University spaces, gender and position of social origin: intersection of inequalities

ABSTRACT

This article aims to address the reproduction of inequalities vis a vis gender and education as a multi-dimensional problem. Its objective is to show that the intersection between gender, social position of origin and asymmetric university spaces, attests to the inequalities in Higher Education System. Based on intersectionality perspective constructed on those three dimensions of analysis, gender inequalities are observed at the global, regional and national levels, based on comparable databases. Also, it centres on the results of an empirical investigation in Mexico that highlights the perspective of intersectionality in relation to the roles played by asymmetric university spaces in the reproduction and continuity of social and gender inequalities. The paper introduces and tests the category asymmetric university spaces as mechanism for the reproduction of inequalities, and concludes with his significance, emphasizing interlaced inequalities in Mexico City’s university.

KEYWORDS:

• Intersectionality
• gender
• class
• asymmetric university spaces
• inequalities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Lorenza Villa Lever holds a Doctorate in Sociology from L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), in Paris, France, since 1981. She is a full-time researcher at the Institute of Social Research and professor in the Doctoral Program in Social Science, both at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) where she is a thesis director for Masters and PhD. She has been honoured as a National Researcher 2 for 2013 to 2018.

ORCID

Lorenza Villa Lever http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7621-6623

Notes

1 One U.S. dollar is equivalent to about 21 Mexican pesos.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by (1) the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (National Council of Science and Technology) (CONACYT), under Grant 181677. This work was also supported by (2) the Programa de Apoyos para la Superación del Personal Académico (Program of Support for the Improvement of Academic Personnel) (PASPA) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(National Autonomous University of Mexico) (UNAM), under the Grant Beca Sabática (Sabbatical Scholarship), in desigualdades.net, Lateinamerika-Institut Freie Universität Berlin (LAI), Berlin, Germany.