MATERIALITY OF PUBLIC CARE AND MATERNITY POLICIES IN THE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT - INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCES AND STRUCTURAL BARRIERS

Abstract

This article analyzes the materiality of public policies on care and maternity in the Brazilian university environment, with an emphasis on Law 15.124/2025. Based on an intersectional and critical perspective, the study reveals how motherhood continues to be penalized in women's academic trajectories, due to the absence of redistributive care policies, rigid productivity criteria, and chronic underfunding of student assistance. The research also highlights the limits of university autonomy in the face of the Brazilian federative model and structural budgetary constraints. The work of the Human Rights Clinic at UFPR and social movements such as Parent in Science demonstrates the potential of advocacy in promoting recognition and redistribution policies. The text proposes that overcoming gender inequalities in higher education depends on the construction of a legal and political regime of care, with budgetary allocation, coordinated planning, and recognition of motherhood as a reproductive right. Care, as an invisible dimension of academic production, needs to be effectively incorporated into the institutional agenda, not just as symbolic recognition, but as a material commitment to social justice.