Assimetrias de gênero na perspectiva de mulheres acadêmicas de uma universidade federal brasileira

Abstract

This study seeks to explore and understand issues related to the participation and inclusion of women as professors in the academic world at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Federal University of Minas Gerais) taking into consideration the approach of gender relations. At first, a broad quantitative survey was carried out on gender inequalities among professors (women and men) in the 74 strictu sensu graduation programs (Masters and Doctorate) at this institution. Then, 17 in-depth individual interviews were conducted with female professors from different fields of knowledge and courses and some topics such as their school and academic trajectories as well as their perceptions about the numerical inequalities between women and men still present in UFMG were addressed. Although such inequalities are not acute, they are considerable as it was revealed in the distribution of men and women and in the academic teaching production in this institution. Among the most significant data is the fact that it is in the item scientific journals published that the female average decreases slightly below the male average along with the fact that in only two large areas, out of a total of six, women constitute the small majority: Arts & Humanities and Health Sciences. With reference to the data collected in the qualitative stage from the interviews, it can be emphasized that, first, almost all the interviewees saw themselves and were seen as great students and secondly, they see such percentages and scientific productivity differences between women and men more as the result of the domestic and family life model proper to Brazilian society than as a result and ,thirdly, also the way in which academic and scientific rules have been organized over time in Brazil, that is, there is a diffuse perception for all the interviewees that the structuring of norms and career promotion, when they seek to be equal, end up for being based on the reality of male life as a professional model.