This article is written by Pérsio Henrique Barroso, legislative analyst in Brazil’s Federal Senate

Over the last two decades, Brazil has successfully introduced legislation to combat gender and race discrimination.

Proud examples include the Racial Equality Statute of 2010, the Maria da Penha Law of 2006, which criminalises violence against women, and the electoral reform of 2009, which raised the minimum quotas for female candidates in elections, in place since the 1990s.

Yet the country still faces massive inequality when it comes to access to employment. This problem unfortunately extends to Brazil’s public service, where it is perhaps best reflected in the Brazilian Federal Senate, one of the chambers of the federal legislative power.

Surveys were carried out in 2014, 2016 and 2018, which unfortunately show very little change in the distribution of management positions at the agency across gender and race lines.

The top is still too male and too white

To use only the data from the latest survey in 2018, most of the agency's workforce is male and white. Women make up less than 30% of permanent employees, but make up 60% of all interns. The percentage of women in temporary roles and in jobs outsourced to the private sector (such as cleaning and security), meanwhile, is around 40%.

With regards to the ethnic and racial composition of the workforce, public servants in the highest paid positions are predominantly white, whereas public servants who self-identify as brown (the term used in the survey and by the government census agency) make up the majority of outsourced positions.

When it comes to interns, 43% are white, 40% are brown and 12% are black. In leadership positions, the same trend can be seen — that is, the majority of civil servants at the top are male and white.

In a team of seven public servants, Devair Nunes is the only black person; and in his department, there are no more than 10 black people among 170 employees

The Senate has undertaken work to advance equity, and in 2015 established a committee to manage the policies on gender and race internally. The committee brings together representatives from various sectors of the institution. I have been a member since 2017.

One of the main actions taken by the committee was a campaign against sexual and verbal harassment, which was promoted through a booklet and explanatory videos. A process for bringing cases of harassment forward was created, guaranteeing the victim complete confidentiality and psychological support. In Brazil, sexual harassment is a crime and cases can be registered at the Senate police station and can result in legal action for the offender.

Although verbal harassment does not constitute a crime under Brazilian criminal law, the harasser may face administrative investigations and penalties.

Another successful program is the requirement, in contracts for outsourced services (such as cleaning and security), that at least 2% of the workforce is made up of women who have been the victims of domestic violence, in agreement with the responsible government agencies. This initiative became a model and was adopted by other public bodies and state governments.

Enter the Action Plan

In view of the need to ensure greater synergy of the actions taken under the gender and race equality policy, at the end of 2018 the Senate Administration decided to prepare an Action Plan to ensure every public servant is provided with equal opportunities.

This Action Plan, launched in 2019, was inspired by, and based on, the experience of implementing other social responsibility policies. Since 2015, the Senate has had a sustainable logistics plan and, since 2016, an accessibility plan, as management tools for these important areas. During this time, as a manager of the department responsible for internal environmental policies, I coordinated and actively participated in this process. The work methodology and the positive results in those areas — for instance, a 90% reduction in the use of disposable cups, which benefits the environment — led me to suggest that we create a similar tool for ​​gender and race, which was accepted by the top management of the Senate.

The participatory methodology used in this process legitimises the actions defined in the plan and links the responsible sectors — it is not a “top to bottom” approach, but is created by the public servants themselves and later approved by the top management.

Thus, the Gender and Race Equity Plan was developed in a participatory and collaborative way, over several weeks of meetings with representatives of the various areas of the Senate, which resulted in a document with 28 actions and goals, distributed over five focus areas.

The Committee is responsible for monitoring and reporting, and individual departments are responsible for executing the actions under their remit.

The first edition of the plan covers a two-year period from 2019-2020. At the beginning of 2021, after evaluating the final report of this first plan, another updated version will be implemented.

Giving people a name and a voice

Like the actions taken under the sustainability and accessibility plans, the Gender and Race Equity Plan is linked to the Brazilian Senate's commitment to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The participatory methodology used in this process legitimises the actions defined in the plan and links the responsible sectors — it is not a “top to bottom” approach, but is created by the public servants themselves and later approved by the top management.

As part of this plan, an affinity group for black and indigenous civil servants was created, which has become an important movement to raise the visibility of these civil servants. As a first tangible result, a series of short videos with testimonies from civil servants about their experience of living in a society marked by structural racism, called Racismo em Pauta (Racism on the Agenda) was developed.

One of the objectives of the plan is to study the necessary (and possible) administrative measures to ensure more women and non-white people advance to management positions — this is certainly one of the most delicate topics in the plan; so far, this goal has not been achieved, but will continue to be present in the next version of the plan

Devair Nunes, a member of the Committee who shares his experience in one of these videos, refers to a “black desert” to describe the environment he met when he entered the public service. In a team of seven public servants, he is the only black person; and in his department, there are no more than 10 black people among 170 employees. And this is in a country where 54% of the population self-identify as black or brown. In this sense, the personalisation of racism, giving people a name and a voice, not only removes the question of invisibility, but encourages reflection and cultural change.

Looking ahead

Another proposal has been put forth to integrate the Senate's equity policies with those of other public bodies by creating a cooperation network. This model has proved successful in other areas such as ​​environment and accessibility, where networks have operated for some years now. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent measures of social distance, it hasn’t yet been possible to establish the contacts and the necessary agreement for the network to function.

Some of the actions aim to shed light on the experiences of black women, a minority doubly affected by discrimination. To this aim, open debates focusing on books about racism and the role of women were held by the Senate Library. More than discussing the issue, however, it is necessary to create concrete measures to reduce the gap between men and women, as well as white and non-white people in leadership positions in government.

To that end, one of the objectives of the plan is to study the necessary (and possible) administrative measures to ensure more women and non-white people advance to management positions — this is certainly one of the most delicate topics in the plan; so far, this goal has not been achieved, but will continue to be present in the next version of the plan.

Another way to close this gap, however, is to adopt affirmative action measures aimed at those who enter the public service. For two decades a proportion of vacancies in the Brazilian public service have been reserved for people with disabilities. But only a few years ago, a federal law (Law 12990/2014) established a 20% share of vacancies in entrance exams for black people, in order to encourage the entry of a larger contingent of black people into the public service.

The Senate is expected to hold a new entrance exam soon (schedule delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic) and will adopt this measure for the first time. It is expected that in a few years the demographics of the Brazilian public service will present a more varied range of skin-tones, and that black and indigenous people will occupy a larger share of management positions. — Pérsio Henrique

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