IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 51

affects people’s later work trajectories.
An essential factor in this process is the
effect of discrimination. Inequality of
access to certain areas of activity as well
as income in less formal occupations, are
strongly mediated by factors having to
do with gender and race discrimination.
Thus, women with a more prominent,
Afro-descendant phenotype bear all the
brunt of skin color and gender discrimination, in addition to enduring both occupational, regional, sectorial discrimination that men of the same race do, and
the wage discrimination that non-black
women do. Many studies show that the
combination of race and gender create a
considerable disadvantage in entry to the
labor market and, above all, income disparity. Regarding education, the report
(2013, 61) reveals certain progress for
blacks and women, but it also shows the
persistence of categorical inequalities,
particularly at higher levels. Advances in
educational policies brought about increases in the educational level of black
women, but not sufficient enough to
eliminate inequalities. Despite the increase in educational opportunities, racial and gender inequalities persist in
Brazil, which translate into disadvantages for black women regarding
social position. Distances between racial
and gender groups also persist, particularly at higher levels of education. Black
women are in third place in the level of
education they attain; white women are
in first, and white men, second. At the
very bottom are black men. Even so, this
increase in educational level among
black women did not translate into better

positioning in the labor market. They
still lag far behind employed white
women with a higher level of education,
despite the aforementioned advances.
B lack women encounter tough barriers
to being able to turn their better qualifications into greater advantages in the
labor market. One sees unaltered racial
segmentation in the labor market; white
still dominate it. The level of participation of white women is not much greater
than that of black men. In sharp contrast,
more women work as public functionaries and domestics, with predominantly
white women as the former, and black
women as the latter. It is important to
point out that black women are poorly
represented in the more stable, higher
level categories, and over represented in
low prestige and poorer paid jobs like
domestic work. Black women are the
most disadvantaged group because they
generally cannot turn their educational
attainments into better positions and
wages.
Afro-descendant women in Peru
The Afro-Peruvian population can be
characterized as experiencing two processes very associate to their social and
economic situation: social exclusion and
discrimination, both part of a complex
framework that is also a powerful part of
social dynamics in the country (Benavides, Sarmiento, Valdivia and Moreno, 2013). The last official census that
included the category Afro-Peruvian was
the Housing and Occupation Census
(1940). Since then, Afro-descendants
were never again identified on an official
census.
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