Relations of race and gender in the game: the reproductive issue of the black and white women. / Relações raça e gênero em jogo: a questão reprodutiva de mulheres negras e brancas

AUTOR(ES)

Raquel Souzas

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2004

RESUMO

Introduction: Within discussions of gender and race, the inequalities that characterize the condition of black women are not always discussed. On the contrary, there are several speeches that seek to make differences that have been historically forged look natural. To that respect, to question the meaning that such differences acquire in the domain of reproductive health becomes a relevant matter of investigation. Within this field, the decisions and reproductive arrangements made by individuals come or result from the negotiation processes not only conditioned by the reality they share, but by actions that are shaped according to a set of values and social norms. This set is characterized by a certain dynamism and the possibility of transformation and resignification. Hypothesis and objective: coming from the basic hypothesis that, besides the recognized gender bias widely disseminated by the specialized literature, race/ethnicity is also likewise presented on reproductive issues, the main goal of this work is to analyze the issue of gender and race bias, seeking to keep in mind how such biases are presented on the handling of problems inherent to the area of Reproductive Health like for instance, HIV/STD and pregnancy prevention, and how life conditions are related to them. Methodological procedure: qualitative research using the oral, thematic history technique. The subjects interviewed were 36 women, 18 black and 18 white, from three different educational backgrounds. During the interview process, a thematic list of topics for discussion with open questions about reproductive health, gender, race, sexuality, and a semi-structured form with socio-demographic questions and reproductive history were used. Complementarily, we researched some documents that we consider meaningful from the political point of view for the black women’s movement. Discussion of Outcomes: black women’s conception of freedom, of those with higher education, when one has supposedly greater autonomy, is more restricted to the private life due to the racism they face in public life. White women, on the other hand, show a broader conception, which includes the conquest of new spaces within public life’s realm. Marriage’s conception, both for black and white women, is based on a conception of total monogamy, hence their exclusion of using preservatives. In this case, the issue of gender prevails over race. Nonetheless, the connubiality, at the modern meaning of the term, which is characterized by equality of gender and negotiations, indicating to be a recent construction in the history of black women’ lives, field in which only recently they conquered space. Regarding the birth control methods, it is possible to point out from the characterization of the research’s subjects, that the black women interviewed, from elementary and middle school education background, follow, when compared to the specialized literature, a pattern of massive use of birth control methods, that is, they refer more to the use of tubal ligation and birth control pill, and at the higher education level, refer more to the use of preservatives. On the other hand, the white women interviewed use more diversified birth control methods in all education levels, standing out what is characterized in most cases a choice for a male controlled method such as vasectomy and preservatives. When the issue of the negotiation of HIV/STD and pregnancy prevention is surveyed, one can notice a lower autonomy of black women, with elementary and middle school education background, in comparison to white and black women with higher education background. As this difference is not observed during this process of negotiation among black and white women with higher education background, the investigation points towards the same direction to the issue of social differentiation. Conclusion: from the outcomes obtained, the current investigation indicates the richness of researches that contemplate the existing intersections between gender, race, and social inequalities in the context of reproductive health.

ASSUNTO(S)

escolaridade ethnicity mulher gênero education race raça reproductive health condições de vida women gender etnia saúde reprodutiva life conditions

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