Emma Crowe and Grace Dahlman
Professor Paula Gandara
FST 383
28 October 2015
Three’s a Crowd?:
Brazil, Women and Education
With a worldwide
push for female equality sparked through conferences such as the United
Nations’ World Education Forum, we have seen a revision of thought throughout
the world when it comes to women’s education. However, it can become difficult,
based on a country’s specific culture, to change their richly ingrained gender
and educational systems. The role of the woman in Brazilian culture is one of
constant struggle when it comes to equality, especially because of their very
historical patriarchal society. By contextualizing the history of the education
system in Brazil and Dilma’s role in women’s education especially incorporating
class discussions, we can better understand the impact woman currently have on
the Brazilian society and the gender system.
The impact of
women’s education in Brazil has increased an incredible amount throughout the
last century considering the barriers they had to face for the past five
hundred years since the Portuguese landed in Brazil. The implications of this
change can be drastic to society in changing the roles of the classical
Brazilian cultural housewife attitude. Prior to the 1800’s, education for both
men and women was not considered a necessity. As we read in our reading Women and Society in Colonial Brazil, the
traditional woman or “the white donzela and the lady of the ‘big house’ have
been depicted as leading a secluded existence…immune to the harsh realities”
(Russell-Wood, 1). These harsh realities included education and going outside
the home like the patriarchal figure did. However, as time went on and because
of the male dominated society of Brazil and the world, men were deemed worthy
to learn how to read and write, as it was not seen as a necessity for the
women's traditional household roles (Beltrão and
Alves). Women were only allowed to attend school and work outside the
home in jobs around the turn of the 20th century (Lewis). As a result of the
increase in education, around the 1970’s and 1980’s, women's employment rose in
Brazil. Even more women joined work sectors that had employed only men in the
past rather than just “the informal and self-employed sectors” (Lewis).
However, women tend to pursue higher education in areas such as education and
health and continue to struggle to penetrate male dominated fields like
engineering and law (Osava).
Dilma Rousseff
took over office as the first female Brazilian President in 2011. As we have
discussed in class, Dilma often abuses her power and does not do enough to
support women who are abused regularly in Brazil. Furthermore, we even
discussed how she has closed schools and hired military police for schools she
has not closed (class 10/2/2015). Education is a necessary tool women need to
have in order to learn how to become independent. Closing schools will not help
this. However, on the onset of Dilma’s presidential position, she spoke to the
United Nations saying that this is “the century of women” and “I speak to you
with a feminine voice. It’s the voice of democracy, of equality” (Torregrosa). Woman in Brazil have looked up
to Dilma as a role model especially since she appointed a record number of
women to her cabinet. There are now women holding strategic business positions
in Brazil as well, including “Chieko Aoki, the
head of Blue Tree, one of the largest hotel chains in Brazil; Maria Cláudia
Oliveira Amaro, president of the board of TAM, the country’s leading airline;
Maria Silvia Bastos Marques, the first chairwoman of C.S.N., the national steel
company; and Vera Gaensly Cordeiro, a medical and social entrepreneur and
founder of the worldwide Child Health Association,” (Torregrosa). Dilma has
made incredible progress in terms of inspiring and publicizing powerful women,
despite her horrific shortcomings with education reforms and creating
militaristic school environments for both boys and girls. The image of
the woman is clearly changing, but not as the progressive rates necessary to
overcome all obstacles.
However,
education alone cannot change the Brazilian society. The rate at which women
are entering educational institutions, although improved, is still not the same
rate at which women are acquiring formal equal jobs as men. Changing long
ingrained cultural perceptions of women is hard to do. Women are traditionally
supposed to be in charge of all household activities, including taking care of
the children and rarely even leaving the home. We discussed in class how
although women have jobs, they are still responsible for this role (class
10/23/2015) and cannot generally hope to attain a lucrative career in addition
to their domestic responsibilities. Fulvia Rosemberg of the Carlos Chagas
Foundation argues, “as long as child care is not available for all families,
there will be no structural changes in women’s participation in the labour
market” (Osava). Although Dilma has brought many more women aboard her team
than any other Brazilian President before and may create an idea to women
throughout the country that they can rise to this, if the value system doesn’t
change, it is very difficult to increase women’s importance in society. Though
women can express their discontent, they inherently have less power to change
the status quo.
Many times
through Brazilian literature, these important societal values are brought to
light for the observant reader. Sometimes when the feminine woman leaves her
role as the traditional housewife, she is punished. However, in The Ants,
which we read for class, we see how the two Brazilian girls are staying in an
attic of a house. They are students going off to college to study medicine and
law—professions not totally in the ordinary for a Brazilian woman. In class we
discussed how the dwarf that the ants were building acts as a symbol to the
unconscious mind and the girls unconsciously are running away from the
traditional role of the feminine (class 10/14/2015). Written during a time when
education was slowly growing, this is very representative of the unconscious
nervousness surrounding the allowal of women in Brazil into the educational
realm. The nervousness surrounding of a possible feminine sexuality that could
be lost if women entered into fields of medicine and law; this is an
interesting observation if one is reading carefully. The author appeals to
women’s subconscious obedience to the domestic sphere in Brazil.
Women’s role in
education in Brazil is steadily changing to this day. Females make up the
majority of college enrollment and have a higher graduation rate than their
male counterparts, and hold incredibly powerful business and governmental
positions for their country. Despite these promising advancements, these women
are still considered to be anomalies in the strong Brazilian patriarchal
society and women are still suffering. Dilma’s education reforms are hurting
all students, and women specifically still struggle to have influential jobs
and careers while conforming to cultural standards of being a wife and mother.
Women and their contributions are still qualified and defined by the men in
their life, bearing those titles such as “mother,” “wife,” and so on. Even
President Dilma, the most powerful woman in the country, is noted most commonly
as “successor to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.”
Brazilian and world culture still has a long way to go before women of all
classes can even hope to be considered equal to their male counterparts, and
the rise in female education is a strong indicator that they are headed in that
direction.
WORKS Cited
Beltrão, Kaizô Iwakami, and José Eustáquio Diniz
Alves. "Reversal of the Gender Gap in
Brazilian Education in the 20th Century." Reversal
of the Gender Gap in Brazilian Education in the 20th Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 27
Oct. 2015.
<http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-15742009000100007&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en>.
Lewis, Jone Johnson. “Brazil Women.” Women’s History. About, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
<http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_brazil.htm>.
Osava, Mario. “RIGHTS: Women More Educated, Not More Equal.” Global Issues. N.p., 2
Mar. 2010. Web 27 Oct.
2015. <http://www.globalissues.org/news/2010/03/01/4685>.
Russel-Wood, A.J.R.,. “Women and Society in Colonial Brazi.” Journal of Latin American
Studies 9.1 (1997): 1-34. Cambridge University. Web. 28 Oct/. 2015.
Torregrosa, Luisita Lopez. “Paving a Way for Women in
Brazil.” The New York
Times. The New York Time, 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/world/americas/16iht-letter16.html?_r=1>.
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