This Tuesday (2), in Brasília, women who hold leadership positions in companies and corporations across Brazil debated the importance of combating the dynamics of gender and racial discrimination and inequality in the workplace. In powerful accounts, they show how promoting equity is capable of promoting economic, financial and socio-environmental results.
Vice President of Marketing and Brand Communication at a multinational vehicle manufacturer, Alessandra Souza is the leader of a team made up mostly of women from different regions, races and as diverse as Brazil. With a successful career, she remembers that it wasn’t always like this. “I suffered, in a very subtle way, from a tendency towards a masculinization of my management”, he recalls.
“My career happened when I stopped trying to be something I’m not. I stopped trying to fit into standards that didn’t serve me and didn’t serve the organization, nor added value to where I was,” he says.
Like Alessandra, the business director of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency, Ana Paula Repezza, reached the peak of her career when she returned from maternity leave, with experience that could not be acquired only in the corporate environment.
“In fact, we become better leaders when we face the challenge of balancing family and work, because we learn to delegate, to prioritize, to trust people and, most importantly, we learn to look at other women the way we want to be looked at”, he highlights.
Public policy
In addition to the moment of strengthening, the two leaders share the fact that they work in companies that have joined the 7th edition of the Gender and Race Pro-Equity Program, a public policy for disseminating new concepts in people management and organizational culture and combating the dynamics of gender and racial discrimination and inequality practiced in the workplace.
Promoted by the Ministry of Women, the program supports good practices carried out in companies and organizations and certifies with the Pro-Gender and Racial Equality Seal the commitment to equality between women and men in the world of work.
The meeting between women was part of a seminar to support the progress of actions in companies and discuss new strategies and challenges in the construction of fairer corporate environments, capable of facing reality such as that presented in the 4th Salary Transparency and Remuneration Criteria Report, from the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE), and released at the beginning of November.
The document pointed out that women still receive, on average, 21.2% less than men. Considering the average salary in the 54,041 companies that presented the report, women have an average salary of R$3,908.76, while the average salary for men is R$4,958.43.
Construction
Currently, 88 companies from the five regions of the country are together in the Gender and Race Pro-Equity Program, seeking to build more actions capable of confronting inequality and discrimination. In the seven editions, 246 organizations have already joined, with nine companies present since the first edition.
One of them is Caixa Econômica Federal, where Glenda Nóbrega holds the position of executive diversity and inclusion manager. For the executive, initiatives promoted in companies are capable of changing an entire corporate environment and generating more opportunities.
“There are three things that I think are very important in my career. Having people who push me, always being prepared for opportunities that arise and the company having an environment favorable to our growth, be it for women, black people and PWDs [pessoa com deficiência]”, he reports.
For the administration director of Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros, Tereza Cristina de Oliveira, the results of public policy go further, with the possibility of transforming people and impacting an entire society. But it is necessary for women who occupy leadership positions to also break barriers and create opportunities for others.
“If we are not clear that changes in society are caused by our involvement, our struggle and our choices, we are not doing anything as people, as human beings and for the changes we want.”
