De "sentir-se burra" a "criar uma casca grossa": trajetórias e negociações de identidades de mulheres brasileiras na física

Abstract

This study addresses the construction of physical identity and the negotiation between this and other identities in women from different periods of their education, from undergraduate to doctoral and higher education professors. The objective of the study is to identify and understand how women who study Physics understand what a person who studies Physics should be like, whether they see themselves with the same characteristics that they point out, whether they identify themselves as physicists and what other identities they present that relate to physical identity. The reports of microaggressions and harassment experienced by many of these women were also investigated, as well as how these situations may have influenced the way they identify themselves as physicists. Using the concepts of identity and performativity, based mainly on authors Stuart Hall and Judith Butler, and also using the concept of discourse analysis within a post-structuralist feminist perspective based on Judith Baxter, the responses to a questionnaire applied and distributed online and answered by 390 women from all over Brazil were analyzed. Interviews were also conducted with 16 of these women, who were also analyzed using the same theoretical bases. The results indicate that most women in Physics have experienced situations of sexism and other types of microaggressions within the academic environment and that many have a masculinized view of what it means to be a physicist, highlighting characteristics such as objectivity, intelligence and exclusive dedication to research. It was observed that women who cannot identify with this profile have difficulty identifying themselves as physicists, especially those who have suffered a greater number of microaggressions or harassment, as is the case of black women and LGBTI+ women, who were the percentage who were the most victims of harassment and microaggressions. Based on this study, it is concluded that it is important to question the masculine, cisheteronormative and white standard of Physics so that more women and people from underrepresented groups, such as black people and LGBTI+ people, can see themselves as belonging to the field and contribute to the creation of a more diverse and inclusive science.