Only 8 out of every 100 employers are black women

Note from BW of Brazil: Although some of the news regarding the growth and initiatives for the expansion of Afro-Brazilian entrepreneurs is promising, on the other hand, this news also highlights the extreme inequality of opportunities that have affected the black Brazilian population for decades. This just goes to show that there are always several ways to present and interpret statistics.

Only 8 out of every 100 employers are black women

by Míriam Leitão

A study on the profile of preto and pardo entrepreneurs brings results that deserve to be celebrated. It shows, for example, their participation in the group of self-employed workers increased, those who have their own business but don’t employ any workers. In 2003, of the 3.7 million workers in this condition, 43.2% were preto and pardo, 55.8% branco (white). Ten years later, the participation of the first had risen to 48.7%, while the whites had fallen to 49.9%, as shown in the graph below.

The study, conducted by the Laboratório de Análises Econômicas, Históricas, Sociais e Estatísticas das Relações Raciais do Instituto de Economia (Laboratory of Economic, Historical, and Social Analysis and Statistics of Racial Relations of the Institute of Economics, at UFRJ (Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro or Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), brings even more good news: among employers , the weight of the preto and pardo population in the six metropolitan areas studies increased from 22.8% to 30.2%, published recently in Globo column of Ancelmo Gois . The share of whites among employers fell from 74.6% to 66.6%.

– In other words, there was an increase of 7.4 percentage points in the share of and pretos and pardos in the total of about one million employers. Meanwhile, between 2003 and 2013, the proportion of white employers fell by 8 percentage points – says the study, which uses data from the PME of the IBGE.

But the numbers start to get uglier when we analyze the data by gender. The survey reveals, for example, that even considering a slight increase in the percentage of women, they remain underrepresented among Brazilian entrepreneurs. In 2013 they accounted for 38.7% of the self-employed and 28.2% of employers.

One important study that deserves attention is the following : among the self-employed , the weight of preta (black), parda (brown) and branca (white) women is similar (20.2% and 18.5%), but among employers , the presence of mulheres negras (black women, which includes pretas and pardas) is very small.

– In 2013, white women represent 20% of all employers, while only 8 out of 100 employers were preta and parda women – says the text.

When we look at the education level of entrepreneurs, there’s more good news: there are more preto and pardo employers with 11 or more years of study. The downside of the story is that in 2013 the percentage of workers with this profile was still well below (13.3 percentage points) that of the white employers with this level of schooling in 2003, i.e. ten years before.

Source: O Globo