global I REPORTS


The Billionaire Feminist L


Brazilian businesswoman Luiza Trajano is out to change the world


UIZA TRAJANO IS NOT YOUR stereotypical billionaire. As Brazil’s wealthiest woman and


one of the 100 most influential peo- ple in the world named by Time mag- azine in 2021, Trajano is a proud feminist committed to fighting sys- temic sexism and racism. She is chair of the board of directors


of Magazine Luiza, a giant retailer started as a single store by her parents in 1957. (The word magazine in Por- tuguese means a small shop selling a variety of products.) The retailer grew exponentially in the following decades and Trajano became CEO in 1991. In 2016, she handed the CEO role to her son, Frederico Trajano. While Magazine Luiza is known


for accessible prices and for serving low-income communities, Trajano is famous for introducing childcare vouchers for the company’s women employees. “We couldn’t open child-


care centers in every store, but we could support our employees finan- cially,” she says. “Every woman with small children, regardless of her posi- tion in the company, got a monthly check for childcare costs.” She says providing vouchers didn’t impact the company’s budget, but made a huge difference for women employees. And she boasts that today 70 percent of Magazine Luiza’s management po- sitions are occupied by women. Her latest, most radical decision


was announced late in 2020: Her company’s 2021 trainee program would be open for Black applicants only. Although more than 50 percent of the company’s employees are Black, only 16 percent of managerial and executive roles had been held by Black people. In Brazil, 57 percent of the population identifies as Black or mixed race. The backlash was bigger than


Trajano expected. “We went through 72 hours of nonstop attacks on Twit- ter,” she says. Some, including former Brazilian Councilor Carlos Jordy, said the trainee program was racist; he an- nounced he was going to file a lawsuit against Trajano’s company. “But my son wrote a public letter


saying, ‘I want to change my compa- ny. If you don’t want to change yours, then don’t,’” Trajano says. And the results have exceeded all of her expec- tations. “I never thought people would tell me, ‘I want to continue supporting you because you’re help- ing our country,’” she says. This program was announced


about four months after George Floyd’s murder in the U.S.; Trajano says that this case of police brutality was very impactful in her work: “Be- cause of such an explicit video going viral during a time we were quaran- tined, we were forced to pay attention and acknowledge the systemic racism that is part of our country too.” In her private life, Trajano chairs a


feminist organization called Grupo Mulheres do Brasil


(Brazilian


Women’s Group). “We have 104,000 Brazilian women worldwide as part of our organization; we work on a vari- ety of issues, from education to the environment, from health to racial equity,” Trajano says proudly. When asked what led her to this


unapologetically feminist life, she credits being raised by strong women. “My mother and aunts always be-


lieved in me,” she says. “I was raised by four mothers who were feminists and didn’t even realize it.” —MARCELA RODRIGUES-SHERLEY


3Luiza Trajano is committed to fighting sexism and racism.


18 | SPRING 2022 www.feminist.org


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