National Assessment of Gender and STI in Brazil

The paper will discuss the policies, factors and actions in the Brazilian national STI systems, which affect the participation of women and girls, using the framework on Gender Equality and the Knowledge Society. Brazil stands out well in the majority of the indicators considered, having advanced considerably toward addressing social issues and reducing social inequalities in the last three decades. A thriving democracy, the Brazilian constitution guarantees the economic, political and social rights of women and ensures complete legal equality between men and women in public and private life. In spite of this, many gender issues persist. One example is education, where women are the majority of graduates at all levels. Brazil is today one of the few countries in the world where women, since 2004, are the majority of PhD graduates, the result of a steady effort of capacity building in the last sixty years. However, when you look, at the higher decision making positions of the STI systems, women are still few in number. This presentation will discuss why this is so and what are the steps needed to have women participating fully in the Brazilian knowledge society.