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Womens economic opportunities and health in Brazil is affected by many factors. Brazilian womens economic opportunities are affected by such factors as gender inequality, violence from men, and racial inequality. Health is affected by reproductive rights, maternal mortality rates, domestic violence and sexual violence. This paper will examine health and economic opportunities available to women in the countries of Saudi Arabia, the United States and Brazil.
Brazilian women were over half the population in 1998 at 50. 6 percent (Reproductive Rights, 2004). The female life expectancy was 75. 3 by the 2003 estimate. 86. 6 percent of Brazilian women are literate overall and represent 41 percent of the workforce (CIA, World Fact Book, 2003 and Blaney, 2004). The main types of employment are in agriculture, service sector, industry and the unemployment rate as of 2003 was 22. 3 percent for women (Blaney, 2004). Half of women in the workforce serve in the informal sector and work in manual and repetitive work. Women in rural areas are half the work population in their regions.
Brazils distribution of income is one of the most unequal and like many other countries, serves the interest of the rich. The richest 10 percent possess 50 percent of the income. Men earn 29. 2 percent more than woman in the same employment field. Black Brazilian women receive 40 percent lower salaries than white woman and the black population is more likely to be poor overall (Blaney, 2004).
Between 1960 and 1990, the share of national income of the poorest half of the population fell from 18 percent to 12 percent, and the richest 20 percent increased from 54 percent to 65 percent. The nine states in the Northeast have the lowest socioeconomic indicators in the country (PAHO, 1999). Adequate housing, water sanitation, education and daycare centers for women are some of the areas affected by the Brazils social inequality. Many of the poorer Brazilians are not provided with proper sanitation in the rural areas. Between 1988 and 1993 ninety-five percent of the urban population had adequate water supply and only 61 percent of the rural population had access to an adequate water supply. Many rural dwellers had to depend upon wells and privies and not service for their disposal system and the urban population received service.
Housing is another problem among the poor. Many build their own homes due to lack of finances. Fave las are the most popular type of house for the poor in Brazil and some build shantytowns on stilts over water or in the marshy areas. In 1991, 2. 9 % of the population lived in fave las (U. S. Library of Congress, 1996).
The rural area population in Brazil is comprised of a 50 percent female population, but only 11 percent of the titles to land are in the name of women. The Minister of Agrarian Development is working to eliminate the discrimination of women and increase micro-credits to women in the Northeast so that they may stay with their families (Blaney, 2004). Brazils economy has the power to make it a second world country, but its precarious health care system demotes its status to third world. Brazil ranked 125 th out of 191 countries tested in a health conditions analysis done by the World Health Organization in 2000 (SEJUP). This ranking is in part due to the almost nonexistent health services in many portions of Brazil. The 1988 Federal Constitution and Organic Health Law of 1990 universalized healthcare unified the public healthcare system and decentralized the management and organization of health services from federal to state and municipal level (PAHO, 1999).
The constitution also gave all Brazilians free healthcare from public and private source reimbursed by the government (PAHO, 1999). Most health establishments belong to the public sector (65. 2 percent public and 34. 8 percent private); more private institutions (43. 2 percent) provide inpatient care than public (6. 8 percent). Hospitals are more prevalent in the South and Southeast region where the middle and upper class live and less prevalent in the North and Northeast region where the rural population lives and health conditions are more unsafe. Although the need for health care is greater, most physicians work in the South and Southeast regions (U.
S. Library of Congress). For women, the situation worsens. Womens reproductive rights are threatened by this shortage in medical personnel and medical equipment in good condition. Womens reproductive rights are also affected by the health care problems in Brazil. Because many urban women and rural women want control over the number of children they have, new steps have been taken in the fight against womens reproductive rights.
As of 1997, 76. 6 percent of Brazilian women in a committed relationship used some form of contraception. Sterilization and the contraceptive pill were the most frequently used methods with usage rates of 40. 1 percent and 20. 7 percent, correspondingly. Together they represent about 87 percent of the modern contraceptive methods used and 80 percent of all methods employed by women in relationships. Other forms of contraceptives include condoms (4. 4 percent), abstinence (3 percent) withdrawal method (3. 1 percent), male sterilization (2. 6 percent), injectable contraceptives (1. 2 percent), IUD (1. 1 percent) and others (0. 4 percent) (Reproductive Rights, 1997).
As of 1994, 25 million Brazilian had been sterilized. Racism plays in a part in the high sterilization rate of Brazilian women too. The incidence rate among black Brazilian women is higher than their white counterparts. The index rate is higher in the poorer regions of Northeast and Central West Brazil where almost 76 percent were sterilized in the state of Maranhuo and almost 72 percent were sterilized in the state of Mata Grosso (SEJUP, 1994). 7. 5 million of these women were sterilized after caesarean sections (Reproductive Rights, 1997). In 1991, estimates of the number of women that had induced abortions ranged from 866, 003 to 2, 020, 674. In the three years between 1989 and 1992, the number of women hospitalized due to complications arising from these induced abortions was between 290, 965 and 327, 157.
In 1995, the Single Health System (SHS) registered 274, 698 hospitalizations for abortions (Reproductive Rights, 1997). Abortion can only be used when the mother can provide documentation that she has been raped. Women who relied on the public health system could not access abortions even when they had been victims of violence. Feminist groups pressured the government and this law was eventually changed. Women had to provide documentation, such as a police report, to the hospitals team of social workers and medical staff to review and approve or deny their abortion. There are 16 public hospitals in Brazil who had legal abortion services and other municipalities had approved laws authorizing these services as of late 1999 (Feel, August 1999).
Abortions cause 12 % of the maternal deaths in Brazil (PAHO, 1999). The maternal mortality rate in Brazil now indicates that 110 women die for every 100, 000 infants born. Many women do not have access to prenatal help or assistance when it comes time to give birth. In the post-delivery period, mothers suffer from lack of emergency services to aid those who suffer from hemorrhaging, eclampsia (caused by high blood pressure), and infections. There continue to be a large number of caesarean birth as well as insufficient hospital beds (Blaney, 2004). Cancer affects 176 out of 100, 000 women in Brazil. 6, 780 women die a year from breast cancer and 5, 760 die from cervical cancer each year. 5. 9 for every 100, 000 women are affected by lung cancer, making it the sixth most frequent type of cancer.
The mortality rate of female cancer victims was only 60. 7 for every 100, 000 compared to 72. 5 deaths for every 100, 000 among males (PAH), 1999). The amount of women between the ages of 45 - 64 diagnosed with hypertension has grown since the 1980 s. A study done recently in the state of Bahia finds that there is one woman with hypertension for every two men as compared to one woman to six...
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Research essay sample on Women Economic Opportunities And Health In Brazil
