Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present how to overcome gender inequality in the world, that is, inequality between men and women, pointing out its causes and the necessary solutions. Gender inequality occurs when one gender, the male, is privileged over the other, the female. Historically, the rights and wishes of men have taken precedence over those of women. This difference is rooted in our society in the form of male chauvinism, largely due to an outdated patriarchal culture that considers women inferior or less capable than men. The family structure and ancient social relations placed the male gender at the highest place in the social pyramid. Historically, women have been given a submissive role in relation to men. Male financial superiority has always enhanced women’s dependence and limited their power of choice. Gender inequality is used as a justification for violence against women, reinforces their lack of representation in political spaces and wage differences in relation to men, mainly due to lower wages, even though women are the majority in the labor market with a course higher in several countries.
The World Inequality Report 2022 produced by Thomas Piketty’s team at the Paris School of Economics provides us with the first estimates of gender inequality in global earnings. Overall, women’s share of total labor income was 31% in 1990 and is less than 35% today (Figure 1).
FIGURE 1 – Female participation in global labor income, 1990-2020
Source: https://outraspalavras.net/desigualdades-mundo/novo-mapa-da-desigualdade-global/
Figure 1 is taken from the Executive Summary of The World Inequality Report 2022 produced by the team of Thomas Piketty, translated by Outras Palavras (Other Words) under the title “O novo mapa da desigualdade global” (The new map of global inequality), available on the website <https://outraspalavras.net/desigualdades-mundo/novo-mapa-da-desigualdade-global/>, which informs that gender inequalities remain considerable at the global level, and progress within countries is very slow.
Current gender income inequality remains very high. In a world with full gender equality, women should earn 50% of all labor income. In 30 years, progress has been very slow at the global level and dynamics have been different across countries, with some making progress but others seeing declines in women’s share of earnings, as is the case in China (Figure 2).
FIGURE 2 – Female participation in world income, 1990, 2020
Source: https://outraspalavras.net/desigualdades-mundo/novo-mapa-da-desigualdade-global/
The article 4 fatores que acentuam a desigualdade de gênero no mercado de trabalho (4 factors that accentuate gender inequality in the labor market), published on March 13, 2022, available on the website <https://br.financas.yahoo.com/noticias/4-fatores-que-acentuam-a-desigualdade-de-genero-no-mercado-de-trabalho-090003699.html>, informs that the report Women, Business and the Law 2022 of the World Bank brings to the debate of gender inequality data that wide open the abyss between men and women about economic opportunities and rights. This World Bank report shows that around 2.4 billion women have fewer economic opportunities and rights than men in the world, 178 countries (93.6%) maintain legal barriers that prevent women’s full participation in the economy, 95 countries (50%) do not guarantee equal pay for jobs of equal value, 86 countries (45%) have restrictions for women to access the labor market and only 12 countries (6.3%) offer equal conditions for men and women in all areas of expertise.
In Brazil, a survey carried out by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística Brazilian (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE) shows that 54.5% of women aged 15 or over were part of the workforce in 2019. Another relevant point of the study is about the level of education of women, which reaches 19.4% with higher education, while the rate of men with the same education is 15.1%. Despite the high presence of women in the labor market and the higher level of education for them, gender inequality still affects women in corporate environments in Brazil.
Gender inequality is very high all over the world with the exception of the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland). Nordic or Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden maintain the top places in the world ranking for reducing gender inequality by more than 80%. In turn, the countries occupying the last positions still need to reduce their inequalities by up to 50%. Thalita Gelenske’s article What Denmark and the Nordic countries can teach us about gender equality, published on the website <https://revistahsm.com.br/post/o-que-a-dinamarca-e-os-paises-nordicos-podem-nos-ensinar-sobre-igualdade-de-genero> demonstrates that Denmark and the Nordic countries can serve as role models on gender equality for countries around the world. According to data from The Global Gender Gap Report 2018, an official report developed by the World Economic Forum, Iceland is the country that occupies the number 1 position in equality between men and women in the world, while Brazil is in position 95 out of 149 countries analyzed. The report analyzes from 4 perspectives: (1) Economic Participation and Access to Opportunity; (2) Education; (3) Health and survival; and, (4) Political empowerment.
One of the policies that Denmark and the other Nordic countries have as a global reference in gender equality is the so-called parental leave, which can be shared by the father and mother (or by same-sex couples) after the baby is born. While in Brazil maternity leave is 4 months and paternity leave is 5 days (if the company has not joined the citizen company program to extend it to 6 months and 20 days, respectively), in Denmark, for example, there is the policy described below:
• Maternity leave: 4 weeks before the expected date of birth, the mother can already go on leave. After giving birth, the mother can enjoy 14 weeks (about 3 and a half months).
• Paternity leave: After the birth of the baby, the father can take a period of 4 weeks of paternity leave.
• Parental leave: what makes the scenario much more advanced than in Brazil is parental leave. After the end of maternity and paternity leave, the couple can share (whichever way they prefer) parental leave of 32 weeks (about 8 months), which can be extended for another 14 weeks.
A good practice can be observed in another Nordic country, Iceland (number 1 in the World Economic Forum ranking). In 2000, the country introduced new parental leave legislation, including an adaptation. There, the period of parental leave is 9 months and must be shared by the couple considering the following calculation: 3 months must be taken compulsorily by the mother, 3 months must be taken compulsorily by the father and the remaining months can be divided between the couple, in the way they prefer. If the man chooses not to take it, the 3 months will be lost. With that, we see a high growth in the number of men who start to take leave to take care of their children, which helps to break stereotypes and contribute to an improvement in gender equality indices. This is the type of measure that has the potential to break several paradigms for balancing our lives, living in society and raising our sons and daughters. Figure 3 shows the evolution of parental leave from 1994 to 2017 in Iceland.
Figure 3- Evolution of parental leave from 1994 to 2017 in Iceland
Source: Nordic Labor Journal, 2019.
Norway is another of the Scandinavian countries that is always in the top 3 positions in the world ranking of gender equality, with regard to salary and political representation. The article Noruega: exemplo de políticas públicas para a igualdade de gênero (Norway Example of public policies for gender equality), published on 01/28/2019 by CartaCapital magazine, available on the website <https://www.cartacapital.com.br/justica/noruega-exemplo-de-politicas-publicas-para-a-igualdade-de-genero/>, features an interview with the Norwegian ambassador to Brazil, Nils Gunneng, who spoke about the policies developed in the country and explained that equity is a humanitarian issue, but also the perception that when a country closes opportunities to practically half the population, by insisting on gender inequality, it wastes enormous talent and economic potential. For Norwegians it is very important to use all available talents. And of course talent is equally distributed, there is no difference between talent in men and talent in women, so Norway needs women in the workforce. To achieve this, it is necessary to ensure that both work and have a good family life.
The article by Shelley Zalis under the title Lições dos países que estão perto da igualdade de gênero (Lessons from countries that are close to gender equality), published on 11/8/2018 on the website <https://forbes.com.br/principal/2018/11/licoes-dos-paises-que-estao-perto-da-igualdade-de-genero/>, reports that Nordic nations change work rules and narrow gender gaps. In an effort to help men and women achieve better results in the workplace, the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland) have been rewriting the rules by adopting more family-friendly policies, such as subsidized childcare, parental leave for mothers and fathers, flexible hours, home office and alternative journeys. Iceland has become the first country in the world to outlaw the gender pay gap, with a law requiring companies with 25 or more employees to prove they pay men and women equally who do the same work. In Iceland, the gender pay gap was just 5.7% in 2017, and could narrow further this year under the new law. Scandinavian countries frequently top the 144-country rankings in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark typically make the Top 5 on the list, with some of the highest female labor force participation rates in the world. The economy also benefited because having more women employed has boosted per capita GDP by 10% to 20% over the last 40 to 50 years, according to an OECD report.
The gender equality policy used in Scandinavian countries results from the fact that they have adopted a model of society that has some traits in common: a universalist Welfare-Social State that is aimed at improving individual autonomy, promoting social mobility and ensuring the universal provision of basic human rights and the stabilization of the economy. It is also distinguished by its emphasis on labor force participation, promoting gender equality, reducing social inequality, increase in levels of benefits to the population and great magnitude of wealth redistribution [The Modelo nórdico (Nordic Model) article, published by Wikipedia on the website <http://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modelo_n%C3%B3rdico>, shows the great virtues of this society]. It was the social democracy built until today, especially in the Scandinavian countries, the only model of society that allowed economic, social and political advances simultaneously with the State acting as a mediator of conflicts between the interests of capital and Civil Society. It is no coincidence that the Scandinavian countries, in addition to showing great economic and social successes, are leaders in HDI (Human Development Index) in the world.
Scandinavian social democracy seeks state regulation and the creation of programs that reduce or eliminate the social injustices inherent to capitalism. This approach differs significantly from traditional socialism, which aims to replace the capitalist system entirely with a new economic system characterized by collective ownership of the means of production under the direction of workers. The Welfare State consists of a mode of economic and political organization in which the State acts as an organizer of the economy and an agent of social promotion. It acts in order to reconcile the interests of the capitalists who own the means of production with the protection and provision of quality public services to the people. In other words, it seeks to reconcile the interests of those “at the top” with those “at the bottom” of the social scale. The Scandinavian countries constitute “oases” of civilization in a world characterized by the barbarity of social inequality of income, wealth and gender.
From the above, it can be concluded that gender equality can be achieved with the adoption of the Universalist Social Welfare State along the lines of Scandinavian countries with the necessary adaptation in each country aimed at promoting gender equality, reducing inequality social, offer extensive levels of benefits to the population and realize the redistribution of wealth. Only in this way will women obtain equal opportunities and income in relation to men in the labor market and achieve their true emancipation from the secular tyranny that has been exercised against women in society throughout the world throughout history.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022) and a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2022).
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