28 th International Population Conference of the International Union - PDF document

28 th International Population Conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Cape Town, South Africa, 29 October to 4 November 2017 Old and new dilemmas regarding the balance between work and family in Brazil Maria Coleta de Oliveira – mcoleta@nepo.unicamp.br (Population Studies Center “Elza Bequó”/ University of Campinas/Brazil) Glaucia Marcondes – gal@nepo.unicamp.br (Population Studies Center “Elza Bequó”/ University of Campinas/Brazil) Introduction Women’s entry and persistence in the workforce are closely related to a broad set of economic, demographic, and cultural transformations that, along with specific regional, class differentiation, color/ethnicity and generational characteristics shape the possibilities and social constraints upon which women build their personal and family life. One of the main characteristic of the systematic increase in the participation of women in the Brazilian workforce over the last four decades has been the diversity of these new entrants. Mostly young, unmarried and childfree, the participation of women in the most advanced stages of life has been increasing continuously, and that also includes women with partners and children. As a result, more women now face the challenges of combining paid and out-of- home work with household and family demands. The new profile of the female labor force has been the subject of study in different parts of the world, and is considered by some authors as part of the gender revolution in progress since the middle of the last century. Instead of searching for jobs that can adapt to the responsibilities of family life, women increasingly invest in jobs seen as part of their life projects. Reflecting social transformations, this trend has affected family formation dynamics and undermined the complementary and asymmetrical ideal model of man as provider/woman as a caregiver. That is compounded by some pre-existing, and now aggravated, conflicts in work-family relations (Frejka, Goldsheider, Lappergârd, 2016; Esping-Andersen and Billari, 2015), something that had already been noted by Peter McDonald (2000), for whom the implications in postmodernity would be a growing gender 1

inequality between individual-oriented and family-oriented institutions. Among the former, the labor market and education system in most developed Western countries have evolved to eliminate access barriers for women. The same has not happened in family-oriented institutions, which change at a slow pace, preserving an unequal and asymmetric pattern of division of labor by gender. Thus, even though they are now more educated and are firmly established in the workforce, women have retained a leading role at home, and are responsible for a great deal of household chores and for caring and providing assistance to family members, especially children and seniors. These contradictory forces give rise to a new, yet still unfair system, which can only be solved at a later moment, when the social transformations spur a new stage of the gender revolution, marked by greater male involvement with the household-family life and, therefore, leading to a larger and new “gender equality balance” (Frejka, Goldsheider, Lappergârd, 2016, Esping-Andersen and Billari, 2015). This theme and its questions comprise the subject of this study, with a view to exploring and reflecting on how and to what degree women balance their family and professional lives at this beginning of the 21 st century. The persistence and to some extent an accentuation of conventional gender definitions seem to contradict the optimistic perspectives that we have for the 21 st century. What factors or characteristics have led to a lesser or greater accentuation of women’s responsibilities and, consequently, of gender inequalities? Data The information comes from the National Sample Household Survey (PNAD) 1 from 2001 to 2015, exploring employment and family composition characteristics of the female population ages 16 to 59. This age group allows for a more accurate analysis of the female population most likely to be active and subject to professional and family demands, as well as their conflicts and contradictions. The information used was: employment status and hours worked per week; position at home, reproductive status; spouses and/or children living at home; number of women living at home; and time spent doing household chores. In addition 1 The PNAD is a sample household survey containing socioeconomic information on the population, and carried out annually by IBGE. It has been held since 1967, but it was not until the 1980s that the survey covered all Brazilian regions. 2

to countrywide data, the differences found between metropolitan and non-metropolitan female population were also taken into consideration. Results Brazilian women in the workforce The participation of women in the Brazilian labor market has seen steady growth in the last four decades. Considering the female population aged 10 years and over, the workforce participation rate was 20% in the early 1970s, and reached 50% in the 2000s (BRUSCHINI, 2007; ALVES, CORREA, 2009). If we consider the population subject of this study, i.e., ages 16-59, the participation of women remains below that of men throughout the 2000s. However, as shown in Table 1 , there have been some relative increases, especially in metropolitan areas. By assessing the participation of women according to their reproductive status, we find that children continue to be an unfavorable element for women’s participation in the market, especially in metropolitan areas, albeit at a lesser rate than in previous decades. In non-metropolitan areas of Brazil, the data suggests that there is not a great difference between the participation rates of women with children and those without children. Conversely, in the metropolises, the differences found between women of different reproductive status are significant, and was reduced by half at the end of the period analyzed. 3

Table 1: Participation rate of the population ages 16-59 by sex and female reproductive status. Brazil, Metropolitan Regions, 2001-2015. Women’s Participation rate of Participation rate of Men’s participation participation rate women with children women without rate (%) (%) (%) children (%) Year Brazil Metro Other Brazil Metro Other Brazil Metro Other Brazil Metro Other 87.3 85.4 88.2 60.8 61.8 60.3 59.7 59.0 60.1 63.4 67.4 61.1 2001 87.5 86.3 88.1 62.6 63.9 61.9 61.5 61.1 61.7 65.0 69.4 62.3 2002 87.3 85.0 88.3 62.9 63.0 62.8 62.2 60.9 62.8 64.4 67.2 62.7 2003 87.9 86.2 88.6 64.2 65.2 63.7 63.6 63.1 63.8 65.5 69.5 63.4 2004 88.2 87.0 88.7 65.8 67.3 65.1 64.8 64.9 64.8 68.1 72.1 65.7 2005 87.7 86.5 88.2 65.8 67.1 65.1 64.9 64.5 65.1 67.8 72.3 65.1 2006 87.4 86.6 87.7 65.5 67.4 64.5 64.7 65.4 64.4 67.1 71.4 64.8 2007 87.8 86.9 88.1 65.8 67.8 64.8 64.9 65.6 64.6 67.7 72.0 65.3 2008 87.8 86.9 88.2 66.4 68.8 65.2 65.9 67.2 65.4 67.3 72.0 64.7 2009 86.4 85.9 86.7 63.7 66.1 62.6 63.0 64.4 62.5 65.0 69.0 62.8 2011 86.2 85.6 86.5 64.2 66.7 63.0 63.4 65.2 62.6 65.8 69.5 63.8 2012 85.8 85.4 86.0 64.1 66.6 62.9 63.8 65.5 63.1 64.7 68.4 62.5 2013 86.5 86.1 86.7 65.8 68.6 64.5 65.6 67.3 64.9 66.2 70.9 63.6 2014 85.5 85.8 85.3 64.4 67.8 62.8 64.6 67.0 63.5 64.1 69.3 61.2 2015 Source: IBGE, PNAD 2001-2015. Prepared by author. Having a child no longer seems to be a major obstacle to women’s participation in the Brazilian economy; in fact, unemployment data shows that women with children enjoy a better employment status than those without children. In the period analyzed, the unemployment rate for women ages 16 to 59 ranged from 12.9% (2003) to 8.4% (2012), reaching 9.1% in 2014. Among women with children, unemployment was 10.7%, 6.7% and 7.3%, respectively, much lower than for women without children, which was 17.6%, 11.9% and 13.1%. It is worth noting that, in Brazil, unemployment affects more women in metropolitan areas than in other areas. (Graph 1 and Graph 2) 4

Graph 1: Female unemployment rate (%) by reproductive status. Brazil, Metropolitan areas, 2001-2015. 25,0 20,0 rate (%) 15,0 10,0 5,0 0,0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 year All With Children Without Children Source: IBGE, PNAD 2001-2015. Prepared by author. Graph 2: Female unemployment rate (%) by reproductive status. Brazil, No- metropolitan areas, 2001-2015. 25,0 20,0 15,0 rate (%) 10,0 5,0 0,0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 year All With Children Without children Source: IBGE, PNAD 2001-2015. Prepared by author. Higher unemployment among women without children may be related to two factors, both associated with the composition of this segment of women. On the one hand, it is composed mostly of young women, who have the hardest time entering the workforce for the first time. On the other hand, it is possible that, when they are younger, they face less pressure to help the family financially than older women with children who depend on them. 5