Biological Destiny in Academia: Questioning Gender Policies in Higher Education

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Deliberative Imaginings: Examinations of Race, Gender, and Space in Educational Policy

Abstract

Biological destiny is a concept to explain the ways women in academia are portrayed by policies on gender and policy makers and scholars. It is connected to the reflections on biological determinism from Beauvoir (1989) and the contributions from the new feminist materialism. The aim of this paper is to reflect on gender policies in HE. From the data, the main discourses on women’s issues in higher education have been linked to maternity leave policies and how women deal with the mental load that holds them back. This paper is an invitation to think about gender policies and practices as well as to re-locate the academic body, de-hierarchizing naturalized ideas on what it means to be a woman in academia

Authors

• AnaLuisa Munoz-Garcia, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

• Mara Aleida Silva Hope, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile