Women in Brazil
A Brazilian friend of ours always starts his undergraduate lectures with a short film or slide show which has nothing to do with the lecture. I suspect this is partly because arriving on time for a lecture is an anathema to many Brazilian undergraduates and also because lectures here can run in the evening or start in the early mornings (8.00 am) so you need something to get the students going.
Either way, it seems like a great way to start a lecture and I wish I had thought of it when I was lecturing. So, for example, our friend found a powerpoint of Brazilian birds singing the Brazilian national anthem in bird song, which was a 'quirky' way to start a lecture. But this week he showed a series of photos of women drivers in difficult and ludicrous situations, which created a lot of laughs.
This has caused me to reflect on the extent to which Brazil remains a patriarchal, macho society, where women are second class citizens, because I'm not sure that our friend would have got away with showing these photos in a university lecture in England.
A little research on the internet reveals that women are abysmally represented in government here, that there remains a significant wage gap between men and women (although this is decreasing), that women tend to work in service situations and that there is a high rate of domestic violence against women here. However, the research that I have read does say the situation is improving and I've no idea how it compares with the situation in Europe and other countries.
A Brazilian friend of ours always starts his undergraduate lectures with a short film or slide show which has nothing to do with the lecture. I suspect this is partly because arriving on time for a lecture is an anathema to many Brazilian undergraduates and also because lectures here can run in the evening or start in the early mornings (8.00 am) so you need something to get the students going.
Either way, it seems like a great way to start a lecture and I wish I had thought of it when I was lecturing. So, for example, our friend found a powerpoint of Brazilian birds singing the Brazilian national anthem in bird song, which was a 'quirky' way to start a lecture. But this week he showed a series of photos of women drivers in difficult and ludicrous situations, which created a lot of laughs.
This has caused me to reflect on the extent to which Brazil remains a patriarchal, macho society, where women are second class citizens, because I'm not sure that our friend would have got away with showing these photos in a university lecture in England.
A little research on the internet reveals that women are abysmally represented in government here, that there remains a significant wage gap between men and women (although this is decreasing), that women tend to work in service situations and that there is a high rate of domestic violence against women here. However, the research that I have read does say the situation is improving and I've no idea how it compares with the situation in Europe and other countries.
posted by Jenny Mackness at 3:53 PM
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