The Labours of Democracy: the struggle for motherhood-inclusive policies in Brazilian academia

The presence of women in academic careers is a relatively recent phenomenon when compared to the long-established and deeply rooted male presence in universities, research institutions, and higher education teaching in general. The Brazilian context features intricacies typical of the elitist nature of neoliberal academia in which a separation between private and public is expected. In this scenario the adversity towards the discussion of perceived personal matters such as the support for women who decide to conciliate reproductive plans with an academic career, is no surprise. Recent changes related to a gradual movement of transformations in the population forming the country's academic community allowed room for discussions concerning the welfare of academics, in which matters pertaining to motherhood demands are included. I have used interpretive process tracing method(Gerring, 2007; Barnes & Weller, 2011; George & Bennett, 2005) to analyse interviews(Beach, 2017)I conducted with relevant actors in order to understand the trajectories of the existing motherhood inclusive laws within the Brazilian science policy framework. With a focus on the key period anticipating the first milestone, namely the law no 13.536 of 2017, this work analyses the years between 2015 and 2024, when the most recent motherhood inclusive law, the no 14.925 was passed. The theoretical framework for the analysis includes literature on the intrinsic relationship between democracy and gender equity(Verloo 2016; Alonso & Lombardo 2018; Walby 2009; Caravantes & Lombardo 2024) and the effects of de-democratisation moments (Lombardo et al.,2021) in academic freedom, especially the impact on academic activism perceived as the fuel for the advancement of the gender equity agenda in science policy. Findings indicate that the promotion of gender equity in spaces such as universities and research institutions is an important pillar in the maintenance of democratic institutions. Additionally, this work shows how permeable political ideologies are in relation to demands tackling the needs of mothers, whereas a special attention is needed to the framing applied when they are addressed by the various political actors, from various ideological standpoints.