Find out who are the 10 most influential Brazilian women today

In an era in which women are increasingly taking a leading role in society, unfortunately their participation in leadership positions in Brazil has been registering a small drop.

According to the IBGE, in 2011, 39.5% of decision-making processes in companies involved women; in 2016, this percentage dropped to 37.8%.

More than half of the Brazilian population is made up of women, which highlights the need for greater balance and more opportunities in management positions for professionals with the same skills regardless of race or gender.

That said, the Incrivel.club gathered 10 examples of influential and inspiring women and how their actions impacted people’s lives and the world. Just check.

In 1957, Luiza Helena Trajano’s uncles, the couple Luiza Trajano and Pelegrino José Donato bought a small gift shop in the city of Franca, in the interior of São Paulo. In the following years, trade expanded and other units were created in the interior of São Paulo. Luiza Helena, started working very early, and at the age of 12 she was already working in one of her uncles’ company units.

In the 90’s, Luiza Helena became the leader of Magazine Luiza and allowed employees to actively participate in the company’s decisions. It continued with valuing customers and dedicated itself to e-commerce with quality and excellence, being a pioneer and reference in this sector. Luiza Helena also created marketing and sales strategies such as the very successful “Fantastic Sale” that attracts thousands of consumers every year who form huge lines in front of stores to take advantage of discounts.

Cristina is the co-founder of Nubank, a fast-growing financial sector company that offers, upon credit approval, the famous “purple” card that does not charge an annual fee to its users and makes financial services uncomplicated.

Before founding Nubank, in 2014, Cristina worked at Itaú Unibanco. Today, at Nubank, Cristina goes beyond drawing up business plans for the company and is concerned with women’s access to education and the job market. She recognizes that Nubank’s success is also due to its employees who help each other in a harmonious atmosphere and without gender discrimination. For its prominence in business leadership, Cristina received the Claudia Award in 2016, considered the biggest women’s award in Latin America. In 2017, she was named by Forbes as one of the 40 most powerful women in Brazil.

Fiamma, from Niteroi, has extensive experience in the telecommunications and finance sectors, having even been Vice President of Content at Samsung in Latin America. Before being promoted to general director of twitter in Brazil, Fiamma was an agency director and took care of the relationship between the social network and advertising agencies. Even with the exhausting work routine, Fiamma always tries to balance the time to reconcile it with her personal life and to be able to actively participate in the daily lives of her children and her husband.

As director general at twittershe is responsible for running the Brazilian operation of the social network in the country, creating marketing to strengthen, attract and develop links with advertising companies and offer microblog users an excellent space to share their messages with the world.

Paula was born in Angola (Africa), but at the age of three she came to Brazil with her parents. She majored in Information Technology as she realized that the field was expanding and there would be better job opportunities.

Paula also specializes in marketing. He got a job at Microsoft and worked there for 10 years, but decided to leave and had experiences with other technology companies, such as Apple and Facebook. In 2015, she returned to Microsoft and was the first woman to run the company in Brazil and made Windows adapted for use by other platforms, such as Apple’s.

Today, Paula is Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Operations at Microsoft for all of Latin America and works with an action plan for the advancement of technology in an area of ​​21 countries.

In January of this year, Microsoft announced that Tania Cosentino is the new president of the company in Brazil, replacing the aforementioned Paula Bellizia, who was in the position for three years.

Tania had a successful career for nearly 20 years at Schneider-Electric, making history at the company as first woman and Brazilian citizen to become president of the company for South America. At Schneider, Tania was very active — including being recognized by the UN in 2017 — on topics aimed at improving the use of and access to energy sources.

The executive is a strong advocate of women’s participation in leadership positions and that everyone – men or women – can have equal conditions for career development. Today, in the presidency of Microsoft do Brasil, Tania is very motivated and believes that with technological development she will also contribute to a better future for Brazil.

Another executive in a leadership role at an IT company. SAP is a company of German origin that creates software for the management of large or small companies.

With a career spanning more than 30 years, Cristina has worked at other large companies such as HP, Philips and Microsoft. She is recognized for her leadership, firm pulse and confidence to lead teams in search of results. Even with the day-to-day rush and the stressful business world, Cristina’s discipline and focus make her able to balance personal and professional life, including dedicating herself to long-distance running competition — she already has 10 marathons in curriculum — and that help her to deal with the stress of work.

Sonia’s parents owned a business in the interior of Santa Catarina that sold fabrics, clothes and even grain in bulk.

With the surplus of fabric in stock, Sonia’s mother decided to make men’s shirts and soon the demand for the product was high and it was necessary to hire seamstresses to increase production. And that’s how the Dudalina🇧🇷 with the junction of the names of Duda + Adelina, parents of Sonia. From a very young age, Sonia worked in her parents’ business and learned in practice how all the sectors of the company worked. To improve her training, she studied Business Administration and specialized in Clothing. All this effort earned him the position of president of Dudalina, transforming what was a local and family business into what is today the biggest shirtmaker in Latin America.

After years of dedication, Sonia is no longer the president of Dudalina and decided to dedicate herself to social causes, traveling around Brazil getting involved in projects that aim to increase employment opportunities for women and help in female entrepreneurship.

Rachel Maia is from São Paulo, graduated in accounting sciences and post-graduated in Finance. Since 2018, she has been the executive director of Lacoste Brazil🇧🇷

From humble origins, Rachel says that at the family lunch, a single chicken on the table had to be enough to feed her parents, brothers and cousins…a total of 11 people. So, from a very young age, her father taught her the responsibilities of an adult life. Rachel worked for seven years as an accountant and decided to use her termination money to take an English course in Canada, which improved her resume.

She has held leadership positions in the luxury jewelry business for many years, leading operations in the Brazil of the brands tiffanny and pandora🇧🇷 Rachel is an advocate for women in the job market, and dedicates her time to charity work, helping people in need.

Maria Eduarda, from Bahia, graduated in Business Administration and specialized in the United States. At 29, she was already Director of Marketing at Johnson & Johnson.

From 2011 to 2016, Duda, as she is called, assumed the presidency of the company’s unit in Brazil. During her management, the company’s consumption area grew by 80%. Currently, Duda holds the prestigious position of president of Johnson & Johnson’s HealthE consumer unit in the United States. She has already received several recognitions for her professional performance and, in 2017, she was awarded the international award “Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Luminary aimed at female leaders in the health sector.

In 2018, the BBC released the list of the 100 inspiring and influential women who stood out in their areas of activity, and Gabriella Di Laccio was the Brazilian representative. Gabriella is a soprano and founder of the project Donne: Women in Music, Brazil🇧🇷

On International Women’s Day 2018, the project Donne came to life and from there people could access a platform (find it here) with a large list of women composers from the past and present. The number of names on this list is growing and Gabriella hopes that more and more artists and organizations will find music composed by women to perform in concerts and that this content can be an educational tool to show the world the work of women composers and serve as inspiration. for future generations.

Did you know any of the 10 women mentioned in this post? In addition to these 10, who, in your opinion, would be another influential woman in Brazil and in the world? Tell us.