to a global reach. Rather than feeling 

marginalized for working part-time, she feels her career has plenty of room to 

grow. “I can see myself in two or three years becoming director of marketing 

communications.” 

Arine Hadidian, too, was ready to resign when a close family member in 

Beirut became ill and the Oman-based consultant wanted to stay nearby. She was 

unaware of the possibility of flextime until her manager suggested it. Now based


in Beirut as a global business operations manager, she feels she has built many 

of the same skills and relationships she would have developed as a consultant 

while traveling only once every four to six months. “I don’t see flextime as an 

obstacle to career advancement,” she says. “Just because you’re there only half the 

time doesn’t mean you can’t come up with something of value, and my manager 

understood that.” 

Being flexible about flextime has been a win/win, enabling Booz to attract 

and retain talented women and giving women new opportunities to nurture their 

ambition and continue to build their careers. That translates into the kind of loyalty 

and commitment money can’t buy. “It really made a difference for me to be able to 

take care of my personal life without having to drastically change my professional 

life,” says Hadidian. “It helped me get through those hard times—and it meant 

the world to my family that I could be with them. I’m very proud to be a Booz & 

Company employee.” 

Google: A Safe and Comfortable Commute 

Getting to work is so stressful for women in India that, according to a USAID survey, 

it’s a primary reason for them to consider quitting their jobs. Public transportation 

is often a gauntlet of taunting, catcalling, pinching, groping and other indignities. 

Driving one’s own car may be safer but enduring an hour each way of sclerotic 

traffic, with its nerve-gnawing bouts of automotive chicken and horn-blasting 

stoppages, saps energy and takes a toll on productivity. And with gasoline costing 

about $5 per gallon, it’s expensive. 

Most high-tech firms in India routinely provide transportation for their 

employees. The big ones usually offer buses and commuter vans that shuttle 

employees from train stations and other pre-arranged stops to and from their 

campuses. Google goes one step further by offering shared cabs for all of its 

1,200- plus workers—both men and women—at its sites in Hyderabad, Bangalore 

and Gurgaon. 

The company outsources the service to contractors who provide trained 

drivers and clean, air-conditioned cars—usually white Tata Indicas that, for safety 

reasons, do not carry the Google logo or any other form of branding. “Having air 

conditioning is very important especially since the climate is typically hot and 

humid, so employees are fresh and rested during their commute.” says Keerthana 

Mohan, Diversity and Talent Inclusion Manager, Google - Asia Pacific. 

The system is personalized and flexible. Every morning, Mohan is picked 

up at her doorstep, joining two other people who live on the same route to the 

office and have been assigned to commute together as a threesome. In Google’s 

larger offices, a transport supervisor sets the pick-up and drop off schedule and 

employees can opt for a convenient slot time; at its site in Bangalore, where Mohan 

lives, she and her cab-mates agree on when they want to go into the office. It takes 

about 60-90 minutes to cover the 15 kilometers (10 miles) to work. The car isn’t 

equipped with WiFi—wireless service isn’t universally available in India—but she 

can plug a data card into her laptop and connect with the Internet that way or take 

meetings over telecon. “Typically one person takes a call while the others may log 

in or get some shut eye,” Mohan explains. 

The cab and its driver are on contract to Mohan’s group for the full day. 

Although Mohan’s group usually leaves at 6:30 p.m., the cab will be available to 

her anytime she needs it, including into the evening on occasions when she may 

41

42 


have a late meeting. Indian labor law precludes women working after 8 p.m., but 

most states exempt info-tech and outsourcing firms from the restrictions as long 

as they follow certain mandated safety measures. For example, if a woman leaves 

work alone after 8 p.m., she must be accompanied by a security guard as well as 

a driver. If she leaves with other employees, the male employee gets dropped off 

last, no matter whether his home is first on the route. “The woman is never alone 

in the car with the driver,” says Mohan. In addition, both she and the transport 

supervisor have the driver’s identification number and the supervisor knows what 

time she plans to leave, so she is always tracked. 

The shared cab service extends to Google’s Hyderabad employees using 

the company-subsidized childcare facility. The taxi picks up the parent and child 

(sometimes there will be more than one pair, depending on the route), waits while 

the child is dropped off, then takes the parent to work. The route is reversed with 

the same driver at the end of the day. 

Almost all IT firms provide after-hours transportation for free, but many have 

employees pay a discounted rate for the service during ordinary work hours. 

Google, however, subsidizes the entire service. “The employee doesn’t have to pay 

at all,” says Mohan. 

“It’s so convenient, not to have to drive to work each day,” she adds. “And it’s 

fuel efficient, too.” 

Pfizer India: Creating a High-Performance Community 

India’s rich talent pool of high-performing professional women are a key element 

in almost every organization’s plans to succeed in this enormous, dynamic and 

rapidly expanding economy. Yet despite their advanced education and soaring 

ambitions, many of India’s high-potential women struggle with work-life balance 

issues that choke their capabilities, thwart their careers and, in too many cases, 

cause them to drop out of the workforce. 

With the world’s 12th-largest economy targeted as a top growth market, Pfizer 

initiated a special effort to recognize and engage its high-potential female talent 

in India. The program has three goals, explained Amy Schulman, Senior Vice 

President and General Counsel, and executive sponsor of the company’s Global 

Women’s Council: 

• Help Pfizer develop and retain top female talent by ensuring that they feel 

valued and supported. 

• Strengthen the connections among and between Pfizer’s high-performing 

women and their women customers, creating a virtuous circle of support and 

loyalty. 

• Put together a pilot program that can be used in both developed and other 

emerging markets. 

In a pioneering integration of two sets of needs, Pfizer India identified 10 

of its top women in sales and marketing, as well as 10 of their most important 

female customers: Physicians in private practices, high-profile hospitals, medical 

technology and other fields running the gamut of Pfizer’s markets. Each was 

interviewed individually as well as invited to participate in a focus group in which 

the women discussed their career goals and the challenges and opportunities they 

face in fulfilling them. 

There was a common narrative of blazing ambition often blocked by cultural 

barriers. In addition to the usual issues of work-life balance, professional Indian 

women have to perform a complicated balancing act that pits their career


aspirations against societal expectations. While an extended family network usually 

nullifies the childcare issues facing so many of their counterparts in developed 

economies, Indian women are disproportionately responsible for eldercare. The 

demands of sales jobs are often not understood by family members, so women 

come under a lot of pressure to give up their careers to take care of aging relatives. 

Safety and security issues that hamper women’s ability to travel or work at night 

also make it difficult for them to do their jobs. 

By providing the opportunity to share their experiences, the debut discussion 

group encouraged Pfizer’s rising stars and their customers to connect, celebrate 

each others’ successes and discuss difficulties, with the underlying recognition 

that they aren’t toiling on their own but are part of a larger community, one whose 

efforts are valuable and worth supporting. 

Pfizer’s next step was a one-day workshop in April 2010 to address these 

cultural issues, as well as to teach both career women and their customers the 

leadership skills that will help them raise their careers to the next level. The 

workshop was supported by Kewal Handa, Managing Director of Pfizer India, as 

well as Pfizer board members and senior women in India. Workshops were held in 

Mumbai and Delhi. “It’s not about Pfizer,” says Schulman, “It’s about leadership.” 

43


150 

120 

APPEndIx 

Additional data 

This report is part of a series published by the Center for Work-Life Policy on 

female talent in emerging markets. The first of these, The Battle for Female Talent in 

Emerging Markets (June 2010), applies a comparative lens to the four largest emerging 

markets—Brazil, Russia, India and China, also known as the BRIC economies—as 

well as the United Arab Emirates as an entry point to the Middle East. This appendix 

includes many data points from The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil together with 

data for the other BRIC geographies and the UAE. It is intended to provide a broader 

context for the analysis of country-specific themes; for analysis of the full data set 

please refer to The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets, available through 

the Center for Work-Life Policy, and the book Winning the War for Talent in Emerging 

Markets: Why Women Are the Solution (Harvard Business Review Press). 

Introduction: the rising importance of the BRIC economies 

Figure A1: 

BRICs will have a larger US$ GDP than the G7 in less than 40 years 

GdP (2007 uS$ trillions). 

90 

60 

30 

0 

75.9 

63.9 

56.6 

32.2 

38.8 

46.6 

42.7 

22 

9.3 

2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 

2000 

G7 BRICs 

2010 

2020 


2030 

2040 

124.2 

Source: Projection data from Goldman Sachs, most recent available as of May 17, 2010. 

test 

BRIC 

G6 

45

46 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Chapter 1: the Changing Face of talent 

Figure A1.1: 

Global distribution of the talent pipeline 35 

Individuals with tertiary education 

Women and Mulitcultural Individuals 

MENA 

White Men 

Women and Mulitcultural Individuals 2% 

Women and Mulitcultural Individuals 

Africa 

White Men 

White Men 5% 

17% 

South America 

4% 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

83% 

Women and multicultural individuals 

White men 

Figure A1.2: 

Percent of women in tertiary education 

60% 

57% 

39% 


47% 

65% 

12% 

10% 

58% 58% 

13% 

Brazil Russia India China uAE u.S. uk 

(enrollment) (enrollment) 

North America 

53% 

Western Europe 

Centrat/Eastern Europe 

Asia-Paci�c 

Asia-Pacific 

Central/Eastern Europe 


north America 

South America 

Africa 

MEnA 

United United Kingdom Kingdom 


UAE UAE 


India India 

Russia Russia 

Brazil Brazil 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

53% 

MENA 

Africa 21% 

South America 

North America 

14% India 


Centrat/Eastern 19% Rest of 

Europe 

Asia-Pacific 

Asia-Paci�c 


60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

MENA 

Africa 

South Am 

North Am 

Western E 

Centrat/Ea 

Asia-Paci�

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

60 

45 

30 

15 

Figure A1.3: 

Percent of school-age population enrolled in tertiary education 

0 

34% 

26% 

86% 

64% 

14% 

10% 

23% 23% 

35% 

15% 




Russia 

Russia 

India 

India 

Women/Men 

China UAE 

uAE 

Figure A1.4: 

60Graduate 

degree holders in sample 

45 

30 

15 

0 

37% 

31% 

50% 

40% 

12% 

Brazil Russia India China UAE 

14% 

23% 

19% 

6% 6% 


Brazil Russia India uAE 

Figure A1.5: 

Women with high level of ambition, by age 

73% 

66% 

86% 

67% 

under 30 


97% 

55% 

63% 

83% 

62% 

ages 31 - 45 

90% 

49% 

44% 

men 

women 

men 

46-63 

women 

under 30 Ages 31-45 Ages 46-63 


83% 

56% 

67% 

47 

UAE 


India 

Russia 


100 100 

48 

80 80 

60 60 

40 40 

20 20 

0 

0 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Figure A1.7: 

Women’s attitudes towards work 

81% 81% 82% 

Love work 

70% 

85% 

58% 

81% 85% 

76% 

Willing to go the extra mile 


Figure A1.8: 

Loyalty to current employer 

95% 

100 

Figure A1.6: 

Women’s aspiration 80 for top jobs 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

80% 

60 

40 

20 

60% 

0 

79% 


86% 


92% 

Russia 

76% 

88% 

India 

90% 

Brazil Russia India China UAE uAE 

97% 


52% 

united UAE 

States 

Brazil Russia India China uAE u.S. 

90% 

93% 

United States 

UAE 


India 

Russia 


100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Figure A2.2: 

Eldercare responsibilities and options 

69% 

78% 

94% 

95% 

70% 

53% 

24% 

51% 

70% 

Have EldercareWilling 

Willing 

to Use 

to use 

Willing 

hired 

Hired 

help 

Help to put in assisted liveing/h 


Figure A2.3: 

80Percentage 

of women providing monetary support for parents 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

Chapter 2: A Complex Web of Pulls 

Figure A2.1: 

Childcare options 

0 

47% 44% 

33% 

51% 

69% 


82% 

33% 

57% 58% 

25% 

Parents/In-laws nanny/Caregiver daycare 

parents 

nany 

daycare 

64% 

Brazil Russia India India China China uAE* UAE 

Percentage of annual income to support parents: 

23% 21% 23% 18% nA* 

9% 


*Data for UAE not available given restrictions on tracking salary levels. 

50% 

32% 

41% 

33% 

37% 

17% 

49% 

5% 

44% 

27% 

49 

60% 

48% 

41% 

5%

50 

100 100 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

80 80 

60 60 

40 40 

20 20 

0 

44% 

0 0 



Figure A2.5: 

Cultural pressure to “drop out” 

19% 

16% 

28% 

39% 

0 0 

Russia 

daughterly India 

guilt China 

UAE UAE 


Russia 

Maternal India 

guiltChina 


51% 

19% 

22% 

29% 

16% 


Figure A2.4: 

Daughterly vs. maternal guilt, full-time workers 

70% 

20% 

88% 

29% 

42% 

42% 

73% 

52% 

Got married Had first child 

38% 

35% 


Figure A2.6: 

Women working full-time who out-earn their spouse 

100 100 

80 80 

60 60 

59% 

40 40 

20 20 

39% 

Brazil Russia India China uAE united 

States 

65% 

62% 

86% 

United Kingdom 

United States 

UAE 


India 

Russia 


89% 

UAE UAE

Figure A2.7: 

Full-time workers whose spouse also works full time 

60 

45 

30 

15 

0 

60 

45 

30 

15 

0 

71% 

49 

hrs 

59% 

49 

hrs 

81% 

73 

hrs 

68% 


Women/Men 

China UAE uAE 

75 

hrs 

84% 

58 

hrs 

48% 

68 

hrs 

76% 

71 

hrs 

71% 

84 

hrs 

85% 

W M W W M W M W M 

Chapter 3: Push Factors at Work 


53 

hrs 



Russia 

Russia 

India 

India 

Women/Men 

China China UAE 

uAE 

22% 

Figure A3.1: 

Average workweeks: Women and men working full time in multinationals 

W M W M W M M W M 

60 

hrs 

men 

women 

men 

women 

51

52 

Figure A3.2: 

Percentage of full-time workers working more than 60 hours per week 

40 

35 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

14% 

34% 

36% 

38% 

29% 

Brazil Russia India China UAE uAE 

Figure A3.3: 

Percentage of women who work full time and work more hours than three years ago 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

45 

30 

15 

0 

38% 

32% 

29% 

31% 

43% 


Additional hours worked compared to 3 years ago 

Brazil 8 Russia 12 India 10 China 18 UAE 10 

Figure A3.4: 

Percentage of women and men who work full time and work more 

60 hours than three years ago 

38% 

36% 

32% 

24% 


29% 29% 

31% 31% 

43% 41% 



Women/Men 

China UAE uAE 

men 

women

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

Figure A3.5: 

Most commonly experienced biases in the workplace 

Figure A3.6: 

Experience safety concerns on a regular basis 

0 

37% 

62% 

52% 

31% 31% 34% 

39% 

26% 

54% 

31% 

33% 33% 

unsafe while commuting unsafe while traveling Concern for family’s safety 

Have Eldercare Brazil Willing Russia to India Use Willing Hired China Help to uAEput 

in assisted liveing/ho 

Figure A3.7: 

80Women’s 

desire to work in the public sector 

65% 

45% 

60% 

executive 

32% 


46% 47% 

51% 

31% 32% 

communication 

57% 

58% 

53% 

Executive presence Communication style Accent 

48% 

Brazil Russia Russia India China UAE uAE 

42% 

8% 

5% 

36% 

15% 

accent 

24% 

12% 10% 

19% 

dress 

39% 

31% 

27% 

53 

9% 

Cultural dress 

23% 

34%

54 

MEtHodoLoGy 


The research consists of a series of surveys in six geographies. Qualitative 

data was collected through focus groups, our Virtual Strategy Session tool and 

numerous one-on-one interviews. 

The surveys were conducted online in Brazil, Russia, India, China and the UAE 

in October 2009 reaching a total of 4,350 women and men (a minimum of 1,000 

people in each of four countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—and 200 in the 

UAE). Qualified respondents were country residents with at least a bachelor’s 

degree equivalent. The surveys were translated into the local languages. 

The sixth national survey, which included selected emerging markets 

questions, was conducted in the U.S. in February 2010 of 2,952 currently employed 

men and women in white-collar occupations with at least a bachelor’s degree. Data 

in this survey were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population of college 

graduates on key demographic characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity, household 

Internet access, metro status, and region). The base used for statistical testing was 

the effective base. 

The national surveys were conducted by Knowledge Networks under the 

auspices of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit research organization. 

Knowledge Networks was responsible for the data collection, while the Center for 

Work-Life Policy conducted the analysis. 

In the charts, percentages may not always add up to 100 because of computer 

rounding or the acceptance of multiple response answers from respondents.


tHE HIddEn BRAIn dRAIn tASk FoRCE 

Founded in 2004, this private sector task force has emerged as a thought leader in 

diversity and talent management, driving ground breaking research that crosses the 

divides of gender, generation, geography and culture. The 67 global companies that 

comprise the task force—representing four million employees and operating in 190 

countries around the world—are united by an understanding that the full utilization of 

the talent pool is at the heart of competitive advantage and economic success. 

Research Studies 

off-Ramps and on-Ramps Japan: keeping talented Women on the Road to Success 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Laura Sherbin with Catherine Fredman, Claire Ho, 

and Karen Sumberg 

Center for Work-Life Policy, November 2011 

Sponsors: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Cisco, Goldman Sachs 

the Relationship you need to Get Right 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Melinda Marshall, and Laura Sherbin 

Harvard Business Review, October 2011 

Sponsors: American Express, AT&T, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, Freddie Mac, 

Genentech, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley 

the x Factor: tapping into the Strengths of the 33- to 46-year-old Generation 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Lauren Leader-Chivée with Catherine Fredman, 

Maggie Jackson, and Laura Sherbin 

Center for Work-Life Policy, September 2011 

Sponsors: American Express, Boehringer Ingelheim USA, Cisco, Credit Suisse, Google 

For LGBt Workers, Being “out” Brings Advantages 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Karen Sumberg 

Harvard Business Review, July/August 2011 

Sponsors: American Express, Boehringer Ingelheim USA, Cisco, Credit Suisse, 

Deloitte, Google 

Asians in America: unleashing the Potential of the “Model Minority” 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid with Diana Forster and Claire Ho 

Center for Work-Life Policy, July 2011 

Sponsors: Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Time Warner 

the Power of “out”: LGBt in the Workplace 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Karen Sumberg 

Center for Work-Life Policy, June 2011 

Sponsors: American Express, Boehringer Ingelheim USA, Cisco, Credit Suisse, 

Deloitte, Google 

the Sponsor Effect: Breaking through the Last Glass Ceiling 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett with Kerrie Peraino, Laura Sherbin, and Karen Sumberg 

Harvard Business Review Research Report, December 2010 

Sponsors: American Express, Deloitte, Intel, Morgan Stanley 

55

56 


the Battle for Female talent in China 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Ripa Rashid with DeAnne Aguirre and Rosalind Hudnell 

Center for Work-Life Policy, March 2010 

Sponsors: Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer, Siemens AG 

the Battle for Female talent in India 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Ripa Rashid, Lauren Leader-Chivée with Catherine Fredman 

Center for Work-Life Policy, December 2010 


off-Ramps and on-Ramps Revisited 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Diana Forster, and Laura Sherbin 

Harvard Business Review, June 2010 

Sponsors: Cisco, Ernst & Young, The Moody’s Foundation 

off-Ramps and on-Ramps Revisited 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Diana Forster, Laura Sherbin, Peggy Shiller and Karen Sumberg 


Sponsors: Cisco, Ernst & Young, The Moody’s Foundation 

the Battle for Female talent in Emerging Markets 


Harvard Business Review, May 2010 


Letzte Ausfahrt Babypause 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Laura Sherbin 

Harvard Business Manager (Germany), May 2010 

Sponsors: Boehringer Ingelheim, Deutsche Bank, Siemens AG 

off-Ramps and on-Ramps Germany 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Diana Forster, Sara Laschever, Laura Sherbin, 

Peggy Shiller, and Karen Sumberg 

Center for Work-Life Policy, May 2010 

Sponsors: Boehringer Ingelheim, Deutsche Bank, Siemens AG 

How Gen y & Boomers Will Reshape your Agenda 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Laura Sherbin, and Karen Sumberg 

Harvard Business Review, July/August 2009 

Sponsors: Booz Allen Hamilton, Ernst & Young, Lehman Brothers, 

Time Warner, and UBS 

Bookend Generations: Leveraging talent and Finding Common Ground 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Maggie Jackson, Laura Sherbin, Peggy Shiller, Eytan Sosnovich, 



Sponsors: Booz Allen Hamilton, Ernst & Young, Lehman Brothers, 

Time Warner, and UBS


the under-Leveraged talent Pool: Women technologists on Wall Street 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Maggie Jackson, Laura Sherbin, Eytan Sosnovich, 


Center for Work-Life Policy, December 2008 

Sponsors: Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Merrill Lynch, 

and NYSE Euronext 

Sustaining High Performance in difficult times 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Laura Sherbin, Peggy Shiller, and Karen Sumberg 

Center for Work-Life Policy, September 2008 

Sponsor: The Moody’s Foundation 

Stopping the Exodus of Women in Science 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, and Lisa J. Servon 

Harvard Business Review, June 2008 

Sponsors: Alcoa, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, and Pfizer 

the Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain drain in Science, Engineering, and technology 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Lisa J. Servon, Laura Sherbin, 

Peggy Shiller, Eytan Sosnovich, and Karen Sumberg 

Harvard Business Review Research Report, June 2008 

Sponsors: Alcoa, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, and Pfizer 

Sin Fronteras: Celebrating and Capitalizing on the Strengths of Latina Executives 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Peggy Shiller, and Karen Sumberg 

Center for Work-Life Policy, October 2007 

Sponsors: Booz Allen Hamilton, Cisco, Credit Suisse, General Electric, 

Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, and Time Warner 

Seduction and Risk: the Emergence of Extreme Jobs 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Sandra Southwell, and Linda Bernstein 

Center for Work-Life Policy, February 2007 

Sponsors: American Express, BP plc, ProLogis, and UBS 

Extreme Jobs: the dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce 

Harvard Business Review, December 2006 

Sponsors: American Express, BP plc, ProLogis, and UBS 

Global Multicultural Executives and the talent Pipeline 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Cornel West, Linda Bernstein, 

Catherine Orenstein, Peggy Shiller, Sandra Southwell, and Karen Sumberg 

Center for Work-Life Policy, April 2006 and January 2008 

Sponsors: Citigroup, General Electric, PepsiCo, Time Warner, and Unilever 

Leadership in your Midst: tapping the Hidden Strengths of Minority Executives 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, and Cornel West 

Harvard Business Review, November 2005 

Sponsors: General Electric, Time Warner, and Unilever 

57

58 


Invisible Lives: Celebrating and Leveraging diversity in the Executive Suite 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Cornel West, Helen Chernikoff, 

Danielle Samalin, and Peggy Shiller 

Center for Work-Life Policy, November 2005 

Sponsors: General Electric, Time Warner, and Unilever 

off-Ramps and on-Ramps: keeping talented Women on the Road to Success 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce 

Harvard Business Review, March 2005 

Sponsors: Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers 

the Hidden Brain drain: off-Ramps and on-Ramps in Women’s Careers 

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Peggy Shiller, and Sandra Southwell 

Harvard Business Review Research Report, March 2005 

Sponsors: Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers

IndEx oF ExHIBItS 


Introduction: 

Figure 1: Brazil’s Annual GDP Growth Rate 1991-2011 6 

Figure 2: BRICs will have a larger US$ GDP than the G7 in less than 40 years 6 

Figure 3: Female participation in the labor force 7 

Chapter 1: the Changing Face of talent 

Figure 1.1: Women as percent of college graduates in BRIC countries 9 

Figure 1.2: Percent of college age population enrolled in tertiary education in BRIC countries 10 

Figure 1.3: Brazilian women’s increase in access and opportunity 10 

Figure 1.4: Brazilian women’s attitudes towards work 11 

Figure 1.5: Brazilian women’s top motivators at work 11 

Figure 1.6: Women working full-time who out-earn their spouse 12 

Chapter 2: A Complex Web of Pulls 

Figure 2.1: Less encumbered by childcare 14 

Figure 2.2: Social acceptability of women with young children to work 14 

Figure 2.3: Social acceptability of young children in daycare 15 

Figure 2.4: Eldercare responsibilities and options 16 

Figure 2.5: Guilt: mothers and daughters working full-time 16 

Chapter 3: Push Factors at Work 

Figure 3.1: Women treated unfairly because of gender 20 

Figure 3.2: Problems of bias severe enough to make women consider scaling back/quitting 20 

Figure 3.3: Experience safety concerns on a regular basis 22 

Figure 3.4: Public sector very desirable to work for 25 

Figure 3.5: Why is public sector attractive? 26 

APPEndIx 

Exhibits for Introduction 

Figure A1: BRICs will have a larger US$ GDP than the G7 in less than 40 years 45 

Exhibits for Chapter 1 

Figure A1.1: Global distribution of the talent pipeline 46 

Figure A1.2: Percent of women in tertiary education 46 

Figure A1.3: Percent of school-age population enrolled in tertiary education 47 

Figure A1.4: Graduate degree holders in sample 47 

Figure A1.5: Women with high level of ambition, by age 47 

Figure A1.6: Women’s aspiration for top jobs 48 

Figure A1.7: Women’s attitudes towards work 48 

Figure A1.8: Loyalty to current employer 48 


Figure A2.1: Childcare options 49 

Figure A2.2: Eldercare responsibilities and options 49 

Figure A2.3: Percentage of women providing monetary support for parents 49 

Figure A2.4: Daughterly vs. maternal guilt, full-time workers 50 

Figure A2.5: Cultural pressure to “drop out” 50 

Figure A2.6: Women working full time who out-earn their spouse 50 

Figure A2.7: Full-time workers whose spouse also works full time 51 


Figure A3.1: Average workweeks: Women and men working full time in multinationals 51 

Figure A3.2: Percentage of full-time workers working more than 60 hours per week 52 

Figure A3.3: Percentage of women who work full time and work more hours than three years ago 52 

Figure A3.4: Percentage of women and men who work full time and work more hours than three years ago 52 

Figure A3.5: Most commonly experienced biases in the workplace 53 

Figure A3.6: Experience safety concerns on a regular basis 53 

Figure A3.7: Women’s desire to work in the public sector 53 

59

60 

EndnotES 

1 Quoted in “Passport to Brazil: A summary of the opportunities and challenges,” Ernst & 

Young, 2010, page 1. 

2 “Brazil’s Brain Strain: Will a Skills Shortage Dampen Growth?” Knowledge@Wharton, 

April 6, 2011. 

3 Cited in John Paul Rathbone, “South America’s giant comes of age,” Financial Times, 

June 28, 2010. 

4 “Unemployment rate was 6.0% in August,” Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, 

September 22, 2011; Chris Mayer, “The Land of the Future…Today,” The Daily 

Reckoning, August 19, 2010. 

5 World Bank, World Development Indicators database, 1 July 2011. 

6 Ernst & Young, “Passport to Brazil,” 1, 19. 

7 International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook (International Monetary Fund, 

September 2011), 90. 

8 “The 100 Most Powerful Women,” Forbes, September 12, 2011. 

9 Paulo Prada,“Women Ascend in Latin America,” Wall Street Journal, December 24, 2010. 

10 “No Rio, mulheres já ocupam metade das vagas das melhores empresas para se 

trabalhar,” O Globo, March 2, 2010. 

11 Saadia Zahidi and Herminia Ibarra, The Corporate Gender Gap Report 2010 (Geneva: 

World Economic Forum, 2010), 28; Grant Thornton, “Global survey: Women still hold 

less than a quarter of senior management positions in privately held businesses,” 

March 5, 2009; Fortune 500 Female CEOs, as of October 2011; Grant Thornton, “Global 

survey: Women still hold less than a quarter of senior management positions in 

privately held businesses.” 

12 World Bank, “Gender,” Enterprise Surveys database. 

13 International Labour Office. Women in labour markets: measuring progress and 

identifying challenges (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2010), 15-16; 

World Bank, “Labor participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15+),” 

World Development Indicators database. 

14 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 

15 Towers Watson, Creating a Sustainable Rewards and Talent Management Model: 

Results of the 2010 Global Talent Management and Rewards Study (Towers Watson, 

2010), 4; “Brazil’s Brain Strain: Will a Skills Shortage Dampen Growth?” Knowledge@ 

Wharton, April 6, 2011. 

16 “Brazil’s Brain Strain,” Knowledge@Wharton. 

17 UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 

18 Ibid. 

19 Alexei Barrionuevo,“Upwardly Mobile Nannies Move into the Brazilian Middle Class,” 

New York Times, May 19, 2011. 


20 “Getting it together at last,” Economist, November 12, 2009. 

21 Mercer, “Worldwide Cost of Living survey 2011 - City rankings,” July 12, 2011. 

22 Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz, Mapa da Violência 2010: Anatomia dos Homicídios no Brasil 

[Map of Violence 2010: Anatomy of Homicides in Brazil] (São Paulo: Instituto Sangari, 

2010), 110. 

23 Ciça Vallerio, “Salto Quantitativo” [Quantum Leap], O Estado de S. Paulo, May 31, 2009. 

24 Barrionuevo,“Upwardly Mobile Nannies.” 

25 Quoted in “Sejaunamamae executive,” RevistaMulherExecutiva, July 2010. 

26 Some names and affiliations have been changed. When only first names are used, they 

are pseudonyms. 

27 Juan Pablo Atal, Hugo Ñopo, Natalia Winder, “New Century, old disparities: gender and 

ethnic wage gaps in Latin America,” Inter-American Development Bank Working Paper 

109, 2009. 

28 Ibid. 

29 Overseas Security Advisory Council, “Brazil 2010 Crime and Safety Report: Sao Paulo,” 

February 22, 2010. 

30 U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Brazil: Country Specific 

Information,” updated November 5, 2010. 

31 Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Commerce: Brazil (New York: The Economist 

Intelligence Unit, September 2011), 27. 

32 Cristian Divan Baldani and Luiz Guilherme Migliora, “180 days’ maternity leave to 

become mandatory right for all female employees,” International Law Office, 

September 22, 2010. 

33 Ieda Novais, personal communication with authors, August 30, 2010. 

34 Joao Araujo, “Petrobras is the Ideal Employer for Brazil’s students,” Universum Global, 

June 21, 2010. 


35 Global talent pool is defined as all individuals around the world who have at least tertiary 

education (college/university level). Source: Sylvia Ann Hewlett et al., The Athena Factor 

(Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, June 2008); Booz & Company analysis; OECD & 

UNESCO 2000–2006 (based on availability) Education database, Tertiary Completion 

Levels: India, Pakistan and Peru, 2002 UNESCO Education Database, Tertiary Enrollment 

reduced, assuming 33% completion rate. 

61


cover and illustrations: Beppe Giacobbe 

Book design: winerdesign 


© 2011 center for Work-Life Policy. all rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or transmission of any part of this publication in any form or by any means, 

mechanical or electronic, is prohibited. The analyses and opinions represented in this report are solely those of the authors. 

63

The Center for Work-Life Policy 

is a nonprofit think tank based in 

New York City. CWLP’s flagship 

project is the Hidden Brain Drain 

Task Force—a private sector 

task force focused on global 

talent innovation. The 70 global 

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that constitute the Task Force, 

representing four million 

employees and operating in 

190 countries around the world, 

are united by an understanding 

that the full realization of 

the talent pool is at the heart 

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The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil - Center for Work-Life Policy

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