Orden de género en la vida académica de los y las estudiantes en instituciones de educación superior. Un estudio de caso de la Facultad de Ingeniería en la Universidad de Cuenca periodo 2022-2023

Abstract

The objective of this degree work is to analyze how the gender order is produced and reproduced in the academic life of the student body of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Cuenca in the academic period 2022-2023. The study corresponds to a qualitative approach, whose design corresponds to a descriptive case study in which the Faculty of Engineering was taken as a specific unit. The selected qualitative sample was of the combined type: intentional and snowball. As information collection techniques, semi-structured interviews were applied to male and female students from the fifth cycle onwards; a documentary review of the graduation papers presented by students in recent years was carried out; and, non-participant observation was developed at the Balzay and Central Campus. From the analysis of the information collected, it is concluded that the gender order is produced and reproduced in the Faculty of Engineering through the following mechanisms: symbolic restriction of the technical area for female students, gender discrimination within the classroom, control over the body of the students and normalization of inequalities. In the same way, the gender differentiation of the discourses, opportunities and limitations experienced by male and female students is identified. In addition, it is suggested that the students carry out strategies of resistance and adaptation in their training in the technical area, as a masculinized space.