Justiça na pós-graduação: um olhar feminista para a Plataforma Sucupira (2013-2022)

Abstract

This dissertation examines women’s access, retention, and representativeness in Brazilian postgraduate education between 2013 and 2022, from a feminist perspective, adopting gender as an analytical category and, in an original contribution, grounding the analysis in a triad of concepts whose definitions were developed throughout the research process itself. This triad refers to academic justice, epistemic justice, and scientific justice. The central objective of the study is to understand to what extent women’s entry into stricto sensu postgraduate programs in Brazil can be interpreted as an expression of justice within the educational field, considering the historical, structural, and symbolic inequalities that permeate the production of scientific knowledge. The primary empirical source of public data for this research is the Sucupira Platform, managed by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). Data related to students and faculty members were analyzed, initially organized by gender, region of the country, and field of knowledge. With regard to methodology, the investigation combines quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative approach involves the systematization and interpretation of statistical data on women’s enrollment in postgraduate education, making it possible to identify trends, regional disparities, and significant differences between fields traditionally perceived as masculine, such as Engineering, Exact and Earth Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences, and those historically associated with the feminine, such as the Human and Social Sciences, as well as areas particularly linked to practices of care. The qualitative approach underpins and strengthens the analysis through bibliographic and documentary review, with particular emphasis on the construction of a state of the art based on three leading journals in the field of gender and education studies: Revista Estudos Feministas (REF), Cadernos Pagu, and the Revista Internacional de Educação Superior (RIESup). The theoretical framework of the dissertation is primarily grounded in the work of the Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller, especially Beyond Justice (1998), from which different conceptions of justice and their implications for higher education are discussed. In dialogue with feminist scholars and approaches, the research proposes an expansion of the debate on justice by moving beyond formal access and incorporating the notion of epistemic justice, understood as the recognition and valorization of knowledge produced by women, and scientific justice, related to equity within the spaces of production, legitimation, and circulation of knowledge. The findings indicate advances in women’s access to postgraduate education in Brazil over the period analyzed. These results stem from extensive and in-depth research and reveal the persistence of significant inequalities, particularly in certain fields of knowledge and specific regions of the country. The study concludes that, although the numerical increase in women’s presence represents an important step forward, it is not, in itself, sufficient to achieve the triad proposed in this theoretical framework—namely, academic, epistemic, and scientific justice. Thus, important gaps remain, especially regarding the consolidation of public policies, changes in institutional practices, and the promotion of effective conditions for retention, recognition, and equity. This dissertation seeks to contribute to addressing these challenges and, by articulating justice, education, and gender, offers theoretical and empirical support for the formulation of policies aimed at postgraduate education in Brazil.