A World Bank survey shows that women in Brazil accumulate more human capital than men at age 18. In other words, they reach adulthood more prepared, with better education and health rates – the so-called Human Capital Index (ICH).
According to the survey, women are at least a decade ahead of men in practically all municipalities in the country. However, they are less inserted and less used in the job market.
In the ICH, which ranges from 0 to 1 point (the closer to 1, the better the index), women register 0.60 against 0.53 for men.
However, on the Index of Used Human Capital (ICHU), which weights the ICH by employment rates in the formal and informal labor markets, men score better than women (0.40 vs. 0.32).
According to the report, the data reflects the inequalities of work by gender in the country.
In addition, disparities are also accentuated in relation to race. While the expected productivity of an Afro-descendant child is 56% of their full potential, that of a white child is 63%, according to the World Bank’s Brazilian Human Capital Report.
The average growth of the ICH of whites between 2007 and 2019 was 14.6%, and that of black children was 10.2%. When the cut by gender and race is added, black women are even more impacted, as the research indicates.
“The labor market reverses the advantage of women over men in the formation and use of human capital in Brazil. In this context, Afro-descendant women are penalized twice: once due to gender and once due to race”, says the document.
“Afro-descendant women score 15.7 percentage points lower than white men on ICHU. The labor market has a major negative impact on the use of human capital, especially for women of African descent”, she adds.
The ICH takes into account the child survival rate to age five and the absence of stunting, the learning-adjusted years of schooling, and finally the adult survival rate.
It estimates the expected productivity in a scenario where health and education conditions remain unchanged, as they are currently.
The higher the ICH, the higher the estimated labor productivity. The indicator takes into account the projection of the results of people born in 2019.
In Brazil, only 60% of children born in 2019 will reach their full potential when they are 18 years old, according to the survey.
This means that 40% of the talent of children born in 2019 will remain invisible and will not be incorporated into the job market.
As the report points out, Brazil would need 60 years to reach the current level of human capital in developed countries.
According to the World Bank, “a municipality where a typical child is not at risk of stunting or dying before age five, receives a high-quality education, and becomes a healthy adult, will have an ICH close to 1″ .
“On the other hand, when the risk of malnutrition or premature death is high, access to education is limited, and the quality of learning is low, the ICH approaches zero,” the Bank concludes.
Source: CNN Brasil
