IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 50

create problems, or disproportionately
affect just only some women. The same
way specific vulnerabilities can emerge
that are tied to gender cannot be used as
justification for denying the protection
of women’s human rights, in general,
neither can we allow that the difference
between women marginalize some problems with these rights. We cannot accept
the denial of equal care and worry under
the law. Both the logic of incorporating
gender and the current focus on racism,
and the concomitant forms of intolerance, reflect a need to integrate race and
other differences into the focus on human rights of institutions. The situation
of black women is presented here using
the following indicators: education,
work, and income. We will first present
data from Brazil, from the Expediente de
Mujeres Negras: Retrato de las condiciones de vida de las mujeres negras en
Brasil Brasil (Instituto de Investigación
Económica Aplicada [IPEA], 2013).
After, we will deal with Peru using the
Estudio Especializado sobre Población
Afroperuana (EEPA, 2014).
Afro-descendant women in Brazil
The portrait of gender and race inequality in Brazil we have is the result of an
inter-institutional effort involving IPEA,
the UN Women and the Secretariats of
Policies for Women, and the Policies for
the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR), both in the office of the republic’s
Presidency. All the indicators allow one
to simultaneously analyze race and sex
as categories, as well as categories such
as geographic region, domicile (urban/rural), social class and age, when

possible. In 2009, Afro-descendant
women made up about a fourth of the
population, almost 50 of Brazil’s 191.7
million. The category “black [women]”
included the parda [brown] and black
women. Of all of Brazil’s women, 50%
were Afro-descendants; 49.3% were not,
just as had been verified in 2008. All
Brazilian research shows that Afrodescendant women are the poorest group
in the population. The third edition of
Retrato de desigualdades de género y
raza (2008) defines the situation of poverty among Afro-descendant women as
being due to lower incomes, having less
education, and having a higher incidence
of being single mothers. While there are
more Afro-descendant women doing
paid work, the occupations in which they
are engaged take place predominantly in
precarious conditions that make economic self-sufficiency difficult. To make
income calculations, the family income
is examined, with variations fitting the
criteria cited in the aforementioned study
(2013, 128). Analysis of itemized income reveals that women, especially
Afro-descendant women, have differentiated access to both the fruits of labor
and the resources needed to achieve
them. The record (2013, 55) indicates
that the labor market is considered a
fantastic space in which to analyze inequalities because both access and incomes represent particularly important
phases in individuals’ economic trajectory. In addition, the world of work is
strongly connected to educational level:
an initial income in the labor market is
influenced by educational criteria and

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