DURING HIS time in power, a period of robust economic growth in which more than 20 million Brazilians were lifted out of poverty, Brazil's President Lula campaigned on the slogan " Brasil, um país de todos(Brazil, a country for all)". And that aspiration to inclusiveness, particularly gender inclusiveness, is becoming a reality it appears for a new generation of Brazilian women under Lula's chosen successor, the country's first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.
In August, President Rousseff was named by Forbes the world’s third most powerful woman after Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton – further testimony to Brazil’s strong, continuing emergance as a political and economic power under Lula and now Dilma. The former Marxist guerrilla and highly regarded technocrat, albeit charismatically challenged, had joined a band breaking the regional gender barrier as the eighth elected female president in Latin America and the Caribbean. Addressing the UN General Assembly in September on behalf of a nation that has been notoriously male dominated, Dilma reiterated an election promise to declare this “the century of women”. Partly through appointments at her discretion – close to a third of the cabinet – partly through the power of her example, women are moving into key roles in Brazilian society, a year into her term in office.
In a world first for an oil major, this week Maria das Graças Foster became chief executive of Brazilian energy giant Petrobras. Now 14 per cent of the CEOs of large companies in Brazil are women; in the US the comparable figure for Fortune 500companies is less than 5 per cent.
The Centre for Work-Life Policy in New York reports that women now represent 60 per cent of Brazils college graduates, 80 per cent of whom consider themselves “very ambitious”, compared to 36 per cent in the US. Clearly it’s not all attributable to Dilma, but she has certainly changed the climate for women.
A year after taking the reins the president’s poll ratings remain over 70 per cent, comparable to those of Lula a year in. Voters have responded well to her attempts to tackle corruption, not least in politics, and the economic news is good: inflation is expected to come down to about 4.5 per cent this year, bringing further likely interest rate cuts, unemployment has fallen to a record low of 4.7 per cent, and although behind the other BRIC countries, the economy is expected to grow at about 4 per cent. More than the sisterhood have reason to be pleased with Dilma.