Mulheres do café: as pesquisadoras do Sul de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The world scientific production has grown exponentially in recent years, but even today, the elaboration of scientific knowledge can be identified as a masculine activity, despite the greater insertion of women in science. In addition, studies on gender in the coffee agroindustrial system are recent and what is sought is the visibility and valorization of women, encouraging the increase of the active participation of women in the coffee market, revealing and discussing gender inequalities verified. In this context, the purpose of this work was to know who are women coffee researchers in the south of Minas Gerais and to understand how the gender relations and work they experience. Were realized 13 semistructured interviews with women coffee researchers in organizations, institutions and research centers in the region. Based on the content generated by the interviews, which were inspired by the narrative thematic, the analysis of the data was performed by analysis of thematic content, by which categories were established, which were organized in the presentation of the results with their central themes and subtopics. The results showed that there are differences in the trajectory and in the work performed by the women who have more time in the research area and are in public research institutions compared to the younger researchers and scholarship holders, being that the first opened doors and facilitated for the younger ones to enter the coffee research. The woman has a double working day, in other words, she is divided into the public sphere (work outside the home) and private (activities inherent to the home, such as domestic work, childcare), which leads to difficult reconciliation, since, because the work of the researcher involves dedication and the daily separation of the children, which was not mentioned much by the junior researchers, because they aren’t yet married and don’t have children, not having this extra responsibility. Science is eminently masculine, and the man’s word in the field is often worth more than the word of a woman. This gender difference is the result of a historical, cultural and social process that still occurs in science, especially in the agrarian sphere. Regarding the perspectives on the women’s performance in coffee research, the interviewees were confident and optimistic that the number of women in this predominant male area increased and their work was visible to society. The participation of women in social movements is important in order to empower and seek gender visibility in this area by helping to strengthen and expand the role of women in coffee, such as the work of the International Women’s Coffee Aliance (IWCA). These results show who are women coffee researchers, their life trajectories, the gender relations and work they experience and their perspectives on the work of women in the area. With these results, it is suggested, as a new research agenda, the carrying out of works directed to other public research institutions, as well as in other regions, in order to deepen in the questions related to the gender relations and work evidenced by the researchers. Furthermore investigations are suggested that include interviews with men, to compare their perceptions with that of women on the same issues.