Name: ALESSANDRA OLIVEIRA MONTEIRO
Publication date: 03/03/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| HELGA MIDORI IWAMOTO | Examinador Externo |
| JULIANA CRISTINA TEIXEIRA | Examinador Interno |
| SUSANE PETINELLI SOUZA | Presidente |
Summary: Who cares for those who care? Unpaid care work, historically rendered invisible, remains central to the reproduction of social life and has significant implications for women’s academic trajectories, particularly when shaped by inequalities of gender, race, and class. Grounded in an intersectional perspective, this study aims to analyze how the treatment of unpaid care work as a social and institutional externality affects the academic journey of women graduate students at a public university. The research engages with theoretical contributions from the sexual and racial division of labor, intersectionality, and critiques of academic productivism, articulating these frameworks to understand care as a structuring analytical category of academic inequalities. A qualitative approach was adopted, including fifteen semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation with graduate students. Data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that unpaid care work remains predominantly the responsibility of women within a context marked by limited spousal co-responsibility, the prevalence of multiple—often triple or quadruple—work shifts, and the reproduction of meritocratic and androcentric logics within the university. The accumulation of caregiving responsibilities generates physical, emotional, and cognitive overload, reducing the time available for academic activities and compromising well-being and persistence in graduate education. Racial and class inequalities further intensify these disparities, as Black women and low-income students face greater challenges due to limited access to paid support networks and material resources that would enable the reconciliation of care and academic life. The study concludes that recognizing care as socially necessary labor is central to promoting equity and academic persistence, highlighting the need for institutional policies sensitive to care, such as deadline flexibility, expanded student assistance, psychosocial support, and investment in care infrastructure. This research contributes to theoretical and empirical debates on gender, care, and higher education by demonstrating that the persistence of caregiving women in graduate programs depends on institutional and structural transformations that go beyond individual coping strategies.
