Mulheres na conservação: os desafios na gestão de áreas protegidas

Abstract

It is known that gender is something that has been discussed in different areas, within the spheres of work, politics, within the spaces in which environmental issues are discussed and even when talking about Protected Areas (PAs). The gender issue, within spaces related to PAs, is often discussed considering the communities that live close to the areas and how gender relations occur and affect these spaces. However, studies that address women who participate in the management itself and the general debates on gender within the management of PAs report experiences in the United States and Europe, different economic, political and social contexts when comparing with Brazil. Therefore, the objective of this work was to understand what are the challenges that women have been facing in the management of PAs in Brazil, specifically in the management of Conservation Units (CUs), and how they have been dealing with them. For this, focused interviews were carried out with women who had gone through the management of CUs in Brazil. The challenges found were: maternity and care relationships; gender roles and the stereotype of women in social work and supervision; gender relations in communities; change behavior and/or communication to be respected; threats; male chauvinism; harassment; full dedication to work and high demand for women; health and issues of race and class. The way women have been dealing with these challenges is through the support of other women, when there is no such support or when institutional support is sought and it is not given, there is a process of discouragement and disappointment with the work. It is necessary to include gender issues in the management agendas, because, social issues directly influence the practice of nature conservation. The achievement of gender equality does not only happen with the presence of women in spaces, it is necessary to have a constant debate about what sexism is, so that feminism and equality can be understood as allies of nature conservation.