Performatividades de gênero e a presença das mulheres na física: o que reiteram as/os professoras/es da licenciatura em física?

Abstract

The number of women working or studying in the field of Physics has always been smaller than that of men. Although there is research, such as the idea of the “crystal labyrinth” and the “glass ceiling”, that “invisible” barriers block the path of women in their careers, few deal with the discourse of university professors in relation to the gender gap in physics. Based on this problem, we propose the research question: how are the discourses of the professors of the degree in Physics reiterated with regard to the relations between gender and Physics? The objective of this investigation is to understand the discourses reiterated by the professors of the degree in Physics with regard to the relations between gender and Physics. The object of this research is the discourse of the professors of the degree in Physics. Our specific objectives, considering the theories of Judith Butler, Donna Haraway and Betina Stefanello Lima, will be: discuss the relationship between gender performativity and the discourse of Physics teachers; locate the subjects and the embodiment of their discourses and identify how the “crystal labyrinth” can appear in the speeches of these teachers. The methodological path of the research is post-critical, that is, we use post-structuralist theories to look at education, considering our partiality and location in time and space. We carried out a semi-structured interview with two women and two men professors of the undergraduate course in Physics. For the analysis, we created tools to investigate the discourses of the subjects/interviewees who are our guides, such as: discourses of dodging, discourses of automatic sexism, discourses of instrumental sexism, discourses of disembodied knowledge, discourses of gendered performabilities and discourses of subversion of gender norms. We observed several discursive reiterations, such as multiple workdays, “liberal feminism”, “manterrupting”, the construction of the identity of Physics as an impartial and rational subject, gender norms in Physics that associate this science with the masculine and subversive reactions on the part of of students and teachers.