Discourse and “Truth”: The Production of the Relationships between Women, Men and Mathematics

Authors

  • Maria Celeste Reis Fernandes de Souza Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
  • Maria da Conceição Ferreira Fonseca Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-026X2009000200016

Abstract

This work presents an analysis essay developed in a research which investigated the gender relations in numeracy practices of male and female students in Youth and Adult Education (EJA). As an attempt to understand how these relations – based on gender differences – are constituted by numeracy practices and, at the same time, how they constitute such practices, we adopt the gender concept as an analysis category, passing through Foucaultian theorizations related to discourse. Taking into consideration the contributions from Ethnomathematics, we point to the rationality of the Cartesian matrix as the producer of truths about women, men and mathematics. This article describes the utterance “Man is better in math than woman”, which was identified as a discourse maker of male superiority in mathematics.

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Published

2009-01-01

How to Cite

Souza, M. C. R. F. de, & Fonseca, M. da C. F. (2009). Discourse and “Truth”: The Production of the Relationships between Women, Men and Mathematics. Revista Estudos Feministas, 17(2), 595. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-026X2009000200016

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Thematic Articles

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