Mad men & part-time women

It's been decades since the developed countries got to grips with new ways of working, adapting to a world where women are a major part of the workforce and men no longer have a job for life. The Internet has changed the notion of physical proximity, thus enabling the rise of the telecommuter. And while debate still continues over the motivational merits of working shoulder to shoulder with colleagues versus working solo from home, most companies now accept that there are numerous alternatives to the traditional nine to five, office-bound drudgery.

Not so in Brazil. (Could you see that coming ?) My partner is looking to return to work after taking unpaid maternity leave from a career that had been forged while living in London. Back here in her homeland, the above-mentioned ideas are still impossibly alien. Having worked as a PA for a number of big merchant banks in the UK, where short-term, part-time and flexitime contracts were plentiful, quick to action and well-paid, she finds the opposite is true here.

Thrown in for good measure is the endless form-filling and ludicrously irrelevant "psychometric" tests (another clumsy attempt to copy the US). The tedium is topped off with lashings of self-importance and snobbery from the jobsworths who deign to interview her. The assumption is always that they -  the "powerful" - are doing her - the "powerless" - a favour. It couldn't possibly be a neutral transaction or mutually beneficial ! As for the infinitesimally small chance that she would be the one doing them a favour, well, don't even go there.

Such corrosive attitudes are the toxic byproducts of a rigged and rigid economy. A dysfunctional society will always see more threats than opportunities and encourage individuals to pull up the ladder after themselves.

(On a related note, when I inquired about working as a teacher for Cultura Inglesa, the dominant English-language teaching school here, I was told I would need to pay R$ 550 (£210 or $335) for the privilege of taking a test to demonstrate my proficiency in English. Yet this information is more for their benefit than mine. I consider it blatant profiteering which wouldn't exist in a healthy marketplace.)

Apart from being a new mother who wants to balance a return to work with a modicum of flexibility to be with her child (ie she doesn't want to be the insecure slave of a boss who may work long hours but is being massively rewarded for it, unlike herself), she would also like a slither of time to focus on an MA course or some other form of part-time higher education.

Like so many Brazilians, her state schooling was woefully inadequate, leaving an adult who wants to better herself at the same time as earning a living and pursuing a career. Do her potential employers see this as an impressive character trait or something which might even benefit themselves ? Excuse me while I once again howl with hollow laughter.

This country is crying out for education, and that means adult education as much as juvenile. In order for that to happen, a flexible workplace, based on technological and management efficiencies, is essential. Sadly, the cultural DNA here is still dominated by notions of patriarchy and slavery. Can today's powerful Brazilians finally learn to think longterm ? For that to happen they will have to get their heads round the concept of enlightened self-interest? (And no, bribing part of the electorate with handouts doesn't count.)

Excited studies about booming Brazil may reference the huge army of women now swelling the ranks of the workforce and driving the consumer revolution. That's fine as far as it goes, but it stops well short of the cultural revolution required if Brazil is to take its economy to the next level.