THE (IN)VISIBILITY OF THE WOMEN IN THE SCIENTIFIC FIELD

Abstract

In this article, I have the purpose of providing a brief discussion about the (in)visibility of the women in the scientific field, based on the historical "woman’s place" analysis in the Modern Science’s context and then investigating a mathematics book, used at Elementary School (from 5th to 8th grades), which was approved by PNLD/2008. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the gender matters that involved and still involve women’s exclusion or their invisibility in the sciences’ construction, yesterday and now. The theoretical-methodological ideas which substantiate the approach are based on Joan W. Scott (1995), who defines gender as a constitutive element of the social relations, validated by sex’s differences, suggesting that this conception must be used as a helpful analysis’ category; in Evelin Fox Keller (1991), a mathematics teacher, who presents a profound reflection of the science’s history in the modern world,

pointing out to a possibility of a new science construction – independent on gender matters –, a different science done by women; Londa Schilenbinger (2001), who argues the different ways that men and women do science, examining, thus, the women’s place in the scientific world; Guarcira Loro (1997), who analyses the constitution of differences and identities of gender and, more specifically, the ways how this process has been expressed in education field. As a conclusion, it is understood that women’s presence in the science has to be comprehended as a result of a long "esquemático" process, which determined several ways of exclusion, like their absence or stereotyped presence in the didactic books, like in the case of the math book and, mainly, in the official materials which announce and provide educational politics.