Abstract

This study aimed to problematize aspects of the work of professors in relation to gender, assessment policies, and health. For this purpose, a qualitative social investigation was conducted within the aspect of participatory studies and the views of materialist feminism. An analysis of the material was carried out through content analysis, according to the topic, using four main themes: conflicts between professors’ work and domestic work; professors’ work, motherhood, and guilt; policies for the assessment of professors and gender relations; and the sexual division of labor and teaching. It was possible to perceive just how much the demands of the productive sphere have gone beyond the time of the workday and into the reproductive sphere and the private life of professors, compromising the struggle for health and leading to processes of suffering and illness. The theme of the sexual division of labor in public universities appears to be an important issue that highlights work overload and psychological illness, especially at a time when the teaching profession is becoming increasingly competitive. In conclusion, we believe that there is an imperative need for investments in public policies that can guarantee gender equality in higher education.

Key words:
The work of professors; Gender; Workers’ health; Public university

Introduction

In Brazil, since the 1990’s, public universities have been subjected to the rationality of the market and the requirements of neoliberal productive restructuring. According to the principles of neoliberal capitalism, research, science, and technology are seen as potentially profitable areas, and education itself has become considered a commodity. Concerning governmental policies for college education implemented in recent decades, especially by the current government, what stands out is the notion that universities are strategic places for the development of entrepreneurship¹1 Vieira RB. O programa para a educação superior de Jair Bolsonaro: empreendedorismo, controle e ofensiva sobre o fundo público. Univ Soc 2019; (64):90-101.. Consequently, such aspects as competition, individualism, and productiveness, as well as other typical characteristics of organizational and managerial capitalism, gain prominence among professors²2 Lacaz FAC. Capitalismo organizacional e trabalho: a saúde do docente. Univ Soc 2010; (45):51-59.^,33 Leher R. Ideias, valores e princípios para afirmar o futuro da universidade pública latinoamericana. RIICE 2018; (44):133-146.. In fact, according to the new guidelines, the work of professors is becoming increasingly competitive and based on rigorous criteria of productivity, especially at the graduate school level, causing conflicts that lead to processes of physical and psychological illness4, but with few studies that adopt the focus of social sex relations⁵5 Kergoat D. Dinâmica e consubstancialidade das relações sociais. Novos Estudos - Cebrap 2010; (86):93-103..

This study defends a thesis which proposes the promotion of equality among men and women in the academic career as a determining factor for the health of public university workers, based on a gender relationship perspective. According to Schneider⁶6 Schneider EC. Mulheres em greve e algumas condições para a construção da Política Institucional de Equidade de Gênero na UNILA. Univ Soc 2019; (64):20-29., there is a need to elucidate violences, which perpetuates gender division at work and the submission of women, within the organizational sphere of the universities, ranging from daily tasks to the agendas of research and extension.

Moreover, it is important highlight the issue of gender inequality in labor relations, since women have faced opressive shifts in both the productive and reproductive spheres. For Siqueira⁷7 Siqueira SMM. É preciso estar atenta e forte: apontamentos para uma análise dos impactos da reforma trabalhista na vida das trabalhadoras. Univ Soc 2019; (64):8-19., adding to the steep intensification of the workload and the precarious working conditions, there is also illness, moral and sexual harassment, and the struggle against patriarchy at the level of politics and in trade unions. Findings from Araújo et al.⁸8 Araujo TM, Godinho TM, Reis EJFB, Almeida MMG. Diferenciais de gênero no trabalho docente e repercussões sobre a saúde. Cien Saude Colet 2006; 11(4):1117-1129. point to the fact that men have been considered the “gold standard” against which women have been compared at different levels of the educational system, and the gender differences in attributions and the social valorization of work still persist. The mentioned study above was conducted at the basic education level and showed that female teachers worked longer weekly shifts, had a greater domestic work burden, and participated less in the decision-making processes related to work, when compared to men.

Consistent with the work of Velho and León⁹9 Velho L, León E. A construção social da Produção científica por Mulheres. Cadernos Pagu 1998; (10):309-344., there have been several attempts to explain why women, even after having obtained access to the academic career, do not make progress at the same proportion and pace as men. The traditional explanation adopts a simplistic and prejudicial view according to which women have lower academic production than men. That lower productivity by women, however, has been significantly relativized in studies which seek to understand the contexts, motivation, and production conditions of males and females at the academic level. At the end of the 90s, the same authors had previously shown that it is important to consider such factors as family versus work issues, the levels of investment in female education, as well as subtle systems of discrimination.

Specifically concerning the health of the professors, Hoffmann et al¹⁰10 Hoffmann C, Zanini RR, Moura GL, Costa VMF, Comoretto E. Psicodinâmica do trabalho e riscos de adoecimento no magistério superior. Estudos Avançados 2017; 31(91):257-276. verified a strong connection between the professional burnout of professors and the organization of academic work. In the case of female professors, this burnout seems also to be related to a lack of recognition by their peers. Women suffer more from feelings of injustice, disqualification, and depreciation. There is a denial of the fact that men and women, submitted to the same working conditions in an environment of higher education, should have proportionally similar responses of satisfaction or suffering, and are thus exposed to the same kinds of health risks. The unfavorable situation perceived by women refers, among other aspects, to the overburden of “conciliating” family and professional lives. According to the authors, gender roles can be considered an element which promotes distinctions at work and creates vulnerability to health problems. In this sense, it is important to mention the observation by Hirata and Kergoat¹¹11 Hirata H, Kergoat D. Novas configurações da divisão sexual do trabalho. Cad Pesquisa 2007; 37(132):595-609., when they suggest the substitution of the concept of “conciliation” for the concepts of “conflict”, “tension” and “contradiction”, to indicate the fundamentally conflicting nature of the simultaneous burden of family and professional responsibilities to which women are subjected. According to the authors, the critical thinking of such “conciliation” requires reflection about the modalities of reproduction of domestic servitude. In doing so, they consider relevant psychological aspects, such as affection, and means of domination, which perpetuate sexual division of labor in both the productive and reproductive spheres.

Considering this approach, one should understand that, in a line of work that is essentially intellectual, such as that of the university professor, which demands a high degree of professional qualification, one must consider how female professors perceive the effects of the sexual division of labor and how they have been dealing with the difficult and conflictive management of daily life in academic activities. Therefore, the core objective of this study was to identify the problems that affect higher education professionals in the sphere of gender relations, and the relationship between assessment policies and health, focusing on the dialogue with public education professors.

Theoretical reference

Among the array of different theoretical-political views within feminism, we follow the dialectical materialism school of thought, which considers work as central in its social-historical materiality and as a political practice of resistance. This view also recognizes the importance of work as the engine of human, individual and collective emancipation¹²12 Hirata H. Gênero, Patriarcado, Trabalho e Classe. Trabalho Necessário 2018; 16(29):14-27.. This perspective further proposes three types of indissociability: between material and symbolic life, without disconnecting the economic determination from the cultural and symbolic spheres; between the spheres of production and social reproduction, bringing the value of domestic labor into view; and finally, between the dimensions of gender, race, and class, which intertwine within capitalism so as to optimize the extraction of added value¹³13 Saffioti HIB. Rearticulando gênero e classe social. In: Costa AO, Bruschini C., organizadores. Uma questão de gênero. Rio de Janeiro: Rosa dos Tempos; 1992.

14 Lauretis T. A tecnologia do gênero. In: Hollanda HB, organizadores. Tendências e impasses: o feminismo como crítica da cultura. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco; 1994.

15 Simões-Barbosa RH. Mulheres, reprodução e Aids: as tramas da ideologia na assistência à saúde de gestantes HIV+. 2001 [tese]. Rio de Janeiro: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz; 2001.^-1616 Davis A. Mulheres, raça e classe. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2016..

It is through this kind of dialectical materialist feminism, by definition anti-capitalist¹⁷17 Arruzza C, Bhattacharya T, Fraser N. Feminismo para os 99%. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2019., that we will analyze the relationships between gender, the work of the university professor, and health. To undertake this analysis, the concept of the sexual division of labor is essential in the critical understanding of female work, both productive and reproductive, removing it from the sphere of private relationships, de-naturalizing it as female instinct, or as an expression of “maternal love”, and resignifying it as work (exploited and not paid for), constituting what is defined as a “double workload”¹¹11 Hirata H, Kergoat D. Novas configurações da divisão sexual do trabalho. Cad Pesquisa 2007; 37(132):595-609..

Kergoat¹⁸18 Kergoat D. Divisão sexual do trabalho e relações sociais de sexo. In: Hirata H, Laborie F, Le Doaré H, Senotier D, organizadores. Dicionário crítico do feminismo. São Paulo: Ed. Unesp; 2009. postulates that social sex relations and the sexual division of labor are two indissociable propositions which make up a single system. The author considers these two concepts inseparable, since the analysis in terms of sexual division of labor allows for the demonstration of the existence of a specific social relationship between sex groups, showing that “...the distinctions between men and women cannot be reduced to greater or lesser exploitation or to an unequal division, but are rather a contradictory treatment according to sex”¹⁹19 Kergoat D. Relações sociais de sexo e divisão sexual do trabalho. In: Lopes MJM, Meyer DE, Waldow VR, organizadores. Gênero e saúde. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas;1996. (p. 2). Such inequalities can be easily identified through the analysis of objective and subjective data from the work process. According to this author, feminism brought to light the sex categories as social categories, showing that social roles of males and females are social constructs that are anchored on and overdetermined by a material basis, and not merely set upon a socio-ideological foundation. Therefore, the concept of the sexual division of labor provides the material basis - historical, social, and economic - which allows the criticism of the means of conceptualizing the sciences, which naturalize the sexualized characteristics of female labor, reducing it to the sphere of biological determination. Therefore, labor, in its inseparable productive and reproductive dimensions, is at the center of gender relations, and it is through this perspective that we will be able to critically understand labor and the health of female university professors.

Methodology

This study is a qualitative social investigation that adopted its core aspects from Paulo Freire’s theory²⁰20 Freire P. Pedagogia do Oprimido. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra; 2014. and from participative studies, with emphasis on its dialogical nature²¹21 Brandão CR, Streck DR. Pesquisa participante: a partilha do saber. São Paulo: Ideias & Letras; 2006.. Through this approach, we postulate that it is by means of dialogue that one can have access to the investigation data, it therefore being possible, from its content, to identify the themes in the quality of knowledge generating units, or specifically, analysis keys for the problematization and interpretation of reality. In this line of understanding, the discussion groups are sources of knowledge and provide data which can be the object of reflection and critical interpretation, granting an epistemological connotation to the dialogue²⁰20 Freire P. Pedagogia do Oprimido. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra; 2014.. Here, the emphasis is on the narratives of the oppressed workers as the subject of the knowledge process, thus building a collective criticism through a collegiate board and through reciprocal education, with potential for action development. In practical terms, the necessary conditions are created to allow the group to transform reality by means of critical analysis and reflection on work and its relationships, crisscrossed with the sexual division of labor.

Concerning the procedures of this study, two investigation techniques, qualitative and participatory, were used: “workshops on worker’s health”²²22 Souza KR, Rodrigues AMS, Santos MBM, Simões-Barbosa RH, Fernandez VS, Mendonça ALO. Oficinas em saúde do trabalhador: ação educativa e produção dialógica de conhecimento acerca das relações entre trabalho docente e saúde em universidade pública. Rev Bras Saude Ocup 2020; 45(e4):1-9. and “health and work notebooks”²³23 Souza KR, Fernandez VS, Teixeira LR, Larentis AL, Mendonça ALO, Felix EG, Santos MBM, Rodrigues MAS, Moura M, Simões-Barbosa RH, Barros WO, Almeida MG. Cadernetas de saúde e trabalho: diários de professores de universidade pública. Cad Saude Publica 2018; (34):01-11.. The workshops on worker’s health are spaces in which the workers and researchers can discuss work issues related to health, based on elements of participative investigation and of Freirean pedagogy, as well as on foundations from the field of workers’ health. Concerning the health and work notebooks, these are investigational tools inspired by Italian labor union experience²⁴24 Oddone I, Marri G, Gloria S. Ambiente de trabalho: a luta dos trabalhadores pela saúde. São Paulo: Hucitec; 1986.. Conceived as small notebooks that can function as a field diary, they allow the worker to register their experiences at work and in daily life, placing work at the center of their observations and their records related to health.

In this study, four workshops were conducted, and eight health and work notebooks were used. The workshops took place in 2015 and 2016, lasting approximately two hours, held in facilities that were part of a public federal university. The notebooks were presented and distributed to the participants, and during the workshop sessions, instructions were given on how to use them.

Concerning the profile of the subjects in the study, 10 professors participated in the workshops, including six women and four men. Eight professors participated in filling in the notebooks, including five women and three men, with ages ranging from 30 to 50 years. Each professor had a Ph.D., with tenure status in an exclusive dedication system, and was employed in both undergraduate and graduate programs. The inclusion criteria included being an active professor and belonging to a public federal university. The exclusion criterion was to be a professor away from work due to leave or vacations.

The analysis of the material was conducted using the content analysis technique, according to theme. Therefore, from the material transcribed from the recordings of the dialogues held during the workshops and from the information written in the notebooks, four main themes were identified for analysis: conflicts between the work as a professor and the domestic work; work as a professor, maternity and guilt; policies of the assessment of the professor’s work and gender relations; and the sexual division of labor and the professor’s work. These themes were identified by the classification of the extracts according to the criteria of similarity, frequency, and relevance for the themes of gender, labor, and health. Concerning the presentation of the results, an alphanumeric resource was used, that is, a letter accompanied by a number, in which “O” represents phrases from the workshops and “C” represents phrases written in the notebooks. The numbering referred to the random identification of the participating professors.

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee from the Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca (ENSP/FIOCRUZ).

Results and Discussion

Conflicts between the professor’s university work and housework

The results obtained from the discussions during the workshops and the records on the notebooks indicated how much the demands from the realm of production have overridden the time allotted for work shifts in the reproductive sphere and private life, especially in the case of female professors. The 24 hours in the day are not enough to fit university work, housework, raising the children, and the remaining activities of private life. Findings from Rodrigues et al²⁵25 Rodrigues AMS, Souza KR, Teixeira LR, Larentis AL. A temporalidade social do trabalho docente em universidade pública e a saúde. Cien Saude Colet 2020; (25):1829-1838. have shown that the organization of the university professors’ work time demonstrates other facets of the concept of a “24-hour society”, considering the demand for work during nights and weekends. According to the authors, professors face a situation of excessive work demands. There is a series of demands that, from the point of view of faculty members, must be fulfilled, even though they extend beyond the hours of the actual work shift. Such a dramatic situation has been faced, in a more disadvantaged manner, by female professors, compromising the struggle for a healthy lifestyle and causing conflicts which may result in physical and psychological illness.

We noticed a certain naturalization of the fact that part of the professor’s work must be done at home. This intensification of work indicates that professors’ relationships have become more precarious in recent decades²⁶26 Hirata H. Tendências recentes da precarização social e do trabalho: Brasil, França, Japão. Cad. CRH 2011; 24 (01):15-22.. For those who are mothers of small children, this overburden is even more severe. The arduous act of playing the role of the mother demands a strong, subjective, affective, and even physical mobilization, which makes it very challenging to conciliate with the “availability” for extending the professional work into the time spent at home, since the work of the professor requires a considerable capability of concentration, abstraction, analysis, and reflection. Female professors have point out that it is not about a choice: they attempt to overcome the conflict, to manage the conciliation. They are aware that the extra dedication to work has been essential to achieve the stern assessment criteria.

This situation may worsen if there are other work demands, which is not rare among university professors who started their careers recently and have lower salaries and higher requirements to progress in their careers. Surely, the overburden of work may affect the health of the female teachers, including problems related to sleep disorders. Similar conclusions are mentioned by Rotenberg and Carlos²⁷27 Rotenberg L, Carlos RSL. How social acceleration affects the work practices of academics: A study in Brazil. German Journal of Human. Resource Management 2018; 32(3-4):257-270., when they state that university professors work at a very intense pace. According to the authors, female professors constantly feel as if they are in professional debt, and that pushes them to work after hours. This behavior causes the worker to develop an irregular sleep-wake cycle, which results in partial sleep deprivation, causing negative consequences for health and for performance at work.

We were able to notice, in some of the comments, the absence of the husbands in the division of housework, which suggests that even though those women have an intellectual career, university level, with social prestige, the sexual division of labor remains, implying in a high cost for the women, and consequently, for their children. That reiterates how deep the roots of sexual division of labor are, in family and in society²⁸28 Souza-Lobo E. A classe operária tem dois sexos: trabalho, dominação e resistência. São Paulo: Editora Perseu Abramo; 2011.. If on one hand the access to paid work could constitute the basis of female autonomy, on the other hand, the social sex relations continue to be intermingled with exploitation and appropriation²⁹29 Kergoat D. O trabalho, um conceito central para os estudos de gênero? In: Maruani M, organizadora. Trabalho, logo existo: perspectivas feministas. Rio de Janeiro: FGV Editora; 2019..

The professor’s work, maternity, and guilt

The social gender relations which permeate contemporary capitalist society establish expectations for women, which remain in every phase of life, since birth. Even with relative autonomy accomplishments and self-realization, the idea that maternity is central in the lives of women remains unchanged, as does the sexual division of labor. Therefore, when women enter the work market with justifiable desires of self-realization, they continue to feel responsible for caring for the home and for the children. The challenge of “conciliating” those two spheres, by definition conflicting¹¹11 Hirata H, Kergoat D. Novas configurações da divisão sexual do trabalho. Cad Pesquisa 2007; 37(132):595-609., force women to push themselves and become exhausted, physically and psychologically, when they realize that they cannot satisfactorily accomplish those two objectives. As a consequence of this historical construct of gender roles, women often demand more from themselves and blame themselves for the little time dedicated to the children, especially when they are little.

The statements of the professors who took part in this survey allowed us to see how the spheres of family life and work for women, who must often, alone, shoulder both the demands and self-demands in a society that (still) expects women to be good mothers, are conflictive.

Professor assessment policies and gender relations

When dialoguing with the professors, we were able to notice different nuances of the gender relations in the sphere of university education, and one of the aspects which stood out were the professors’ assessment policies. From the point of view of the female professors, the assessment policies are one of the main factors that compromise recognition and professional development of women at universities, since they prescribe discriminatory guidelines that enhance gender inequalities.

Female teachers referred to the implications of the gender issue in the processes of assessment at public universities, using the term “bias”. The interpretation of the term “bias” can be defined as institutional processes which discriminate and oppress women. In the view of the female professors, the different means of assessment in universities deepen the gender inequalities and demonstrate the entrenched prejudice against women within institutional work relations. We must emphasize, at this point, that according to Kergoat¹⁸18 Kergoat D. Divisão sexual do trabalho e relações sociais de sexo. In: Hirata H, Laborie F, Le Doaré H, Senotier D, organizadores. Dicionário crítico do feminismo. São Paulo: Ed. Unesp; 2009., the concept of social sex relations must always be interconnected with the concept of social practice, which allows us to pre-define the inseparable relationships between the material and the symbolic levels. This represents a great challenge, since the work and power relationships between genders show that the hierarchy of males above, females below, which is still true³⁰30 Blass L, Hirata H, Soares V. Prefácio à 2ª edição. In: Souza-Lobo, Elisabeth. A classe operária tem dois sexos: trabalho, dominação e resistência. São Paulo: Editora Perseu Abramo; 2011..

In terms of the current assessment policies in university education in Brazil, it is essential to consider Law 10,861 from April 14th, 2004, which created the National Assessment System for Higher Education (SINAES, in Portuguese)³¹31 Brasil. Lei nº 10.861, de 14 de Abril de 2004. Institui o Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Superior - SINAES. Brasília: Presidência da República; 2004.. The institution of that policy defines the concept of the State as the evaluator and the model of public management aimed at results, guided by political and social principles of a neoliberal nature. Ribeiro³²32 Ribeiro EA. As atuais políticas públicas de avaliação para a educação superior e os impactos na configuração do trabalho docente. Avaliação (Campinas) 2012; 17(2):299-316. states that the emphasis of SINAES is on controlling workers through result oriented assessments, causing competitiveness and antagonism. According to the author, a formative and pedagogical conception of assessment must be developed, enabling new views on university work in all of its dimensions, seeking to consolidate an assessment culture which, from our point of view, must necessarily incorporate the perspective of social sex relations.^{18, 33}.

We noticed in the dialogues that power and prestige in the sphere of the universities have a strong gender connotation. Massarani et al.³⁴34 Massarani L, Castelfranchi Y, Pedreira AE. Cientistas na TV: como homens e mulheres da ciência são representados no Jornal Nacional e no Fantástico. Cad Pagu 2019; 56 (e195615):1-34. call attention to the issue of the invisibility of women in the field of sciences and define as a fallacy the fact that Brazilian science is a space solely for males. In fact, data available from the Brazilian Directory of Research Groups³⁵35 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa. Séries Históricas Pesquisadores por sexo [Internet]. Brasília: CNPq; 2020 [acessado 2020 abr 20]. Disponível em: http://lattes.cnpq.br/web/dgp/pesquisadores-por-sexo., accessible at the Lattes platform, shows that, in 2016, the percentage distribution of researchers according to gender is strictly the same: 50% men, 50% women, However, it is well-known that there are inequalities in the occupation of the most prestigious areas, like exact sciences, and in the occupation of higher hierarchical positions. Löwy³⁶36 Löwy, I. Ciências e gênero. In: Hirata H, Laborie F, Doaré H, Senotier D, organizadores. Dicionário crítico do feminismo. São Paulo: ed. UNESP; 2009. ensures the maintenance of a close historical relationship between sciences and gender, shaped by the elementary dichotomy of male and female in society, a strict bipartition that must be analyzed and critically supported in the understanding that sciences are dominated, socially and culturally, by men, from a Western background, and from the upper social classes.

Considering that, we must emphasize that it is important to conceive the work at universities in the context of the time and place of production. Therefore, from the female professors’ point of view, there is an important issue in contemporary science, which is the construction and revision of instruments and tools that can be used as reference in the process of assessment of university professors, much like the Lattes platform would enable.

From the point of view of female professors, the assessment criteria for their work, prescribed by government departments responsible for post-graduate policies in Brazil, such as CNPq and CAPES, end up being stricter for female than for male professors, generating a situation of inequality and discrimination. Therefore, the issue of public policies related to maternity and to the work of female professors must be revisited and improved in order to become reality. Measures announced by CNPq in the beginning of 2019, such as the inclusion of the date of birth or of the adoption of children in the Lattes curriculum, which would provide protection for women and maternity and should result, effectively, in changes in the criteria of assessment of professors, still has no set date to be implemented.

At the international level, studies, such as that from Kapareliotis and Miliopoulou³⁷37 Kapareliotis I, Miliopoulou GZ. "Gender Bias in Academia: An Attempt to Render the Intangible Tangible". In: Diversity within Diversity Management (Advanced Series in Management. Emerald Publishing Limited 2019; (22):247-271. noted that even in the European Union, where there has been an emphasis on the need for gender equality through the creation of policies and guidelines, there are still considerable differences between the member nations in terms of legislation, regulations, and institutional policies. And even in countries that actively fight for gender equality, like Sweden, Gunn et al.³⁸38 Gunn CM, Freund KM, Kaplan SA, Raj A, Carr PL. Knowledge and perceptions of family leave policies among female faculty inacademic medicine. Women's Health Issues 2014; 24(2):205-210. found evidence that some women are unaware of the policies created to support them, or even hesitate to use them. By contrast, there are countries where equality or anti-discrimination policies are limited or non-existent.

We noticed, by the remarks of the female professors, illness and suffering, which were conveyed by expressions and symptoms related to mental health, such as anguish, sadness, and depression. These are manifestations of dissatisfaction and frustrations allusive to the desire of obtaining recognition in the academic career, at the standards established by the assessment boards.

Considering these reflections, one can notice conflicts of an emotional nature in terms of conciliating being a mother and being a professor and researcher. We agree with Hirata’s³³33 Hirata H. A precarização e a divisão internacional e sexual do trabalho. Sociologias 2009; 21:24-41. statement that the sexual division of labor, under any circumstance, may not be explained or clarified without resorting to the overworking dimension, in other words, the relationship between professional and domestic work. In fact, the female professors, in order to meet the goals of production and maintain their status in the academic community, must work more, which implies taking work home, intertwining professional work with family care, which most certainly results in health costs.

The most concerning aspect noticeable in this extract is the submission of the professors’ social time to work time and the economic sphere, typical of the capitalist production system. In that sense, public debates about work time are cricial to reducing the differentiation between men and women, and, consequently, gender inequalities³⁹39 Dedecca CS. Tempo, Trabalho e Gênero. In: Costa AA, Oliveira EM, Lima MEB, Soares V, organizadores. Reconfiguração das relações de gênero no trabalho. São Paulo: CUT Brasil; 2004.. Hence, we defend the importance of elaborating public policies specifically aimed at valuing female university workers.

It is also notable that part of the female professors refer to the “Women in Sciences” program, created in 2015 to promote more balanced gender relations in the field of Sciences and Technology, with a particular focus on extending scholarships in cases of child delivery or adoption. Therefore, concerning the policies of assessment of professors and gender relations, it is indispensable to promote debates which can make such relations more democratic and participative, and for that, major engagement of the female professors themselves is essential.

Sexual division of labor and teaching career

Kergoat⁵5 Kergoat D. Dinâmica e consubstancialidade das relações sociais. Novos Estudos - Cebrap 2010; (86):93-103. states that sexual division of labor reveals two general principles in the social gender relations: the principle of separation - characterized by the difference between the work of men and the work of women, and the principle of hierarchy, in which the work of the man is worth more than the work of the woman. For Federici⁴⁰40 Federici S. Calibã e a bruxa: mulheres, corpo e acumulação primitiva. São Paulo: Elefante; 2017., inequality between men and women is expressed in the valorization and production of wealth, considered to come mostly from the productive work assigned to men. This is different from the reproductive work destined to women, which although fundamental, is appropriated by the productive work and naturalized as gratuitous and devalued work. Such inequalities can be also observed in the lives of the female professors who took part in the study.

Thus, the assessment of female professors should incorporate non-academic work: [...] she needed to do what before getting to work? Who cooked her dinner, made her bed, and relieved her stress so that she could be able to go back to work after an exhausting shift, day after day? Not only for her, but for the rest of her family as well?⁴¹41 Arruzza C, Bhattacharya T, Fraser N. Feminismo para os 99%: um manifesto. São Paulo: Boitempo; 2019. (p. 108).

On the other hand, and reinforcing again that the positive or negative attributions given to women and men cannot be unchangeable and connected to the gender of the one who is in the professorial career, we should highlight the role performed by some men (although counter-hegemonic). Alvarenga and Vianna⁴²42 Alvarenga CF, Vianna C. Relações sociais de gênero e divisão sexual do trabalho: desafios para a compreensão do uso do tempo no trabalho docente. Laboreal 2012; 8(1):11-27., for instance, in a research with professors from the state of São Paulo, highlight a different kind of male professor, who although having a small son and with his time occupied with teaching activities, dedicates himself to the care of his son, with the intent of lessening the burden of responsibilities of his wife. In this same context, the report of this professor who participated in the research seem to converge to the idea of a greater male participation in the reproductive work:

Hirata and Kergoat¹¹11 Hirata H, Kergoat D. Novas configurações da divisão sexual do trabalho. Cad Pesquisa 2007; 37(132):595-609., when they identify new configurations of sexual division of labor, call attention to the fact that, even though very far from a balance, there has been more male involvement in domestic work. However, in the context of the reconfiguration of social sex relations, there are still gender inequalities in relations in the realm of university professors. Investments are needed in public policies, of an educational and social character, which may guarantee equal opportunities for female professors, and it is equally necessary that more studies in this area be conducted and promoted.

Final remarks

The dialogue between researchers and professors encouraged the debate on strategies to overcome the consequences of the stern sexual division of labor in universities, by questioning managerial capitalism imposed on the universities. It is clear that the issue of the sexual division of labor in public universities stands out as an important question that reveals an overburden of work and suffering, ensuring that the analysis of the professional lives of women cannot be dissociated from their private lives, especially in the moments when the professor’s work becomes increasingly competitive and based on assessment criteria that is more and more demanding. After all, as the feminist movement has been showing for some time now, “the working class has two genders”²⁸28 Souza-Lobo E. A classe operária tem dois sexos: trabalho, dominação e resistência. São Paulo: Editora Perseu Abramo; 2011., and in the sphere of paid work, female workers remain in a situation of disadvantage and inequality.

References

Publication Dates

History