Journal of Contemporary Administration

Exhausted Women: On Discomfort and Practice of Science in Contemporary Times

Ludmila de Vasconcelos Guimarães — 2023-09-21

The exhaustion faced by academics served as the starting point for this special issue – edited, written, and reviewed exclusively by cis and trans women. We understand exhaustion as a consequence of historical and daily battles for gender equality, aggravated by the burden of reproductive work. Thus, even when exhausted, we accepted this challenge out of the conviction of the political role necessary to open spaces in the face of a masculine logic of science production. This editorial was structured based on recognizing the importance of producing, identifying, and living with the challenges necessary to disrupt oppression. These challenges come in the form of (1) bringing together female editors, authors, and reviewers from different regions, academic backgrounds, and diverse representations; (2) time, which revealed itself as an instrument of domination and gender violence; (3) the operationalization of the contradiction in producing an edition exclusively for women, considering the male logic of practicing science. This edition should be read as a pedagogical instrument to visualize the challenges experienced, and it is a call for collective responsibility in the fight to create space in everyday life, specifically in the academic field. Finally, if we are to combat injustices, we must provoke daily discomfort, and this edition set out to do just that.

A Woman’s Place is… in Politics: Reflections about Micro and Macroaggressions of Identities

Camilla Fernandes — 2023-08-10

Objective: analyze the identity constitution of women who have entered politics in Brazil, in the face of a scenario of micro and macroaggressions. Theoretical approach: identity theory, in which identity is defined as a self-reflexive concept that allows individuals to know and understand themselves in the midst of cultural, social, and organizational specificities. Method: basic qualitative study carried out with assistance of semistructured interviews content analysis. Results: the main results showed that the identity of women active in politics is gradually formed; however, this construction is permeated by attempts of invalidations since the intention of candidacy. The invalidations through microaggressions permeate the organizational context and, because they are present on a larger scale, they highlight what is pointed out as macroaggressions. Conclusions: this study contributes to the literature by proposing the concept of macroaggressions. In practical terms, this study brings as a contribution a discussion focused on SDG 5 and the need for a greater female insertion in Brazilian political organizations.

The (Un)productivity of Reproductive Work and the Women’s Exhaustion in Contemporary Times

Marília Duarte de Souza — 2023-08-25

Objective: we aim to discuss the (im)productivity of reproductive work, potentialities and limits of capital expansion on this work to change the oppression that manifests itself in the conditions of exhaustion of women in contemporary times. Theoretical approach: starting from a Marxian perspective, we believe that debates about the productivity of reproductive work should overcome analyzes based on the immediacy of this work and apprehend the determinants that involve the absorption of work by capital as productive, reproductive or unproductive work. Methods: we collected secondary statistical data provided by IBGE, Sebrae and the British Cleaning Council, the analysis was based on historical materialism.
Results: we demonstrate that capital has productively appropriated reproductive work, however, such appropriation has not meant changing the conditions of sexual division of labor and women's exhaustion. Conclusion: we conclude that instead of the transmutation of reproductive to productive work being an advance towards the emancipation of women, it has been a source of greater exploitation of their workforce and of exhaustion, since such appropriation does not overcome the exploitation that engenders the universality of oppression under capitalism, according to the needs of valuing value.

‘Escrevivência’: The Exhausting Process of Being an Outsider within a Postgraduate Administration Program

Fernanda de Aguiar Zanola — 2023-08-25

Objective: this reader reflects on the exhaustion of being an outsider within a postgraduate Administration program. Theoretical approach: I also incorporate dialogue with black feminist thinkers to explore the intertwined intersections in autobiographical narratives. I highlight the concept of outsider whitin to reflect experiences of less privileged groups, who come up against paradigms established by a more influential community of insiders. In this movement, I shatter images that produce apathetic identities, enabling them to position themselves in the face of social dynamics.
Method: to do this, I use Conceição Evaristo's theoretical operator Escrevivência to revisit memories and reveal, through a transactional dialogue, productions located in the knowledge of black women. Results: in addition, I instigate reflections, acceptance, and representation of all peoples, addressing not only personal drama but also community history. Conclusions: finally, through a utopian effort, I articulate possible ways for postgraduate courses in Administration to break through the barriers experienced and raise the potential for those willing to contribute to the country's social, scientific, and theoretical development.

Process of (Re)Organization of Productive and Reproductive Work of Women in Confection

Denise Clementino de Souza — 2023-09-06

Objective: this article analyzed how women who own a clothing business in the Agreste region of Pernambuco (re)organized their productive and reproductive work in the private space of their homes, taking into account gender relations. Theoretical framework: it is based on the discussion about the sexual division of labor, the dynamics of conciliation between public and private spaces, the triple shift, and the insertion of women in the labor market, based on the problems they face. Method: a qualitative descriptive approach was used, with 23 semi-structured interviews. Results: findings point out that having their own business at home generates a false impression of flexibility for women; the owners’ work routine is exhaustive and with the accumulation of productive and reproductive activity intertwined in the same space, generating triple shifts and precarious working conditions; the financial emancipation of women who work in clothing occurs from the (re)organization of their functions in the private environment of the home, diverging from the literature that relates their autonomy to entering the public environment of the labor market; and informality, typical of the region, favors the entry of the interviewees into the clothing sector, but deprives them of access to social security. Conclusion: the theoretical contributions reveal that women do not necessarily need to leave the private space to enter the productive work world and achieve a certain emancipation, as they manage to do this from the (re)organization of productive work in the home environment itself.

Roots of the Exhaustion of Brazilian Working Women: Dialectical Historical Materialism’s Contributions

Fernanda Mitsue Soares Onuma — 2022-11-08

Objective: in this essay, we analyze the roots of the exhaustion of Brazilian working women from the point of view of the dialectical historical materialism method. We investigate the exhaustion in terms of physical, emotional, and mental fatigue of Brazilian working women by using the concepts of social reproduction and dependent capitalism to reveal that women’s overtiredness is not a novelty inaugurated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thesis: even before this global health crisis, the overload of work, inside and outside the domestic space, was already a reality for Brazilian women. We suggest that super-exploitation, essential to dependent capitalism, implies a growing intensification of the working time of Brazilian women workers, at the same time that dependence relegates them to the task of internal and external social reproduction in globalized capitalism. Conclusions: the rupture with these processes demands the radical transformation of the current social order and economic system, for which the political organization to demand payment from the state for reproductive work is an important step in the social battle against the depletion of women.

Exhausted, But Standing! Reflections Regarding the Immune Device Against Crossdressers and Transsexual Women in the Educational System

Megg Rayara Gomes de Oliveira — 2023-09-25

In this article I discuss the exhaustion experienced by transvestites and/or transsexual women, black and white, in the Brazilian educational system. I also discuss the concept of Immune Device developed by the Chinese philosopher Byung-Chul Han (2015) trying to understand to what extent it impacts or not the school routine of transvestites and/or transsexual women, black and white. To carry out this discussion, I resort to the (auto)biographical method developed by the white cis gay researcher Marcio Caetano (2016) for agreeing that personal and professional experiences, even if produced in specific and individualized contexts, are relational and can be connected/compared with the narrations of other life stories. Thus, adopting a life trajectory combined with a cultural, post-structuralist perspective, with feminist, transfeminist and ethnic-racial and gender relations studies, as well as with the intersectionality concept proposed by the black American jurist Kimberlé Krenshaw (2002. No category discussed here is treated as something static, fixed, crystallized, in explicit opposition to the essentialist views that generalize existences and disregard the multiple processes that involve them.

Live Beneath a Precipitous Wall: The Other Façade of Chinese Women

Yi Ding — 2023-09-18

Objectives: While feminism is arousing international debates on traditional and new media, collective efforts such as #MeToo are generating visible influences on societies as well, under such collectiveness, I still believe personal stories of women are also worthy of telling. Provocations: This provocation intends to start with a young girl who wished to be a teacher as it was ‘domestic’ and ‘perfect for marriage’, but now has stepped into a different river, conducting funeral studies in a remote village in China. It offers a chronologic view of how that transaction has occurred and why is that. More importantly, it tries to publicly present the expectations or stereotypes of Chinese culture and society, yet the ultimate goal is to lead the ‘gaze’ towards a Chinese woman to a broader perspective, to build an individual and living ‘her’ in a broader world rather than a ‘her’ on television programs or literatures. Conclusions: I believe such telling is necessary as it contributes to the narratives of women in an international dimension by recognizing the efforts and struggles required for a woman’s growth and self-identification process and by highlighting the role that society and education have played. The conclusion follows after the personal story, and it highlights the continuous fight against stereotypes and inequalities.