Gender and Higher Education Quality

This paper develops an approach to the concepts of gender and quality of higher education in articulation with the concepts of social pertinence and social justice. Pertinence is conceived in relation to quality, which is understood as a social and public value as well as social commitment to the society and communities served by higher education institutions. The challenge presented considers that social justice, linked to the fundamental notions of equality of opportunities and human rights, can determine the social pertinence of higher education and hence its quality. The approach developed is synthetized in three theses: the processes of knowledge production cannot be disconnected from the gender cosmovision; without the inclusion of the gender perspective, the professional preparation within the disciplines is in risk of bias toward one of the poles of the masculine-feminine dichotomy; and the introduction of gender in higher education creates a model of socially committed and inclusive society.