Between persistence and dropout: undergraduate women’s perceptions ofgender and race in IFPR Technology Programs

Abstract

Women represent less than 40% of enrollments in Technology courses at the Federal Network, highlighting the persistence of gender structures that distance women from these areas, rooted in childhood socialization. This study analyzes the trajectories of female undergraduates in Technology courses at the Federal Institute of Paraná (IFPR), focusing on their perceptions of factors influencing retention and dropout. The research adopts a qualitative approach and is grounded in feminist epistemology. The research locus is four IFPR campuses: Colombo, Curitiba, Pinhais and Paranaguá. The instruments used were an online questionnaire completed by 51 enrolled students and 6 who had dropped out, and a semi-structured interview conducted with 12 female undergraduates. The data were analyzed using content analysis, and the IRaMuTeQ software was used to analyze the open-ended responses of the questionnaire. The results indicate that female undergraduates resist the difficulties of the academic path driven by the pursuit of knowledge and the expectation of professional and economic advancement. The relationship with the faculty appears to be a factor in belonging and permanence. However, challenges related to gender inequalities persist, manifested in veiled forms of invisibility in the academic space. The intersectionality of gender, race, and age appears as an additional source of exclusion, with episodes of structural racism without an adequate institutional response. It is concluded that there is a need for institutional policies that are permanent and address the specificities of gender, race, and ageism.