Motherhood and academic retention: an institutional analysis of student assistance and childcare policies at the Federal University of Maranhão (2018-2025)

Abstract

The expansion of access to higher education in Brazil has enabled the inclusion of student-mothers, whose trajectories are marked by gender inequalities and a lack of institutional support. This article, therefore, analyzes the challenges faced by women in the Pedagogy course at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), based on the student assistance policies offered in recent years. The qualitative research integrates the analysis of twenty-two official documents, including calls for proposals and their results linked to the Dean of Student Assistance (PROAES) at UFMA, concerning childcare assistance between 2018, the year it was implemented, and 2025, and semi-structured interviews with 5 student-mothers and 1 representative of the UFMA Mothers' Collective, a space for support and essential political mobilization in confronting the institutional invisibility of women, students, and mothers of babies and young children. The results indicate that the absence of basic infrastructure, such as university daycare, and the bureaucratization of student assistance generate overload and non-linear academic trajectories. It is concluded that guaranteeing the right to higher education requires the recognition of motherhood as a legitimate dimension of university life and the implementation of public policies sensitive to care.