Number 235, July 11, 1996. Females of 10 years and older have studied on average 5.1 years as compared to 4.9 years for the male population in the same age group. In the states where the hourly rates are better, women always earn less than men. According to researcher Lena Lavinas of IPEA the difference in salary is often due to what she defines as a sexual division of work.
Women work more in professions of the human care area which in general are badly paid.
According to Fulvia Rosemberg, a researcher with the Carlos Chagas Foundation, segregation begins in school where female students are directed towards the human sciences and male students towards exact sciences. One of the reasons that she attributes the fact that women spend more time at school is that there is a more intense pressure on men by society to leave school earlier and to take on a job. The April figures for the Greater Sao Paulo region were even worse. According to Lena Lavinas of IPEA, this record number of female unemployment is due to the increasing competition between men and women for employment. She claims that there is a shift of men from the industrial sector where unemployment is higher to sectors which traditionally have provided more work for women such as the service sector.