Study exposes lack of racial inclusion policies in Brazilian companies

An unprecedented study entitled Mulheres negras no mercado de trabalho (“Black women in the labor market”), conducted on LinkedIn by consultancy Trilhas de Impacto, reveals that racial inclusion is still non-existent in Brazilian companies. The results were released on March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The consultancy’s CEO Juliana Kaizer told Agência Brasil that most shocking is the fact that 86 percent of the women interviewed reported to have faced racism in the workplace. “I believe it’s really telling, because each and every woman interviewed hold a university degree and is formally employed. Their degrees fail to protect them from racism—and that’s terrifying,” Kaizer said.

She is also a black woman and a professor in the Social Responsibility and Sustainability MBA program at the Institute of Economics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Additionally, Kaizer is a graduate student at the Getulio Vargas Foundation and a board member of the Brazilian Human Resources Association for Rio de Janeiro.

A misconception

The research, Kaizer noted, debunks the myth referred to in Brazil as racial democracy—according to which if someone is highly educated they will not not suffer racism.

While examining the respondents’ accounts, she identified recurrent issues. Hair, for example, was a common topic. Over 70 percent of the women reported they had to explain during their workday why their hair was straightened, why their hair was black, or why they had a weave on. “This is important information for us to consider,” she argued.

Also striking was that 68 percent of the professionals said they have at some point been mistaken for the cleaning lady. In one report, a coordinator mentioned that her sector manager would ask to tidy up the work station of her co-workers on a daily basis. “She couldn’t say why she was asked to do this. Her colleagues would leave and she had to clean the room. Later on, she realized she had fallen victim to racism. But it took her a long time. She’d been in that situation for over a year.”

The survey reveals that more than half of the respondents said their skin color and place of residence were asked during online recruitment interviews.

Career building

Also worthy of attention was that, although over 70 percent of the interviewees hold post-graduate degrees, this does not seem to be a factor in clinching a promotion. “Many have been in the same position for ten years. And they don’t see anyone like them in a leadership role. Simply put, they don’t feel encouraged.”

Women in coordination and management posts also reported that, when they asked for a raise after finding out a white co-worker with the same job had a higher pay, the companies would open up a new position in a bid to explain why that white colleague earned more. All of them, without exception, mentioned feeling exhausted at work, having to prove themselves all the time and, at the same time, not earning enough to survive.

Furthermore, black women appear not to advance in their professional careers in Brazil. “They may climb ranks, but they don’t make any more money as a result.” Approximately 52 percent of federal university students are black and questioned why the quota system is not adopted by organizations, with black people higher up and earning good money, Kaizer pointed out. According to a 2020 study by the Ethos Institute, black women account for 9.3 percent of the staff of Brazil’s 500 largest corporations, but can be found in only 0.4 percent of senior positions.

The study

In the survey, at least 40 women talked about the same companies, and the names of 16 of these were repeated in the mentions. A total of 155 women aged between 19 and 55 were interviewed, with the prevalent age between 30 and 45. Of the total number of participants, 50.3 percent hold a university degree and a graduate degree or specialization, 13.5 percent have a master’s degree and a doctorate, and 24.5 percent have completed higher education. Their fields of work are education, human resources, information technology, telemarketing, public relations, business administration, and commerce. The data were collected in 2021 and 2022.