MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's Senate okays quota for women on boards of directors

Senator Leila Barros chaired the voting session, given her involvement in pushing for this bill

Brazil's Senate Tuesday approved Bill (PL) 1.246/2021, providing for a 30% quota for women on the boards of directors of state-owned companies, including a specific portion for black women or women with disabilities. The document is now up for presidential enactment.

Penned by Congresswoman Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP), the initiative seeks to increase the representation of women in management positions in large companies.

The voting session was chaired by Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF) at the behest of Senate Speaker Davi Alcolumbre, who recalled the mobilization of the women's caucus to get the bill on the agenda.

Data from the publication Gender Statistics - Social Indicators of Women in Brazil, launched by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2024, showed that women occupied only 39.3% of managerial positions, despite representing the majority of the population.

“Why are we discussing quotas? Because no matter how much we study, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we show our abilities our skills, we can't move forward without the force of law for now. For now. If we hadn't approved this bill today, we might have had to wait another legislature, two, three, four legislatures, 50 years for this to really happen: the guarantee of 30% of women on the boards of state-owned companies. That's justice. This is meritorious,” Senator Barros stressed.

The new norm covers public companies, mixed-capital companies, and their subsidiaries and controlled companies. It also covers other companies in which the Union, states, municipalities, or the Federal District hold the majority of the share capital with voting rights.

The adoption of the quota for women will be gradual, over three years. Women will have to occupy at least 10% of the positions in the first year, 20% in the second, and finally 30% in the third. Of the reserved positions, 30% will be for self-declared black or disabled workers. The quota policy should be reviewed after 20 years.

According to the bill, any board breaking this rule will be prevented from deliberating on any matter. Although the obligation is for state-owned companies, the Executive Branch is authorized to create incentives for private companies to also adopt the reservation of female positions.

The initiative also requires that information on the presence of women in hierarchical levels of both state-owned and publicly traded companies be published annually. (Source: Agencia Brasil)