Os desafios enfrentados por mulheres estudantes dos cursos de graduação em engenharia no Centro de Tecnologia da UFC: um estudo de caso

Abstract

The present work aims to examine the difficulties faced by women students of undergraduate courses in Engineering at the Technology Center (CT) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) using gender, race, and class as main analytical categories. It seeks to present and analyze recent quantitative data on the current picture of gender imbalance in the Engineering major courses of brazilian higher education institutions and in the CT of UFC also. It also proposes to inquire the obstacles reported by women students during graduation in Engineering at the UFC CT through qualitative data obtained by semi-structured interviews. Nineteen interviews were conducted, six with students from Environmental Engineering, six from Chemical Engineering, five from Mechanical Engineering and two from Computer Engineering. The analysis of quantitative data of female presence in Engineering confirms that there is a low representation of women in the student body of the area in the last years and the analysis of qualitative data from the reports of the interviewees points out that these students need to create strategies to deal with the complex challenges presented by the experience in the Engineering courses, and for being inserted in masculine environments. In addition, these students face obstacles that affect across all aspects of life, such as financial issues and psychological problems. The study also presents the prospects for these students’ professional careers.