Teaching in Ufrgs's Law School: A Gender-Specific Analysis

This study examines teaching profiles and practices in a law school from a gender perspective inside the brazilian educational context, using the case of one of the highest-ranked brazilian law schools - UFRGS - as the object of analysis. This case was chosen based on the school’s quality and on the recent expansion of the school (2012 - 2017) that allowed more women to get in, both as students and as professors. Brazilian law schools encompass two fields from Bourdieu's theory - the juridical and the academic -, since the faculties are majorly composed not only by full-time faculty members, but also by professionals working within the legal world. Both the juridical and the academic fields, according to Raewyn Connell (2006), are determined by a gender regime. The gender regime defines the way in which gender fundamentally determines any workplace dynamic. The main hypothesis of the study is that men occupy the positions of power and are also able to teach the main courses because they can slide easier between the two fields (juridical and academic). Women, however, must focus on one field to achieve a similar position and equivalent faculty participation. The fieldwork employs a quantitative and a qualitative approach, using secondary data about the law course, taken from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). In line with the sources, the main aspects analyzed are the power positions, the academic qualification and the research area of the faculty.