Cláudia Costin

Women have a great potential. Currently, in Brazil, they are more present in the workplace, the arts, unions, community activities. But there are no women on the boards of major companies or union federations.

Women still have a long way to go, in terms of equal opportunity.

There are three important points. First, women need to learn to believe in their own potential. Surveys in Brazil show that many times women fear they do not have the potential to perform activities that, until recently, were considered exclusively for males. Second, discrimination still exists on the part of those who select people for important positions. Third, women have to deal with the challenges of family life more than men. Unfortunately, many husbands have not been brought up to share tasks with their wives or to share in the care of children and the teaching of values. This is a serious problem.

Equality is not to be achieved in terms of having men and women act in an identical manner, but in terms of their having equal opportunities to grow, to reach their full potential.

It's up to both women and men to seek spiritual growth. A couple that strives to grow together spiritually strengthens the bond between them. However, each one has his/her own path in this spiritual journey. Life is a continuous search for spiritual growth.

If there's one thing that harmonizes me, that prepares me for the challenges of a professional and home life with my two children, it's the Torah, it's spirituality.

As the only female cabinet member in the Cardoso administration, I found resistance to women in such positions. They're often held to a higher standard than men are. But I had already established a professional life. I had my Master's and Doctoral degrees, and had occupied responsible positions. The difficulty lay in harmonizing my professional life, at this level of intensity, with my home life, without turning into a stressed and aggressive person.

Reading the Torah helped me. I studied once a week with a rabbi. I went to the synagogue every Sabbath, and this was a source of great strength.

It's sad that, in a country that has arrived at a certain level of development, sexual harassment cases of discrimination against women, still exist. I realized it was important to defend women — and humanity — against sexual harassment. Not only does it harm women, but it harms families and society as a whole. A society that lives with abandoned children, sexual harassment, and discrimination against women or racial groups, needs to grow spiritually. It needs help. This is the reason to defend legislation opposing sexual harassment.

We don't yet have this legislation in Brazil. But the awareness that women can protest about instances of harassment has grown. This awareness has also increased in relation to domestic violence, which is another common problem in our country.

Fear is always an enemy of growth, whether in the sense of reporting aggression, or in the sense of growing spiritually. Spirituality is always an ally against fear. Fear is the dark side, and spirituality brings light.

God gives us the innate desire to do good to our neighbors. In Hebrew, “tsedaka” means “justice” as well as “charity”, because the two go together. Charity is the imperative of justice. This imperative is present in every human being. When we do something that benefits our neighbor, we feel good. Being in government allows us to have a greater possibility of doing this. This possibility delights me!

I would say to other women. “Believe in yourselves”. The big problem is that sometimes we are made to believe we are fragile. Life examples have shown us, however, the great strength women have. God put us in the world with a mission. It's worth discovering what your individual mission is — and then investing in it, as much as possible.