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

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CHAPtER 4:
Conclusion
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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.
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