A vivência de mulheres em cursos superiores majoritariamente cursados por homens na Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Abstract

This research aims to discover how women experience in higher education courses mostly attended by men, whose professions are socially seen, symbolically, as masculine at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. First, what would be considered a male-majority course was defined, establishing that they are those with 70% or more men, making this analysis 13 courses characterized as male-majority: Physics; Electrical Engineering/Qualification in Robotics and Industrial Automation; Computational Engineering; Electrical Engineering/Qualification in Electronic Systems; Electrical Engineering/Qualification in Telecommunications; Exact Sciences; Electrical Engineering/Qualification in Energy; Music Composition; Statistics; Mechanical Engineering; Guitar Music; Computer Science; and Information Systems, in view of the large number of courses and the limited time to carry out the research, a cut was made with a focus on engineering, analyzing the courses of Electrical Engineering, Computational Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Therefore, the group of interviewees was composed of 18 students from these courses. In the interviews, it was possible to identify that the experience of these students goes through several barriers, such as: lack of representation, gender discrimination, harassment, the restriction of their voices and body. Therefore, these students seek to create ways and tactics to survive in this male-majority environment, such as ignoring disrespectful situations and comments, shaping their way of being, speaking, dressing, grouping with other women, all of these tactics being ways of protecting themselves. Thus, it was possible to conclude that the experience of women in the male courses at UFJF is hampered because of their gender, not being valued, recognized and heard, in addition to going through various gender discriminations. Therefore, it is extremely important that support, security and listening measures be created so that these barriers and challenges are overcome.