"Somos Guerreras": Women's Contested Identities, Discourses, and Roles in Latin American Public Universities

• In Event: 29.037 - (In)Equities in College Access: A Focus on Latin America and the Latinx Diapsora

Abstract

In Latin America, first-generation university women have to overcome many barriers to access higher education, some of which are generated because of their gender. Using situational analysis, I investigated how first-generation university women contested gender identities, discourses, and roles as they navigated the public university and their local communities in Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica. While dominant discourses and roles associated with women reproduced the machismo culture in the region, university women contested, challenged, and resisted those identities. I argue that bonds of solidarity and communal relations are values that resist the negative effects of machismo in women bodies. In particular, public universities, women’s supporters, and emancipatory discourses played a critical role in improving gender equality in higher education.

Author

• Lina Trigos-Carrillo, University of Missouri - Columbia