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

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CHAPtER 3:
Push Factors at Work
THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
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
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