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Institutions
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Political and Social Sciences
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Institute/Seminar
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Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science
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Field/Area of work
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Gender and Diversity
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Subject group
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Law, Economics and Social Sciences
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Funding
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Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
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Start
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2018
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End
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2019
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Status
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Completed
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Keywords
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Brasilia; Child Care; Child Education; Cross-cutting Issue Gender; Discrimination; Diversity; Equal Rights, Equality; Gender; Gender Democracy; Gender Discrimination; Gender Studies; General Political Science; General Social Sciences; Men; Society; Sociology; Women
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Short description
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There is no such thing as a parental leave in Brazil. When a child is born, the law allows mothers to take a 4 to 6 months paid leave from work. Fathers, on the other hand are excused from work for 5 days only 20 days in exceptional cases. There is no public and financial incentive for men to develop an active role in a child's upbringing. The effects on gender relations are countless: discrimination against women when applying for jobs, the pay gap, the confirmation of traditional gender roles, an uneven division of labor, just to name a few. A study by Brazilian university FGV has shown that almost 50% of women who have children get laid off by the time their child is 4 years old. A study from IPEA showed that professional women in Brazil spend 22 hours a week doing domestic chores, against 12 hours by men. Europe has had a different experience with parental leave. In 2007, a law in Germany was approved that gave men and women the same access to paid leave from work for 14 months the so-called Elterngeld. Before the law, only 3% of men took some time to raise their children nowadays, 34% of them do that, for an average period of 3,3 months. This, of course, is very far from equality, but indicates that public policies can have an impact on gender relations. Another positive example is Sweden that introduced a gender-neutral leave over 4 decades ago. Almost 90% of Swedish fathers take a paternity leave what are the effects of such regulations on gender equality? How do they affect the gender division of labor at household level? This is the discussion I want to bring back to Brazil. My project aims to study Germanys parental leave and its effects on gender relations and gender division of labour. I will also refer to Swedens case, which is considered a model in gender regimes that favor equal access and has one of the smallest pay gap in the world. The idea is to use the results to start an unprecedented conversation in Brazil. What happens when you give both parents the opportunity to take some paid time off work? What are the consequences of fathers actively participating of their childrens life from day one? How can public and financial incentives change the way society understands childcare? The idea is to this case analysis to raise awareness in Brazil about the advantages of joint childcare and active paternity. Parental leave is still a non-issue in Brazil, with most people assuming that childcare is naturally a feminine attribution. A report on this topic would be of great importance and can encourage a long needed public debate on issues of gendered division of labor and gender equality at the very local level, which is the household.
