Banca de DEFESA: ISIS TOMAS DA SILVA

MOTHERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 

PERMANENCE POLICIES, GENDER, RACE AND CLASS AND WOMEN'S 

CONFACES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SÃO PAULO (USP) AND THE FEDERAL 

RURAL UNIVERSITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO (UFRRJ).

Student-mothers; Retention policies; Intersectionality; Higher education; Social justice.

This thesis examines how policies for student retention in Brazilian public higher education are formulated and experienced by student-mothers, considering the intersections between gender, race, and class, based on the cases of the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). The study focuses on the academic trajectories of women, especially Black women, who are mothers and residents in student housing, seeking to understand to what extent the expansion of access to university has translated into effective conditions for student retention and course completion. The research is articulated through an interdisciplinary dialogue, mobilizing references from intersectionality, critical studies of whiteness, Black feminism, and debates on gender, motherhood, care, public policies, and social justice, as well as the notion of the university as a non-place for certain subjects. Methodologically, it combines bibliographic research, application of an online questionnaire with student-mothers from different regions of the country, in-depth interviews with Black women from USP and UFRRJ, and photographic documentation of student housing spaces. The thesis is structured in three chapters: the first discusses the historical construction of the myth of racial democracy, racial and gender inequalities in Brazil, and the trajectories of Black women in accessing higher education; the second analyzes retention policies, with emphasis on the National Student Assistance Program (PNAES), draft laws, and institutional initiatives aimed at student-mothers, incorporating the women's own perceptions of their limitations and potential; the third presents case studies from USP and UFRRJ, examining student housing, the daily experiences of mothers in these spaces, and the configuration of motherhood as an institutional non-place. It is concluded that, despite the existence of normative advances and specific actions, retention policies still insufficiently incorporate the specific demands of student-mothers, reproducing structural inequalities and producing academic trajectories marked by overload, instability, and risk of dropout, which demonstrates the need for more comprehensive, intersectional policies committed to social justice.