Women

A recent study by the Ibero-American Observatory of Science, Technology and Society, entitled "Gender Inequalities in Ibero-American Scientific Production," found that Brazil has the highest percentage of scientific articles authored by women in the region, accounting for a staggering 72% of the 53,3 published between 2014 and 2017. Among fields of knowledge, women represent 56% of authors in medical publications, while at the other extreme, in engineering, women account for 32% of the knowledge disseminated in scientific journals.
The importance of women in academia is confirmed by the latest Higher Education Census, released in 2016, according to which women represent 57,2% of students enrolled in undergraduate courses and are also the majority among scholarship recipients from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – CAPES, linked to the Ministry of Education, representing 60% of the total beneficiaries in postgraduate studies and teacher training programs.

The feminist movement liberated women from stereotypes related to their role in society, traditionally associated with motherhood, the idea of ​​caregiving, sensitivity, and the domestic environment. The teaching staff in primary schools has always been predominantly female, as has the nursing profession. Therefore, when we see the "contamination" of predominantly masculine spaces by the once-weaker sex, especially in the so-called exact sciences, we realize that the disproportion between professional careers is artificial, a social phenomenon, in no way related to the intrinsic intellectual capacity of either gender. A professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the State University of Campinas – UNICAMP, demonstrates in her teaching practice how difficult it is to break with long-established "invented traditions":

"In the classrooms, girls make up about 5% of the students. In the department, we have around 90 professors and there are five of us female professors. (...) When you go to conferences, there are very few female engineers. You only see suits. If you have a hundred papers being presented, there are usually three or four female researchers."

In my view, everything revolves around the opportunities given and the financial compensation commensurate with the positions held. Thus, feminism is not the equivalent of machismo, but a positive reaction to gender inequality, as very well put by the philosopher and educator Mario Sergio Cortella:

"Sexist attitudes are not the opposite of feminism. Sexism is the assumption that we, men, are superior. Feminism is not the assumption that women are superior. Feminism is the belief that men and women are equal. Therefore, feminism is not just a women's thing. I am a feminist. (...) The opposite of sexism is intelligence."

We should celebrate the relevance of women in academia as a result of the fight for equal rights, proving that intelligence is not a genetically inherited quality. On the other hand, demanding proportionality or gender parity in academic and professional careers, once equality of opportunity has been established, is not sensible, since the criterion, the focus to be adopted, should be the candidate's competence and aptitude. Choosing or not choosing an engineering course, for example, should be a personal, individual decision, not a social requirement or a need to fill reserved places.

In an ideal world, the good news would be the quality of national academic production itself, the quality of what is produced, and not a randomly chosen characteristic that identifies who produces it – woman, man, LGBT, white, black, native-born or naturalized Brazilian, with light or brown eyes, bald or hairy, Corinthians or Botafogo fans.

Identity policy: use with caution.

Study by the Observatory: http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2019-03/mulheres-assinam-72-dos-artigos-cientificos-publicados-pelo-brasil

Mario Sergio Cortella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wGgWP4pyW4&t=74s