Black female professors in health postgraduate courses: between structural racism and the feminization of care

Abstract

Based on black feminism, intersectional perspective, and Brazilian ethnic-racial studies, the paper problematized racism and sexism in the Brazilian academy. It characterizes and analyses the presence/absence of black women professors in Ph.D. programs in health sciences of two federal universities, UFRJ and UFF. Using information from the websites of 31 Ph.D. programs, we reconstructed, quantitatively, the gender and ethnic-racial profiles of the Ph.D. programs by university and evaluation area. Also, 23 black woman professors are identified in 26 teaching vacancies. Based on information from the Plataforma Lattes, we also address the study dimension longitudinally. The results indicate that the presence of black women professors is 2% at UFRJ and 6% at UFF. It is greater in areas related to care, and non-existent in areas of greater scientific and socio-economic prestige, such as Medicine. Racism is seen as the main power system, operating in the institutional and disciplinary context. In the latter one, it is associated with sexism that determines gender hierarchies in health areas. It is also observed that race inequalities overlap with gender inequalities in the context of this research, confirming the theses that point to the epistemicide of black knowledge.