Women represent only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of informatics and computing graduates. In a field as cutting-edge as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals is a woman. These are UNESCO data that make clear the existence of a gender gap.
In our country and according to the report The State of Science 2020 , published by the Organization of Ibero-American States (IOE) just a year ago, only 13% of people in what are known as STEM careers , which are related to sectors such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics are women . And that 55% of our university population is made up of women.
We talked about the gender gap in STEM careers with María Garzón, head of personal branding and female leadership and founding partner of Imades Communication , an international communication, public affairs and relationship marketing agency. We ask the reason for this gap. “ The main reason is the lack of references, now, and those that have been hidden in the past . We now know that there is a lack of references to women in companies, in universities, in professions that have always been traditionally more masculinized or assigned to male roles. The students of these careers lack a role model in which to set expectations . Yes, there are women in positions of power, but what happens is that they don’t manage to be visible ”, she explains.
The expert sees what is taught to boys and girls from their earliest childhood, the historical references that are shown and those that are hidden, especially serious. “From the earliest ages, the minds of boys and girls are programmed differently. There are studies that show how reinforcing so-called gender stereotypes affects the development of our professions. We have to bear in mind that not only at home or in the media are these stereotypes reinforced, but also, in schools, when it is decided to tell the stories of male scientists and not that of female scientists or when talking about male historical references and not of women, a part of the education is being denied to girls ”.
A few years ago, in 2017, Science published a study that concluded that girls are considered less bright than boys from the age of six . The research was carried out between three universities, New York, Illinois and Princeton. Several experiments were done with girls and boys between the ages of 5 and 7, such as listening to the story of someone very intelligent and then saying if it was a man or a woman, saying if someone very, very intelligent would be a man or a woman, or choosing to play a game. for “really smart” kids or one for those who “work really hard.” The results showed that, at age 5, both girls and boys viewed their gender positively. However, 6- and 7-year-old girls were much less likely to associate brilliance with their own gender . In the games experiment, the girls were much less interested in the brainy game, but both boys and girls signed up for the worker game.
Returning to the present and to Spain, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, has just published the study The presence of women in Spanish scientific production , in which, for the first time, offer data that identifies the presence of female researchers in the Spanish scientific production published, between 2014 and 2018, in international reference journals. As indicated by the SINC agency, what has been seen is that in 48% of the Spanish scientific production in Web of Science (WOS), the source of this study and one of the main world databases of bibliographical references and citations of periodical publications, there is a woman author of the publication, but only 20% of the researchers lead publications.
On February 11, we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in order to achieve full and equal access and participation in science for women and girls, gender equality and the empowerment of girls. and women. There is a long way to go and work to do, but together we can achieve it.
References:
Lin Bian, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Andrei Cimpian. 2017. Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aah6524
https://www.agenciasinc.es/Noticias/Solo-un-20-de-las-investigadoras-lideran-las-publicaciones-pese-a-firmar-el-48-de-la-produccion-cientifica
https://es.unesco.org/news/cientificas-carrera-aun-enfrentan-prejuicios-genero-segun-estudio-unesco
https://es.unesco.org/commemorations/womenandgirlinscienceday
