Female representation in the CIPA (Internal Commission for the Prevention of Accidents and Harassment) of the footwear industry in Franca/SP and its possible impacts on public policies to combat sexual harassment in organizations

• Grant number: 24/16059-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Private Law
• Principal Investigator: Victor Hugo de Almeida
• Grantee: Beatriz Ferraz Gorgatti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/06782-8 - Sexual harassment in the workplace: a comparative study of brazilian and portuguese public policies, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Sexual harassment is characterized by lewd advances that violate the victim's sexual freedom. In response to the prevalence of this practice in the workplace, Law No. 14,457/2022 was enacted, introducing measures to combat sexual harassment in the work environment, assigned to the Internal Commission for the Prevention of Accidents and Harassment (CIPA). However, this regulation does not consider female representation in CIPAs, as there is no public database on the composition of these committees. Given that women are a minority in the Manufacturing Industry, it is anticipated that there will be under-representation of women in CIPAs, potentially placing the responsibility for protecting the victim in the hands of the perpetrator. The research aims to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze female representation in the Internal Commissions for the Prevention of Accidents and Harassment in the footwear industry of Franca/SP and its possible impacts on public policies to combat sexual harassment in organizations. Thus, the investigation will be guided by the theoretical framework of the Labor-Environmental Perspective, the principle of participation, gender roles, female under-representation in positions of power, and sexual harassment in organizations. To achieve this, the research will adopt a multiprocedural approach. The theoretical stage, of an exploratory and descriptive nature, will use bibliographic and documentary research as its procedural method and a deductive approach. The empirical stage will involve interviews as the procedural method, with data analyzed using an inductive method to quantify female representation in CIPAs within the footwear industry of Franca/SP. Finally, the goal is to compare the quantitative data from the empirical stage with the qualitative framework of the theoretical stage.