Análise da representatividade feminina no corpo docente de Física do IFMG

The low female representation in Science has been the subject of discussions and research worldwide, generating concerns in the scientific field. Science, historically marked by male predominance, reflects this inequality most markedly in the field of Physics. These observations led us to some questions that make up the problem of this work, such as: How many female Physics teachers are there at IFMG? What are their educational backgrounds? Based on these and other questions, the main objective of this study was to determine the total number of female Physics teachers at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Minas Gerais (IFMG) and analyze their percentage in relation to the total number of teachers and investigate the academic profile of these teachers. To this end, we adopted a qualitative approach. We initially conducted a search on Google Scholar on the topic of women in Science and Physics, using keywords such as: “women in science”, “women in physics”, “physics teacher training”, among others. We then searched for information on the websites of the IFMG campuses to identify the tenured Physics teachers working at these units. For campuses where this information was not available, we sent formal requests by email to the Pro-Rectory of Human Resources Management (PROGEP), which then forwarded the requests to the Human Resources Management Coordinators (CGP) of the 18 IFMG campuses. In this way, we were able to determine the number of tenured professors working in the area of Physics at IFMG. After identifying the number of teachers, we classified them by gender. We then collected information about each of these teachers, such as academic background, title and area of specialization from their profiles on the Lattes Platform. The data were organized into tables and graphs, allowing an analysis in light of the bibliography adopted in the theoretical framework. With the survey conducted on 18 IFMG campuses, we identified a total of 60 tenured Physics professors, of which only 15% are women, corresponding to nine female professors. This data reveals a low female representation in the Physics faculty at IFMG, although this proportion is within the average observed in other institutions, both national and international. Despite the small number of women, most of them have a doctorate (89% of the teachers), and the rest (11% of the teachers) are in the process of completing their doctorate. These and other results provided us with a better understanding of the context of female Physics teachers at IFMG.