Brazil has changed a lot in the last 20 years. To make this point, however, we need more than anecdotal facts. It is necessary to have information based on data about the Brazilian population. Fortunately, after almost three years of anxious waiting, everything indicates that the microdata will finally be released next month. What is possible to bring in this column, for now, is aggregated information already released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics itself.
The decision is individual and depends on factors such as preferences, legislation, education level, social norms, career and support network. According to the Census, families formed by represented, in 2000, 56.4% of the total, a proportion that fell to 42% in 2022. During this period, couples without children increased from 13% to 24.1%, while the proportion of women without a spouse and with children increased from 11.6% to 13.5%. These changes are reflected in the fertility rate, which in 2022 reached its lowest level of 1.55 children per woman.
In general, the marital union precedes the arrival of children. In Brazil, the average age at first marriage increased from 24.1 years in 1980 to 25 years in 2022, while the average age of women when having children increased from 26.3 to 28.1 years. In other words, Brazilian data seems to confirm what is observed elsewhere: a postponement and reduction in the number of children.
The academic literature presents ample evidence of the existence of a penalty for motherhood. After having children, women, on average, face reduced income and lower participation in . Before motherhood, however, the trajectory in the job market tends to be similar between men and women. This penalty arises especially as economies develop, migrating from subsistence systems to economies based on industry and services.
Parenthood is often associated with marriage. The question then arises: does this penalty begin at marriage? According to the article “The Child Penalty Atlas”, by Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais and Gabriel Leite-Mariante, some countries observe not only the motherhood penalty, but also what the authors call the marriage penalty. In these contexts, women may face both the penalties of marriage and motherhood. The study investigates how the presence of these penalties translates into lower participation of women in the labor market.
The authors introduce the concept of family penalty, which encompasses the penalties of motherhood and marriage. In Brazil, these penalties, when estimated separately, are high: maternity penalties reach 37% for the first child, while marriage penalties reach 57%. In China, for example, the marriage penalty is 18%. When estimated together, these effects can reduce female employment in Brazil by up to 70%. In England, for example, the combined penalty is approximately 30% and is explained exclusively by the maternity penalty.
It may be that the rapid reduction in fertility observed in the country is related to the penalty for motherhood. However, the authors document that this penalty begins much earlier, during the formation of the family. According to them, a possible interpretation is that the penalty of marriage somehow anticipates that of motherhood, since family formation generally precedes the arrival of children.
Changes in legislation and new public policies can help reduce the penalties faced by women in the labor market. The vote in the Chamber of Deputies, last week, on the bill that extends the leave from five to 20 days could represent an important step in this direction. The law itself follows the transformations of recent decades, marked by the increase in female participation in the labor market and the need for a more balanced division of care between mothers and fathers.
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