Women in Brazil - Education

Education

As far as education is concerned, the literacy rate for women is slightly higher than those for men. Female literacy rate (as defined as 15 years of age or older with the ability to read and write) was 88.8% in 2004. Male literacy rate was 88.4%.

Women already represent more an undisputed majority in many of the college courses. In the areas of Health and Human Sciences, they account for 66% and 71% of all students, respectively. Besides, as a whole, 53% of all Brazilians who are in universities are women. The progresses in education for women have started some decades ago, but, in fact, since the 1930s women have had a higher number of years in school, in average, than men when it refers to the lower levels of scholarity, and, since the 1970s, they surpassed men in the higher levels, as well.

Until the mid-to-late nineteenth century, education for girls focused on domestic skills. In 1879, Brazilian institutions of higher learning admitted upper-class, mostly urban, white women- while the rest of the female population remained illiterate. Currently the literacy rates between men and women are relatively proportionate to the population and the level of education of women is now greater than that of men.

In 1970, there were approximately 19,000 women professionals in Brazil, including engineers, architects, dentists, economists, professors, lawyers, and doctors. By 1980, there were about 95,800 women in these fields.

However, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, psychology, literature, and arts classes are composed almost entirely of women, in contrast to agriculture and national defense courses, in which extremely low numbers of women are enrolled.