Topic:
Country: Brazil
Delegate Name: Audrey Wong
Audrey Wong
Brazil
UN Women
Women’s Economic Empowerment
Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy
To truly provide equality for men and women, women must be empowered, both emotionally and economically. In 2018, women were statistically more likely to be unemployed than men, with 6.2% women and 5.5% men being unemployed. This has remained largely unchanged to the present day. Globally, women are paid $0.77 for each $1.00 that men make. This is a huge disparity and just provides more evidence that economically empowering women is of the utmost importance. There are many proven benefits to economically empowering women, including the fact that women’s economic equality is good for business; companies with three or more women in senior management score higher on all dimensions of organizational performance. Additionally, when more women are working, economies grow. Gender gaps cost the economy 15% GDP, something that can be easily fixed. There are many international commitments that support women’s economic empowerment, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Beijing Platform for Action reinforces the work of feminists around the world and has been making a global impact since its creation in 1995.
In 2015, Brazil reaffirmed its unwavering support for the economic empowerment of women. President Dilma Rouseff said: “I bring you a message of unwavering and firm commitment to implementing the Brazil Plan of Action.” Previously, Brazil has expressed support to commitments such as establishing a new plan for the care provided to victims of sexual violence by public safety and health professionals and granting six months of maternity leave for military women. On average in Brazil, women will earn 23% less money than men workers, even though the education level of women is higher. This is very surprising and horrifying, as it is only enforcing the fact that women have to work much harder to earn the same rewards men do for doing the same thing. Working towards economic equality is at the forefront of Brazil’s problems, and must be dealt with accordingly.
The delegation of Brazil knows that there are many actions countries can take to bridge the gender wage gap, and empower women economically. At the current rate, we will not achieve a world with no gender wage gap until 2069. This is an extremely long time period and only proves that this problem must be dealt with promptly. One solution to bridging the wage gap is to establish a national minimum wage for low-paid jobs. For example, Germany recently established a minimum wage, attempting to tackle its gender wage gap. Implementing action like Germany’s globally could only help the disparity. Education is also extremely important if this committee would like to economically empower women. Enforcing the idea that gender roles are not as prominent, and women should be able to get a job if they want, is of the utmost importance. Brazil is looking forward to working with this committee and coming to a consensus on economically empowering women.
Works Cited:
“Brazil Commits to Realizing Women’s Rights on All Fronts.” UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/step-it-up/commitments/brazil.
“Economic Empowerment.” UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment.
“Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value.” UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/csw61/equal-pay.
“Facts and Figures: Economic Empowerment.” UN Women, July 2018, https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures.
“The Gender Gap in Employment: What’s Holding Women Back?” InfoStories, https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Employment/barriers-women#persistent-barriers.
“Working for Less in Brazil.” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/08/working-less-brazil#.
