In 2023, young black women aged 18 to 29 will have an unemployment rate three times that of white men in Brazil. When employed, black female youth have an income 47% lower than the national average and almost three times lower than that of white men. Furthermore, black women aged 14 to 29 dedicate almost twice as many hours to household chores compared to the average of black and white men.
The comparison was carried out by the organization Ação Educativa, based on data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad) of 2023, and published in the report Mude com Elas, released this Wednesday (8).
The young black woman Pamela Gama, aged 26, said that she lives firsthand what the numbers released by the research show. A resident of the east side of São Paulo, Pamela decided to remove the link to a job social network where there was a photo of her from her resume, in an attempt to be called for more interviews.
“I put the link to my profile and then removed it because I wasn’t receiving as many invitations to do interviews. So I thought, wouldn’t it be better if I took it off, you know?” revealed the young public relations graduate, adding that the call for interviews improved “a little” after the change. Pamela has been working since she was 19 years old and now works for a company in the communications area.
According to the Mude com Elas project, while young black women registered, in 2023, an unemployment rate of 18.3%, white men had a rate of 5.1%. The country’s overall unemployment ended 2023 at 7.4%.
The average salary of the population last year was R$2,982, while that of young black women was just R$1,582. Compared to white men, the salary difference is even greater. As the average income of this group was R$4,270 in 2023, it is 2.7 times higher than that of young black women.
Pamela said that she knows people who receive more, despite being the same age and with similar training. “There are boys, even some I know, who are the same age as me and who earn much more. So, I feel this difficulty even putting myself back on the market to look for new opportunities,” she said.
Resident of the east side of São Paulo, Pamela Gama decided to remove the link to a social job network where there was a photo of her from her resume, in an attempt to be called for more interviews. Photograph: Personal archive
Informality also affects young black women more, with 44% having a formal contract, a percentage similar to that of young black men (43.3%). As for young white people, both women and men, around 50% had a formal contract (50.3% for young white people and 49.8% for young white women).
In addition to lower income and higher unemployment, domestic work burdens young black women aged 14 to 29 who dedicate 22 hours a week to household chores. Meanwhile, the average for black and white men is 11.7 hours a week.
Young Pamela Gama says that she has helped with household chores since she was a teenager and that today she feels overwhelmed because her husband works outside the home and she teleworks. “I do the work and I have to juggle organizing my house. I say that I have two services”, she added.
“The study shows that, since the pandemic, working conditions have improved, but even so, Brazil does not have specific public policies for young black women nor do companies have a focus on these women, who are often passed over in selection processes ,” the survey stated.
The group of young black women also reaches higher education in Brazil less frequently. While young white women attending or completing higher education, in 2023, reached 39.8% of the total, young black women in the same situation were only 23.4% of the total.
Slave heritage
Researcher Andreia Alves, advocate for the Mude com Elas project, highlighted that there is a culture that places youth in the most precarious spaces of the job market. However, this situation worsens when race and gender are considered.
“It is very common for young black women who manage to occupy this formal job market to be in areas that, in fact, will not make full use of their capabilities. So, normally, she will occupy the worst areas, the worst positions, different from non-black people,” she highlighted.
Andreia Alves added that there is a legacy, which comes from the slavery period, which usually puts young black women out of the job market, occupying them with domestic work.
Researcher Andréia Alves states that there is a culture that places youth in the most precarious spaces of the job market. Photograph: Personal archive
“Normally, the places where these women live are places very far from their places of work. So, these young black women end up being forced to take care of themselves, take care of the house, take care of food and take care of their younger siblings, because the adults in the house are also from these distant workplaces,” she added.
For Alves, the key is to listen to this audience before creating policies that minimize this inequality in the job market. The expert adds that the increase in formal higher education for black women in recent years has not been reflected in more space in the job market.
“In the last 10 years, black women have occupied universities and have graduated, demonstrated themselves, structured themselves, but this has not been enough to make significant changes in the job market. Especially when we talk about occupying leadership positions”, she added.
