Wars are deplorable. Ever! They prove the failure of our capacity for dialogue more than the brute force of nations. They affect and reduce us as humanity, fatally wounding, without bullets, the expectation of building a more evolved society, not necessarily more technological and rich.
It is difficult for a city to respond to a war. Its ability to intervene in the face of power and geopolitical interests is very limited. As a result, we lose everyone, but above all the populations that experience conflicts up close.
In crises caused by wars, such as the one we are experiencing today in Ukraine, the inability of countries to negotiate and the lack of political leaders who are up to the moment we are living and who prioritize —not only in rhetoric—a culture of peace , the reduction of inequalities between countries and the fight against climate change.
Even though we were still experiencing a pandemic that cornered us, in which we had a common challenge against the virus, we adopted from the beginning a logic of competition for materials, equipment and vaccines, in an insane dispute that disdained the gravity of the moment. We barely rehearsed getting out of the pandemic and we got into a war. We really have a hard time learning from our experiences. It is a shame.
But if cities have little governance over wars, they have a lot on issues such as health, climate, inequalities, violence and prejudice that also generate suffering. And they can react by identifying problems and proposing ways to solve them. This is what many civil society entities do. Instituto Cidades Sustentáveis and Rede Nossa São Paulo are launching today a survey on women and the city that integrates the women’s month actions and deals with harassment and violence against women, and inequality in the division of domestic tasks.
The research shows that it significantly reduced the perception that household chores are shared equally between men and women: it dropped from 47% in 2020 to 37% in 2021, signaling that there is an overload of women in relation to these activities.
As for domestic violence, 34% of the interviewees say they have witnessed or heard about cases of a friend who has already suffered violence. Therefore, approximately one in three people have lived with violence. When analyzing the racial cut, there is a difference of 7 percentage points (plus) in the case of black and brown women.
Only half of the population, 52%, point to public transport as the place where they are most at risk of harassment. He is at the top of the risk of harassment for the fourth year in a row, which shows that public management is not giving due importance to the topic.
It is always good to remember the context that surrounds us so that we can have an idea of the size of the challenge. With regard to political representation, São Paulo currently has 13 councilors, or 24% of the 55 parliamentarians. It is the largest women’s bench ever formed in the city. In 2012 there were 5 councilors (9%) and in 2016 there were 11 councilors (20%).
In the Executive, 12% of female mayors are elected in Brazil, the same number as in 2016, showing stagnation at a low level, compared to 52% of women in the country’s population. In the world of politics, the underrepresentation of women and the enormous challenge in this field is evident.
In the business world, although there have been advances in gender equality, women are still an absolute minority in executive positions and receive 21% less remuneration than men in the same position.
It is important to note that during the year 2020 there were 1,350 femicides in Brazil, with one death every 7 hours (data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum). Therefore, we are facing an enormous challenge and our institutions at the federal, state and municipal levels are responsible for facing it. Cities must structure processes that encourage a culture of peace. They have resources, tools, convening and communication skills to do so.
It is not difficult to create programs and policies to promote gender equity, starting with the expansion of female participation in spaces of representation and decision-making; equity in the composition of councils and senior management in public and private management; training in the area of education and health; in addition to expanding services to protect women and communication campaigns aimed at people who frequent spaces where harassment complaints occur.
It is clear, however, that in order to achieve gender equality we have to overcome cultural challenges that anchor us in a past of prejudices and machismo that have not yet been overcome, at the same time that we must create programs and public policies that guide citizens in general and punish who commit violence.
If cities have their hands tied in the face of wars between countries, they have a lot to do in terms of gender equity. The numbers of femicide are the proportion of a long-term, trivialized war that does not use hypersonic missiles, but rudimentary weapons that kill in the same way. Violence against women can no longer be tolerated and local governments and companies play an important role in changing this situation. There is a goal, established by the UN, of achieving gender equity by 2030. It is possible, but we have to act now, giving priority to the issue.
