Mães e cientistas: um estudo na Universidade Federal do Pampa

Abstract

This dissertation was developed in the Postgraduate Program Education in Sciences: Life and Health Chemistry (UNIPAMPA), in the research line "Implications of Scientific Practices in the Constitution of Subjects" and aimed to problematize the relationship between maternity and science at the Federal University of Pampa. Throughout history, it has been sought in various ways to restrict and control women's spaces, using discourses and practices that produce gender dichotomies and inequalities related to the supposed differences in the abilities and skills of men and women. Even with the considerable increase in the participation of women in science, they still face a number of barriers with respect to permanence and advancement in scientific careers, a consequence of androcentric values of knowledge production, which does not consider the particularities of women, such as the experience of motherhood and gender inequalities. Thus, the reconciliation of motherhood with scientific careers may represent a constant dilemma in the lives of women, making it necessary to visualize and problematize the efforts of women to insert and consolidate themselves in scientific careers while experiencing motherhood. To this end, all female university professors from the 10 campuses of Unipampa, totaling 440 women, were invited to participate in the research via institutional e-mail. The research is anchored in the post-structuralism approach of Cultural Studies and makes use of questionnaires for data production, which were sent to the institutional e-mail address of each professor, remaining open for a period of 31 days. The questionnaire was structured in three parts: the first sought to verify the conceptions and understandings of the teachers about the scientific career and maternity; the second was directed to the teachers who are already mothers, seeking to investigate how they reconcile maternity with the scientific career; and the third sought to analyze this reconciliation from the pandemic context. From the data obtained, it can be seen that women still face several barriers and restrictions regarding the permanence and ascension in the scientific career. Moreover, it was possible to notice that the reconciliation of motherhood with the scientific career occurs in a conflicting way for the mother teachers, who need to choose between meeting the demands and requirements of motherhood or the career in science. It was also possible to notice that this conciliation generates an overload of work for women, which can often limit their permanence and progress along the scientific career. Moreover, the overload identified worsened during the pandemic, a period in which the unequal responsibility for the care of the home and the children became even more accentuated to women. Moreover, we realize that science is still "inhospitable" to women, who still encounter barriers and difficulties in staying and moving up in the scientific career, especially in areas considered masculine, and that the conceptions of female teachers about what science is and how to be a scientist are consistent with masculine models of producing knowledge, which establish, for example, high productivity in research and the availability of certain skills and aptitudes.