The purpose of this article is to discuss the differences observed between women and men in some of the daily mathematical practices made necessary by the demand and opportunities of a society based on the dynamics and criteria of written culture. We take for our analysis the results published in the fourth edition of the research entitled National Index of Functional Literacy (INAF), carried out in 2004, which evaluated the conditions and efficiency of the Brazilian young and adult populations in mobilizing mathematical skills to carry out daily tasks, and in which the results obtained by the male population were regarded as significantly superior to those achieved by the female population. Based on a reflection grounded in a Foucauldian perspective, we seek to understand these results as articulated to a discursive field marked by a mathematical rationality of Cartesian matrix. Analyzing under such perspective the mechanisms that contribute to degrade women's performance in comparison with men's in assessments of this kind - concerned as they are with the ability to give answers regarded as adequate in the execution of daily tasks regarded as relevant - our attention is focused on identifying another instance of production of inequalities between men and women, represented here by the valuation (in social life and in the assessments) of certain manners of conceiving and reacting to daily demands. As educators we are interested in unveiling the production of inequalities, so as to deconstruct certain discourses that favor them, and in bringing about other perspectives of analysis and pedagogical action.
Gender; Mathematical literacy; Inequality