THE MYTH OF WOMEN'S COMPETITION by Thati Tucci

A month and a half ago, we at PEITA were invited to give a lecture on International Women's Day at a large company in Curitiba. It was a really big company, the kind with the factory and all the various departments that come with a leader in its field. Those who sent us the email wanting us to go to the company to talk about Women's Competition were HR women (shyly disruptive) and according to them, this was a real problem in that organization.

It is common to be called to lectures in the month of March. Companies, universities, courses and projects want to know how PEITA started, what are the challenges of positioning itself so strongly in favor of women and the feminist movement and what impact this generates for the brand and people involved. We are happy when this happens because, just as the T-shirt generates an opportunity for dialogue for those wearing it, it is our chance as a company with a social purpose, to take debates and provocations to other spaces in the form of content. Throughout our three years of life, several exchanges and experiences were experienced, we learned a lot with hundreds of different women who crossed our path and who had some kind of contact with the brand, in various scenarios: in our lives, events, circles of conversation, visiting our studio, bazaars, social networks, demonstrations, marches and study meetings. It's because of all the people our t-shirts connected that we were able to create authentic content with real testimonials, combined with data, research, contexts and history. We call PEITA a protest brand because we see the revolutionary potential of the dialogues we promote.

For this specific lecture at that large company, we started an internal research to prepare the best possible content to approach the theme ' Women's Competition ' and we concluded that: to talk about competition we need to talk about the situation of women in the labor market; we need to talk about the patriarchy that reinforces competitive relationships between women; we need to talk about power relations in society; we need to talk about the places occupied by women in hierarchical structures; And we need to talk about fairy tales that teach girls that stepmothers and witches (other women) are always ready to pull the princesses' rug. We would need about eight hours to talk about everything that chokes inside when we are told that women are naturally competitive with each other, but we were hired for just one hour of lecture. A small daily challenge for those who fight.

Well, in just one hour we decided to talk about women having less time available in their days, earning less, being more subjugated and harassed in the work environment, occupying less leadership positions and, above all, carrying the stereotype that they cannot work with other women for being too competitive.

Brazilian women have less time available because, according to the IBGE , they dedicate 8 hours a week (on average 73%) more than men to caring for other people and household chores, and despite being more educated than Brazilian men ( on average 7.3 years against 6.3 years), are not able to dedicate themselves in the same way to the development of their careers.

It is women's responsibility to take care of children , the elderly, the sick, and anyone else who needs help or care and, therefore, the injustice of invisible work that fails to pay women 10 trillion dollars still belongs to them. dollars every year for unpaid domestic work, according to Oxfam .

They also earn less than men in Brazil, on average 20% when white, with black women earning up to 63% less than white men! This difference can vary greatly depending on the area of ​​expertise, with specialist doctors earning an average of 30% less than their medical colleagues. (Yes, the same ones on the front line in the fight against Covid-19).

Furthermore, women are not respected in their work environments , often being the main targets of moral and sexual harassment. Every day we hear thousands of reports from friends, mothers, aunts, neighbors who are harassed and made inferior in their jobs and constantly have to work twice as hard to prove that they are competent and fit for the job.

Have you ever felt that before starting work you had to take precious time out of your workday just to convince a client or the boss himself that you are qualified and competent despite being a woman? Have you ever felt unmotivated at your company because you constantly have to flee from male colleagues? What about sexist jokes? What about praise and criticism just about your looks? Tired right?!

We talked about all that there in this lecture, we even said that women are not in leadership positions, that only 1 in 10 leadership positions are occupied by them in the world .

It was important for them to understand that the few women managers, directors and bosses are all in the same situation and when you can see yourself in the women around you it is easier to see allies, partners.

And that wasn't happening at that company, apparently the women were competing with each other, which we can understand, after all they have so little room for growth that the dispute happens between them. In addition, we were taught to think that we have no reason to be allies or even if we wanted to unite, that would not be possible because we are women and only men are capable of having true and untouchable bonds.

The notion that we have less value or ability because we are women surrounds us since childhood and the idea that we are unable to create bonds between us still goes unnoticed by a large part of society. A proof of this is the fact that, in general, very few people know the meaning of sorority. (In this lecture, out of 60 women, only 3 raised their hand when asked if they knew the term sorority, but all knew what fraternity was).

The fact is that no biological factor makes us less capable than men of being friends, but hearing and believing that all our lives, yes!

Would the solution to the myth of female competition then be sorority? Yes would be.
The union and alliance between women, based on empathy and companionship, in pursuit of common goals would help all women to develop and continue to fight for equal rights. So that day we made a point of giving tips on how to practice sisterhood and finally after an hour of lecture we saw some heads nodding in agreement and satisfaction.

Is it easier to talk to the bubble of deconstructed and progressive women around us? For sure. But the revolution lurks where our ideas have yet to reach. That's why we are immensely grateful to those brave women from HR who invited PEITA to talk about feminism, called the lecture by another name (feminist is a curse word in some spaces), and without even giving much information to superiors, they managed to take us to talk to those who needed it.

We always knew that there is no fight alone.

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Thati Tucci is a PR, teacher and translator. Member of the Cássia and Peita Collective. Sapatão a bit outspoken and problematizing at family lunches.

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