Under President Temer, Number of Women in Top Tier of Government Drops to Same Level As 15 Years Ago

09/11/2017 - 10h20

The number of women holding top-tier positions of trust in the executive branch has dropped ever since Michel Temer took office.

According to a survey conducted by Folha using data from the Ministry of Planning, the number of women in high positions has declined to the same level as 15 years ago, during the end of the administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The number of women holding positions of trust, where the average salary is R$ 20 thousand (US$ 6.5 thousand), is 22% - not even a quarter of all available positions.

In April of 2016, before Dilma Rousseff left the presidency, women made up 26.2% of positions.

"The difficulty in ascending to higher positions is similar to that which happens in the private sector. A lot of the time, women aren't considered capable of holding certain positions; a lot of the time, they themselves don't think they're capable", said Natália Fontoura, a specialist in public policy and government management at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA).

She pointed out that the figure of a white, educated male, who is entirely available for the position, is still considered the ideal employee by most of society.

Débora Barem, a specialist in people management and a professor at the University of Brasília (UnB), said that the cultural factor is the only plausible explanation when it comes to the difficulties women face when applying for high positions.

"There's this idea that, if you're a woman, you'd be better at an operational position. A lot of people in the country don't find it acceptable that women should be in charge", she said.

The Ministry of Planning, which is in charge of releasing information on personnel, stated that each ministry makes its own appointments.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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