BrazilConsulting industry leaders join Women’s Economic Empowerment conference
This year’s annual Women’s Economic Empowerment in Brazil conference will be held in São Paulo on the 23rd of May. The conference is being held by the Council of the Americas, in partnership with Amcham Brasil and will feature industry leaders from the Latin America private sector. The conference will run for a half day of discussions on the economic empowerment of Brazilian women.
Brazil has recently shown a strong commitment to gender equality and working towards upholding the rights of women. The country’s commitment to protecting women has been enshrined in legislation through the 2015 Femicide law which created stricter penalties for domestic violence, contempt or discrimination against women. The law was signed by Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, and in her cabinet women held 26% of the seats.
Whilst Rousseff was impeached, and, to the dismay of women’s rights groups, her cabinet was replaced by a masculine majority economically, women in Brazil are more empowered than the world average in terms of percentages. Globally, 21% of managers are female, whereas in Brazil that number is as high as 27%. Nearly 60% of the country’s women participate in the labour force, higher than in both the UK and France.
However, women in Brazil still on average earn only 65% of the salary that men receive and still face challenges in climbing the career ladder. The Women’s Economic Empowerment in Brazil conference understands the challenges that the country faces and asks questions about the best course of action. Some of the issues which will be raised include; How can women get ahead in male-dominated fields and what are the next steps?
Included in the lineup will be a consortium of influencers and industry leaders from the consulting industry as well as Grace Mendonça, the Attorney General of Brazil, and Susan Segal, the President and CEO of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. In addition, PwC Brazil’s Fernando Alves, Oliver Wyman’s Ana Carla Abrão, and McKinsey & Company’s Paula Ramos will all make an appearance.
Fernando Alves will attend the conference representing PwC and the firm’s diversity journey. He is the president of PwC Brasil, vice chairman of Amcham Brazil, and a member of PwC’s network of Global Strategy Council and Asia, Pacific & Americas Cluster Leadership Team. Alves has also been involved in the #heforshe campaign for a number of years and is an avid supporter of gender equality and LGBT rights around the globe. Alves will open the conference together with Susan Segal.
Oilver Wyman Partner Ana Carla Abrão will speak on the panel about women in leadership. Abrão will be one of five panelists to ask the question; “What’s Next for Brazil?” in terms of equality in the workforce. Abrão is a former secretary of state for finance in the state of Goiás and is currently president of the Fiscal Management Council of the City of São Paulo. She holds a master's degree in economics from the Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Brazilian School of Economy and Finance and a PhD in economic theory from the School of Economics, Business and Accounting of the University of São Paulo.
McKinsey & Company’s Paula Ramos will be the moderator on the panel ‘Empowering Women in Male-Dominated Fields’ alongside three other guests. Ramos is currently a Partner with McKinsey in New Jersey, and prior to her move to the US, she was a Partner with the Brazilian branch of the firm. Ramos led a Women’s Initiative for McKinsey in Latin America and has been heavily involved in women’s advancement topics in the region over the last decade.
Other speakers involved in the conference include: Miguel Velandia, Vice President and General Manager for Medtronic Brazil, José Eduardo Carneiro Queiroz, a Managing Partner with Mattos Filho, Fiamma Zarife, Managing Director of Twitter Brazil, Ana Fontes, the founder of Rede Mulher Empreendedora (Network of Entrepreneurial Woman), and Camila Achutti, the CTO and Founder of MasterTech.
