Women’s rights groups in Brazil are kicking off about a law that requires women to have pap smears when applying for jobs, including teaching positions in the Sao Paulo department of education as well as other federal agencies.
Women must endure gynecological exams as part of the application process and have to get a note from their doctor confirming they haven’t been sexually active. Naturally, the women in Brazil think this is totally insane.
It was only after a 27-year-old woman spoke in an interview recently of her embarrassment at having to ask for the note to prove her virginity, that women’s rights groups began to protest the ridiculous tests.
The government’s excuse is that they have to check for cancers and other health issues to ensure the candidate is healthy enough to work in the role for at least 25 years. Right, because that makes sense? Please.
‘It violates women's rights. It's very intimate information that she has the right to keep. It's absurd to continue with these demands,’ Ana Paula de Oliveira Castro, a public defender of women's issues in Sao Paulo told the Associated Press.
Brazil's national Special Secretariat for Women's Rights released a statement condeming the requirements saying the physical exams ‘violate constitutional protections of human dignity and the principle of equality and right to private life.’
The public management department for Sao Paulo responded saying: ‘The health inspections are intended to ensure, beyond technical ability, the physical and mental ability of candidates to keep their jobs for an average of 25 years.’ It said that other states have similar requirements for applicants.
So. Bloody. Insane. And don’t even get us started on the whole idea that if you have cancer or another illness that you wouldn’t get the job.
The government recently passed a law in Sao Paolo to create women-only carriages on trains and buses to address an increase in sexual harassment of women in the public transport system.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.