Um perfil profissional de diretoras escolares: trabalho, gênero e educação em escolas do ensino fundamental de Uberlândia

Abstract

We perform a qualitative analysis on the influence of gender stereotypes in order to comprehend how sexual division of work sets up in the construction of the professional profile of female headmasters of primary schools in Uberlândia-MG. From the argumentation on labor, gender and education we verify the complex articulation of the private and public spheres and the gender perception of female headmasters of basic education municipal schools. By means of field and bibliographical research, we develop the content analysis of socioeconomic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews which were conducted in 2016 with eight participants. We also compare the information collected from the interviews to national SAEB data from 2003, 2007 and 2015 remarking if there is a projection of data recorded at the national level in the local context and the delineation of the glass ceiling phenomenon in the career of female headmasters. Our research identifies that the reproduction and naturalization of gender stereotypes in formal education interfere with the career and performance of women who uprise school management. We use the historical review of the feminization process of the basic education workforce in order to deconstruct the stereotype of women as natural educators which convert the professional performance of these workers to an extension of the family domestic field. From the discursive recurrences in the speech of the interviewees, we find that the sexism and the culture of male domination that mark the western societies permeate the work of the female headmasters subjectively imposing the adjustment to such a priority identity women and make difficult the understanding about the fluidity of gender and the multiple sexualities.