The acting dean of Unicamp, professor Maria Luiza Moretti, defended, this Friday (8), when International Women's Day is celebrated, the adoption of measures to reduce gender inequality in scientific careers and in the Brazilian Justice System. Brazil. According to her, despite the progress seen in recent years, the occupation of command positions is still unequal between men and women.
“We need to study in depth the reasons why women still do not reach senior leadership positions in these institutions,” she said, at the opening of an event organized by the Brazilian Institutions Observatory Center (COI), held in the morning at the University of São Paulo (USP).
Created last year, the COI is an organization that brings together professors, researchers and Brazilian personalities, with the aim of developing scientific activities related to teaching, research and extension. Chaired by the former STF minister and current Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, the COI operates in six areas, including gender. The others are: democracy, inequality, environment, culture and security.
Maria Luiza Moretti presented data about Unicamp at the forum to demonstrate the lack of gender equality. “Only 8,3% of management positions in Unicamp bodies and institutes are held by women”, she revealed. “The curious thing is that 58,3% of associate director positions — which are equivalent to that of deputy director — are held by women”, she highlights. “Why does a woman become deputy director and not director?”, she asked.
The professor said that a similar phenomenon occurs in the development of women's teaching careers. According to her, the University has 44% of women at the MS3-1 level — the starting point of the career —, but they occupy only 27% of vacancies for full professors. “We need to find out what causes these women not to advance in their careers,” she argues.
The rector of USP, professor Carlos Carlotti, said that International Women's Day can be dedicated to celebrating achievements, but, before that, it should be remembered as a warning about the measures that still need to be taken. “There is still a lot to be done”, warned the rector, who called for a joint effort by public universities, both state and federal, to create rules and mechanisms that favor the construction of gender equality. “We need to reflect on the data and incorporate the good practices that one or another university is already adopting,” he added.
One of these good practices can be seen at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp). According to data presented by the dean of Unifesp, Raiane Assumpção, 52% of teaching positions at the university are held by women, a phenomenon that also occurs in other areas. “Women occupy 62% of positions in technical areas and 55% of management positions; 59% of women are in undergraduate courses and 60% in postgraduate courses”, she says.
Still, there are problems. “Our biggest challenge at the moment is to reduce disparities when we talk about ethnic-racial issues. Black and brown women, in these same areas, do not even reach 20%”, said the dean. “We urgently need to think about guidelines that can build equity,” she said.
For the vice-rector of USP, professor Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda — one of the event's creators —, it is essential to promote reflection on the historical exclusion of women in institutional spaces. To achieve this, she said, it is necessary to collect and standardize data that can support policies to reduce inequality. “The IOC has the perspective of projecting issues relating to the Brazilian reality, but not just from the point of view of hindsight. The IOC’s goal is to build the future,” she said.
The meeting was also attended by the dean of Community Affairs and Affirmative Policies at the Federal University of ABC, Cláudia Regina Vieira. The event at USP also served to formalize the creation of a working group to standardize gender databases in all public universities in São Paulo.
