Trajetória, desenvolvimento e realização profissional na área de saúde: atravessamentos de gênero e raça

Abstract

We have witnessed an advance of women in the labor market in recent years with a reduction of gender inequality in the Brazilian labor context. Currently, women have access to higher education and are in the majority at all levels of education (including PhDs), and are predominant in health courses, including medicine and dentistry, which used to be primarily male professions. However, many professionals still face prejudice or difficulties in their careers because they are women. Furthermore, these advances still need to be more consistent when we refer to the occupation of these professions by people of different racial profiles. Thus, the objective of this research was to make gender and color/race comparisons about job satisfaction, self-efficacy, professional development, and professional achievement in college-level workers in the health field and to investigate gender and color/race intersections in the professional trajectories of women in these careers. To achieve this goal, two studies were conducted. The first was a survey with 444 participants (54.5% women and 59% declared themselves as white). The respondents work in different health professions, with a predominance of Dentistry (26.6%), followed by Psychology (14.4%), Medicine (13.7%), and Nursing (13.3%). Four scales were applied, all with evidence of validity for Brazilian samples and with adequate psychometric indicators. Data analysis included group comparison, Student's t-test, and effect size calculation (Cohen's d). For the second study, interviews were conducted with 14 women, divided into seven white, six brown/black, and one indigenous/Chilean. Professionals in Medicine, Dentistry, Nutrition, Psychology, and Nursing were present in the groups of white and brown/black interviewees. At the same time, Physical Therapy appeared only among white professionals, and Social Service among brown/black professionals, and Dentistry for indigenous/Chilean people. We used a semi-structured interview script, which judges previously analyzed, and a pilot interview. The interviews were carried out in an on-line platform, with recording and later transcription of the speeches. The text corpus was submitted to categorical content analysis. The results of the quantitative study pointed out few differences in terms of gender (with significantly different mean scores only in professional achievement, in the goal of conservation, in which the male group presented higher mean scores than the female group). However, the color/race differences were significant, with favorable results for Caucasian health professionals in terms of satisfaction with promotion, with colleagues, and with management, as well as in terms of self-efficacy, professional development, and some professional accomplishment variables. The results of the qualitative study pointed to gender discrimination and stereotypes in the experiences of health professionals but confirmed that the prejudices experienced by brown/black women are much more significant. The findings converge with the literature that points bluntly to structural racism in Brazilian society. The results of the two studies point to the need for actions that can reverse the inequalities identified.