Androcentrism in the scientific field: Brazilian systems of graduate studies, science and technology as a case study

Abstract This article performs an analysis of female participation in science, in the Brazilian system of graduate studies and scientific research as a case study. This is relevant because science is a central supporting structure for modern societies and, therefore, a detailed analysis of the scien...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: ROBERTA ARÊAS, ALICE ABREU, CARLOS NOBRE, MARCIA C. BARBOSA, ADEMIR E. SANTANA
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academia Brasileira de Ciências 2023-05-01
Series:Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
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Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652023000101803&lng=en&tlng=en
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Summary:Abstract This article performs an analysis of female participation in science, in the Brazilian system of graduate studies and scientific research as a case study. This is relevant because science is a central supporting structure for modern societies and, therefore, a detailed analysis of the scientific power structure behind academic policy creation can reveal aspects of androcentrism in scientific activity. The main goal of this work is to identify the process of misogyny in science by describing its reproductive pattern. Our results show that women are around 50% of the undergraduate and graduate students when all fields are taken into consideration, but only 37% of the researchers in the CNPq system. We also observe a significant increase in female percentage within scientific activities at the initial and intermediary levels, except for the most prestigious areas as hard science. However, a scissor effect is identified between the initial level and the more prominent positions. This unbalanced participation reveals that female occupations in science are mostly as lower workforce since women are quite far from the social decision-making circles in this career
ISSN:1678-2690