In 2017, PretaLab conducted a survey that offered subsidies to reflect on the importance of stimulating black and indigenous women to increasingly occupy spaces in the areas of technology and innovation.
Data from different researches crossed this and other works of PretaLab with great intensity. So much, that led us to risk formulating an inviting hypothesis for black women in search of opportunities in the country, and for labor-deprived technology institutions to achieve their business goals:
On the one hand, black women occupy the most precarious positions of the labor market in the country, and fight for opportunities in which they can contribute to their development and the evolution of society.
On the other hand, technology professionals - mostly white young men - cannot fill all the vacancies in a sector that promises to revolutionize the country's way of working in the coming years.
Black women accumulate the worst social indicators in Brazil. At home, they are the ones who suffer most from violence and have the greatest responsibility for supporting their families. At work, they receive the lowest wages and have the highest unemployment rates. Their lack of representation is a problem not only for human rights and freedom of expression, but also for the technology and innovation ecosystem.
Open to self-taught education and in need of understanding the plural challenges of a population as diverse as Brazil's, the technology industry can leverage business by opening its market to black women. To them, PretaLab suggests the path of seeking information and professional training to enter this powerful and innovative universe.
We collect and organize data from various studies and researches that highlight the situation of black women in the Brazilian labor market. From that, trying to understand what is the perception of diversity that technology professionals have in the country, PretaLab joined ThoughtWorks and did a research on the subject: #QUEMCODABR.
Echoing the slavery period in Brazil, the consequent abyss that separates whites and blacks in the country and patriarchy, we know that black women occupy the base of the socioeconomic pyramid of the Brazilian population.
Also with the lowest schooling rates and access to goods and services, the inequality of future opportunities impacts the situation of black Brazilian women in the labor market, as we can observe from the data available in several open surveys.
The unemployment rate * of black women (13.3%) is higher compared to white men, black men and white women (11.6%).
Black women's vulnerability * to unemployment is 50% higher.
For every 1 percentage point more in unemployment rates, black women experience an average increase of 1.5 percentage points.
39.08% of employed black women are in precarious working relationships. *
Black women are the largest contingent of professionals working without a formal contract.
In 2014, the income of black women (R$ 946.00) had not yet reached 40% of the income of white men (R$ 2,393.00).
Black women have the lowest monthly income among workers with higher education: R$ 2,918.27. On the top, there are white graduated men (R$ 6,702.00), followed by black graduated men (R$ 4,810.00), and white graduated women (R$ 3,981.00).
In the largest companies in the country, black women are concentrated in the lowest positions within organizations.
Black women fill 10.3% of functional positions, 8.2% of supervisory positions, 1.6% of management positions, and 0.4% of executive positions.
On the other hand, #QUEMCODABR, promoted by PretaLab, in partnership with Thoughtworks, collected data on the profile of technology professionals today in Brazil, between November 2018 and March 2019 (693 respondents valid in 21 Brazilian states, including the DF).
According to the survey, the people who work in technology in the country today are mainly: men, whites, young people of middle and upper socioeconomic class who began their career in formal education centers.
Multiple choice question, total sum of answers above 100%.
In a country with more than 13 million unemployed people (#QUEMCODABR, June, 2019), it is noteworthy that, since 2015, the technology sectors are among the ones that generate the most jobs.
There are many opportunities launched to the market every month and few professionals trained or enrolled in the selection processes.
There is an increasing demand to create diverse teams that know the challenges and behavioral journeys of Brazilians with plural characteristics.
As the sector also values self-taught education, it is interesting to pay attention to the vacancies that will be most competitive in the coming years, and seek training and information about them.
For the next years, automation and robotics shall replace some human activities, but new professions might emerge, and professionals shall shift from extinct activities to new ones.
PretaLab is an initiative of Olabi, a social organization that works to bring diversity to technology and innovation, made possible with the support of the Ford Foundation in Brazil. If you would like to collaborate on any of these fronts or have other ideas, please contact us.
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