Feminist contributions and gender issues in healthcare practices of the Brazilian Unified Health System’s primary care

Abstract

It was intended to reflect on the relevance of feminist contributions as counter-hegemonic references for a critical analysis of health practices developed in a primary care service of the Unified Health System. The actions of professionals in a Basic Health Unit were observed with the aim of analyzing how gender issues are manifested in primary care from the perspective of social psychology postulated by Pichon-Rivière in dialogue with feminist productions. From a critical discussion on dichotomous views, such as public and private, and naturalistic discourses, three relevant aspects were identified: sexual division of work, maternity and paternal absence; centrality of women’s health practices in  reproduction; and binarismof public health policies. This allowed us to identify important aspects about health practices in primary care. It is hoped that this study, by examining the naturalization and reproduction of sexism, racism, and classism among the practices considered, will encourage future discussions in the field of health that move towards a production of knowledge and practices committed to contesting such inequalities.