THE DUALITY OF DISCOURSE: MATHEMATICS AND GENRE IN THE FOUCAULDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper presents a literature analysis from a Foucauldian perspective with the objective of discussing the production of gender and power relations based on the statement that men are better at mathematics (than women). It is possible to find countless scientific and non-scientific discourses that contribute to the persistence of this conception as truth through a history of struggle. In history, the feminine and masculine roles go beyond the genetic and reproductive relationship and substantial differences were demarcated in a power relationship. In view of the invisibility of women, we sought, by means of a historical analysis, to show the contribution of women in mathematics. As a result, it was noticed that the masculine/feminine dichotomy regarding Mathematics is not natural, it is constructed and imposed as a truth in society, and has many unfoldings. This statement provokes discourses that establish as a space of differentiation the relations between women, men and mathematics, and, in these relations, the woman is produced as someone who lacks something in the masculine way.