Not foreigners or secretaries: discourses of chilean female scientists on academic work

Abstract

Women who are engaged in scientific work represent less than a third of those who produce knowledge in Chile. This is in addition to unequal working conditions, as well as a symbolic network that makes it difficult for the development of female scientists. The increasing number of studies on science and gender tend to focus on describing and analyzing academic conditions and environments; however, the experiences of women, as well as their qualitative aspects, have been little studied. This paper reports the findings of a study which was intended to highlight the perspective of these female scientists, investigating the meanings that they construct regarding academia and their work experience within it. Based on the pragmatic discursive analysis of 20 interviews with female researchers from various disciplines, two interpretative repertoires are reported. The first we call “I don’t want to be your secretary”, which addresses the sexual division perceived by the interviewees in academic work, while the second, entitled “I’m the only woman” highlights accounts of being a minority at work in an androcentric symbolic order. The results of this research are expected to foster dialogue about pluralist academia and a scientific community committed to gender justice.