Male entrepreneurs from the Southeast are the majority in the Council – 05/10/2023 – Politics

A third of President Lula’s Council, installed on Thursday (4th) to act in the PT’s third term, is made up of men from the business sector, and most of them come from the Southeast.

The private sector dominates the Sustainable Economic and Social Development Council with 43% of participation, followed by third sector organizations (22% of the council), liberal professionals or academics (21%), unions (10%) and artists or digital influencers (4%).

A DeltaFolha survey shows that gender distribution is unequal in the private and trade union sectors, also dominated by men. In other areas, such as NGOs, associations, academia and the arts, women are the majority.

In the totality of the Council, there are 60% of men against 40% of women —female proportion below the average of the general Brazilian population, which has 51.1% of women against 48.9% of men, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). One person declared himself a transvestite in the 245 biographies released by the government.

In the inaugural session of the body, last week, Lula joked that he wants to “jump to 50%” of female participation.

Diversity was one of his campaign promises. Although female participation is a record in this government (of the 37 ministries, 11 are occupied by women), representation is less than a third of the Esplanada.

Created in the first PT mandate, in 2003, the council was interrupted by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Now recreated, it has an advisory character and serves for the government’s dialogue with different areas of civil society, in order to assist it in decision-making and in the elaboration of public policies.

At the inauguration, Lula highlighted that Minha Casa, Minha Vida and the appreciation of the minimum wage are examples of policies born from the collegiate discussions.

In the Conselhão’s business group, there are 28 women executives or entrepreneurs (27% of this sector). The list has names like Luiza Helena Trajano, from Magazine Luiza and a member of the Editorial Board of SheetTânia Cosentino, from Microsoft, Leila Pereira, from Crefisa and current president of Palmeiras, Cristina Junqueira, from Nubank, and Silvia Penna, from Uber.

Among men in this segment, there is a greater representation of economic sectors, ranging from banks, agribusiness and telephony to fintechs and big techs, such as Google and Facebook.

Four participants donated to Bolsonaro’s election campaign, as shown by the Panel: Cláudio Lottenberg, chairman of the Deliberative Council of Albert Einstein Hospital, cattle rancher João Martins da Silva Junior, Sérgio Bortolozzo, from the Sociedade Rural Brasileira, and Frank Rogieri Souza de Almeida , from the National Forum of Forest-Based Activities.

The report divided the council list into five groups: private sector –which includes not only companies, but business and industrial associations (such as Fiesp, Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo, and MID, Movimento Inovação Digital)–; third sector, which includes NGOs and social associations; unions; liberal professionals and academics; and artists and influencers.

The unionist sector, Lula’s stronghold, has only nine women (36%). The area is represented by leaders such as Eunice Cabral, from the Seamstresses Union of São Paulo, Ivone Maria da Silva, from the Bank Workers Union of São Paulo, and Nilza Pereira, general secretary of Intersindical.

Female participation is greater (54%) in the group of liberal professionals and academics. Examples are computer scientist Nina da Hora, economist Laura Carvalho, historian Lilia Schwarcz and philosopher Sueli Carneiro, among others.

As the race and color of the Brazilian population are defined by self-declaration, it is not possible to accurately verify the diversity of the council.

Regarding origin, the data indicate under-representation of all regions of the country, with the exception of the Southeast. The analysis identified the hometowns of 233 people. Of this sample, 57% come from the Southeast, most from the state of São Paulo.

Then come the Northeast (11%), South (10%), North and Midwest (7% each). The rest were born abroad but settled in Brazil or did not have an identified origin.