The article approaches the interaction between the dimensions of gender and racial inequality and affirmative action policies in higher education. In the first session, it presents a summary of research findings on the situation of blacks and whites, and men and women, in higher education. Then it comments on affirmative action policies created in Brazil mainly in higher education. The next section presents the evidence produced by empirical research about the distribution of men and women among professors of the Federal University of Bahia. In its conclusions, it presents considerations about the interface and the tensions between racial and gender dimensions of inequality, specifically the Brazilian higher education institutions.
inequality; affirmative action; gender; race; higher education.