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CHAPTER TWO: FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Many of today’s households include two
working parents. In addition, the number of
single-parent families is also on the rise as is
the number of blended families, that is, those
made up of biological children as well as those
from previous marriages or relationships. Mar-
ried couples are also having fewer children. For
fourteen-year-olds in 1963, the average num-
ber of siblings was 5.4. Today, that number is
2.3 brothers or sisters.
Why the change? Politics and econom-
ics have played a huge role as many Brazilian
women have found a new sense of freedom,
allowing them to go out into the workplace.
Women now make up 60 percent of college
graduates in Brazil. Although their economic
and political power has grown, many women still have a hard time finding
good-paying jobs as managers or in senior positions.
The shift, however, has not played out evenly across Brazilian society. Many
families, especially those in rural areas, are poor. The head of the household is
often illiterate. Poor families also have more young children than wealthier fam-
ilies, and less access to clean water, education, and health services. Although
Brazil is one of the world’s largest economies, it also has one of the highest
unequal distributions of income rates in the world. In the 1990s, the wealthiest
20 percent earned twenty-six times as much money as the poorest 20 percent.
That number has since dropped, but the richest 1 percent has 13 percent of all
household income.
In the favelas, or slums of the cities, most families tend to be headed by
a mother. Crime, drugs, and economic problems have forced many people to
live in the streets. But while unemployment is high in these communities and
social problems abound, residents of favelas have a fierce sense of pride and
belonging. In fact, many of their families have deep roots in these “shanty-
towns,” often built into steep hillsides, having been forced to build makeshift
A family out for day of leisure in Rio
de Janeiro's Botanical Garden.