BETWEEN EQUITY POLICIES AND EXCLUSIONARY STRUCTURES: WOMEN IN CAREER AND ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT

Abstract

This article analyzes female representation in Brazilian higher education by examining women’s trajectories from undergraduate enrollment to academic careers and management positions. The study addresses the persistent paradox between women’s majority presence in higher education and their underrepresentation in institutional decision‑making spaces. Methodologically, it adopts a quantitative and qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory approach, based on secondary data from the Higher Education Census (INEP) and the CAPES Sucupira Platform, covering the period from 2015 to 2024, as well as data on the coordination of interdisciplinary graduate programs in 2026. The analysis is grounded in key theoretical frameworks from gender and labor studies, including vertical and horizontal segregation, the glass ceiling, the leadership labyrinth, and the leaky pipeline. The findings reveal that, despite women’s predominance among students and degree holders, their participation decreases progressively along the academic career, becoming particularly limited in management roles. Motherhood, scientific productivity standards, and the unequal distribution of care work emerge as structural factors shaping these inequalities. The study concludes that women’s exclusion from academic leadership is not a result of insufficient qualifications, but rather of institutional arrangements and unstable public policies that perpetuate gender inequality, underscoring the need for more consistent and structural equity‑oriented policies.