Women make up more than half of Brazil’s population and account for 47 million (~50%) of the labor market. Despite these numbers, women are still underrepresented in many sectors: they occupy 37% of leadership positions in private companies; only 15% and 13%, respectively, are federal Representatives and Senators; and only 12% of cities have women as mayors. The fewer women there are in leadership positions and in politics, the lower the representation and scope of their interests and needs.

    Coupled with that, men’s wages are, on average, 24% higher than women’s who hold the same position. Furthermore, Brazilian women dedicate, on average, 10.4 hours/week more than men to household chores and caring for family members (for example, children and the elderly), a type of work characterized as “domestic” and unpaid. As a result, women dedicate less time to professional improvement relative to men. The fewer women in mixed gender work teams, the less likely women are to excel in their roles and positions.

     In Integrated Fire Management (IFM), women face similar challenges, whether in coordination roles or technical and operational ones. In Brazil, specifically, Solis and colleagues1 identified that there are no regulations or guidelines that promote multiculturalism and gender equity in the processes of hiring forest fire brigades. Although gender equity in IFM is recognized, in Brazil this debate is still informal and poorly documented.

1 Solis I, Vera J, Aguado RC, et al. Diagnóstico de Manejo do Fogo no Brasil. Brasília, Brasil, 2021.

Adapted from https://pcabhub.org/en-us/resources/general-publications/genderand-fire-usfs.pdf