Mulheres em situação de violência sexual no ambiente universitário: uma descoberta a partir da escuta sensível

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the experiences of women who have faced sexual violence within the university environment, using the Palmas Campus of the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT) as the empirical field. Grounded in a qualitative and interpretative approach, the study seeks to understand how these women perceive, process, and narrate episodes of harassment and sexual violence, as well as to analyze how institutional responses influence their subjective processes of coping, support, and emotional reconstruction. The research adopts escuta sensível (sensitive listening) as its methodological axis, inspired by Maffesoli and Freire, recognizing participants’ speech as a legitimate form of knowledge production and as a political gesture of resistance to the historical silencing that shapes gender relations. The theoretical framework articulates contributions from feminist authors who challenge patriarchal structures that permeate spaces of sociability, including Butler, Hooks, Federici, Saffioti, and Segato. These contributions enable an understanding of sexual violence as a structural phenomenon, sustained by relations of symbolic domination and mechanisms of victim-blaming and revictimization. The university, traditionally conceived as a place of emancipation and critical thinking, also reveals itself as a space where inequalities are reproduced, in which practices of silencing, bureaucratized forms of support, and the absence of effective policies contribute to the perpetuation of violence. The methodology involves semi-structured interviews with three women who experienced sexual violence within the academic environment. The narratives were analyzed using Bardin’s Content Analysis technique, which made it possible to identify central categories emerging from their accounts. The results show that sexual violence produces profound effects on the academic trajectories of the participants, including fear, isolation, decreased academic performance, and institutional distrust. They also demonstrate that institutional responses, when present, were insufficient, fragmented, and, in some cases, revictimizing. Sensitive listening proved to be an ethical and methodological resource capable of promoting support, legitimizing suffering, and creating a safe space for the narrative elaboration of pain. The study concludes that universities must strengthen their prevention, support, and accountability policies, reinforcing pedagogical and institutional practices that recognize the centrality of listening, care, and gender justice. The research contributes to the broader debate on sexual violence in higher education by highlighting institutional gaps, reaffirming the importance of listening as a tool for transformation, and proposing pathways toward more humane, sensitive, and socially committed academic practices.