Beyond the numbers:

gender analysis in the field of Mexican academic work under the Joan Scott’s approach

Abstract

Currently, in Mexico, the study of the gender inequality in the academic labor context pays attention to the numbers and frequently denies other levels of complexity where gender operations are shown in this professional scenario. Various researchers are suggesting the same idea: the relevance of analyzing how many academics male and female are. However, they paid more attention to the reflection on academic institutions, their structures, cultures, explicit and implicit regulations, as well as their gender symbolism. This essay has the aim of examining the gender from the analytical and complex view developed by Joan Scott, whose theoretical proposal considers four elements: the symbolic, the normative, the institutional and the gender identity. In this sense, the next question will guide the reflection: How does gender work at the symbolic, normative, institutional and identity levels in the
Mexican academic labor context today, under Joan Scott’s theoretical approach? Finally, the reflections developed allowed to highlight that the gender is operating in the most subtle ways in the labor academic context, even if in numbers the profession is being feminized. This points out the need for systematic and complex transformations of the Mexican androcentric academy, which include the individual transformation of academics, and especially political, institutional, and cultural changes.