GENDER AND DEAFNESS

Abstract

This paper discusses the topic of deafness, articulating it with discussions referring to gender and sexuality, based on authors from the perspectives of Cultural Studies in Education and Deaf Studies. Deafness and deaf people, as the gender issue, are understood through a cultural difference perspective. Deaf women are discriminated in the workplace in general, but they are the majority in the teaching profession, a consequence of the feminization of the teaching work. The increasing female presence as leaders of deaf movements may be related to this greater rate of women as teachers, who carry the features of the school organization onto the movements. Two papers on the topic were examined, as well as a meeting on deaf women occurring in Pelotas – RS, whose participants highlighted their role in the political struggle by the deaf people’s association, while men take on the role of organizing leisure and sporting activities. The fight for the rights of deaf women has been growing in Brazil; there is a need for more studies on such topic.