Feminist Knowledge Construction in the Advancement of Gender Policies in Higher Education

• In Event: Gender Policies in Higher Education: Knowledge, Teaching, and Academic Path

Abstract

Feminist movements in Chile and Argentina have brought about significant transformations in higher education, particularly in the context of neoliberal influences, during recent decades. In Argentina, the inclusion of feminists as academics and researchers in universities shattered the limitations imposed by normative and epistemological boundaries. Their presence opened up new possibilities for exploration and inquiry. On the other hand, in Chile, the feminist protests in May 2018, followed by the enactment of Law 21.369, which addresses sexual harassment, violence, and gender discrimination in higher education, triggered profound structural changes. The full ramifications of these changes are still under revision. Such sociopolitical background prompts us to gain interest in exploring the nature of feminist knowledge exclusion that is still prevalent in Chilean and Argentinean academies. Specifically, we aim to inquire about the material existence conditions that affect the participation, recognition, and progress of feminist and gender issues related knowledge in both contexts, regarding they are immersed within the broader neocolonial and neoliberal Latin American geopolitical region.
Based on interviews with scholars actively working on research on gender and feminism conducted between 2021-2022 as part of a study focused on gender and knowledge from a feminist perspective, we build a collective narrative using the critical-creative methodology of narrative productions (Balash & Montenegro, 2003). The narrative configures a fictional researcher as a collective voice using quotes from the interviews, traveling between the individual and the collective. We, also, situate gender issues ethically and politically to emphasize that epistemic exclusion exerted over feminist scholars and the knowledge they produce and defend is, at least, systemically ubiquitous but not localized. Grounded on the epistemic status of gender (Pereira, 2017), epistemic positioning (Bacevic, 2021), and Haraway's situated knowledge theories on feminist objectivity (1989, 1991), we frame our discussions on how feminist knowledge is taken into account and takes part in the explored academic contexts.
Despite the transformative efforts of the feminist movement within the higher education system, both contexts still witness forms of epistemic exclusion pertaining to gender and/or feminist knowledge, persisting across various levels. This exclusion is deeply rooted in the structural dimensions of academia, manifesting as challenges in mainstreaming the gender perspective, obstacles in securing research funding and career advancement in these fields, and facing negative associations with activism. This article contributes to the discussion on the epistemic status of gender and feminism in Chilean and Argentinean academia. This debate becomes even more urgent considering the advance of the ultra-right in both countries that, as in other parts of the world, have gender studies and feminists among their main targets.

Authors

• Fernanda Rojas-Müller, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

• Ana Luisa Muñoz, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• Kyuttzza Gómez Guinart, Universidad Alberto Hurtado