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

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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
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