Gender study in archives and the representation of women in contemporary time

Abstract

Women have been victims of physical and psychological violence for many centuries and in different cultures around the world, in a trajectory of structural problems in society, in which women are exploited as a workforce and mostly excluded from decision-making power. Women are victims of rape, prostitution, human trafficking, sexually enslaved, forced marriages by their families, traded as an exchange product, raped in wars as a form of humiliation and embarrassment towards defeated or weakened countries. In view of this violence, we took as working methods the bibliographical survey of the history of violence against women, which dates back from colonial and patriarchal society to the present day, with the family structure as the locus of violence, in which men understand thar they are owner of the woman’s body. As a result of this structural situation presented, there was an absence of documentary funds for women in institutions or information agencies. Furthermore, it highlights by sampling the representation of women in archives and information units in Brazil. Institutions that promote the treatment and dissemination or archives and documentary funds of women are presented, such as: Arquivo Nacional, Moreira Salles Institute, Institute of Brazilian Studies of the University of São Paulo among others, which correlate with the personal archives of scientists, literati, intellectuals, promoting their visibility. As an empirical methodology, the qualitative and quantitative aspects, by mentioning the emblematic cases of violence thar have emerged in the mainstream media over time, statistical data from the Institute of Economic and Social Research, and the selection of articles and news by sampling about cases of aggression against women on the Facebook page of Institute Maria da Penha, observing some of what is presented on social networks as a form of information and complaints. It is necessary to build respect, equity, and dignity for these victims of societies where discourses, narratives and social structures still prevail today in which the absence of legal e equality between men and women, the view that women are always guilty of aggression for not having adequate, honest, and family conduct in the world dominated by patriarchal culture, mostly carried out by men. Human rights, particularly in the struggle for liberation and women’s rights, must increasingly form part of the research agendas of information Science, Archival Science and Library Science, promoting the treatment, dissemination, and visibility of archival and documentary collections of women scientists, writers, intellectuals from private or public funds.