Take Five: "Girls are not born feeling less capable in scientific-technological areas, it is a social context that perpetuates that idea"

Photo: courtesy of Valentina Muñoz 

You have a track record of working to advance gender equality in science at the national and regional level. We know that there is still a lot of work to be done, what measures do you think should be a priority to advance in that direction?

I think it is essential to start with training programs for teachers regarding the gender gap and how to break stereotypes in the classroom, in addition to promoting workshops and state science and technology courses with a gender approach. I also consider it essential to establish and ensure digital rights at the international level, which is a growing and strongly latent need, especially for the continuity of studies in pandemic and under the poor infrastructure around internet access and digital media in Latin America.

We need to understand that digital rights are human rights and that the absence of digital rights is a gender issue (since of every 4 students who received online classes during 2020, only 1 is a woman, according to data from the Undersecretary of Telecommunications of Chile). If we allow the digital divide to also have a woman's face, we will be left out of the digital transformation and girls will have yet another obstacle to face when it comes to continuing their studies and entering the labor market.

Why do you think it is so important to start closing the gender gap from an early age?

At least in Chile, the gender gap starts, statistically, in 4th grade (elementary school). Studies reveal that the main reasons for the gap are gender stereotypes, since girls are told from early childhood that "they are bad at mathematics", and the lack of visibility of role models in STEM, which are diverse and with which they can identify themselves, for example: racialized women, women with disabilities, young women or teenagers, among others.

This data is highly valuable, it literally means that in order to advance in closing the gender gap, we must change our focus and put it on girls. We cannot continue under the adult-centric dynamics in which we demand that adolescents and young women define scientific-technological careers, when from their early childhood they have been undervalued in their mathematical abilities.

It is necessary to start from childhood, because only by getting girls to dream differently, we will have more women in science and technology.

In the context in which we are currently, what new challenges do you have and how do you face them? Can you describe any specific challenge?

The digital divide has been extremely hard. I have experienced it very closely. I finished my last year of high school last year and I did not have access to any online classes from my school. Since it is a public school, it did not have the necessary technological infrastructure to offer, both to teachers and students, the conditions to generate online classes.

Why do you think it is important to strengthen the empowerment of women in science?

The biggest problem today is based on the lack of visibility of our work as outstanding women in science and technology, which is even greater if we are young women or even girls and adolescents. Therefore, we need to empower ourselves, both individually and collectively, so that we are not ignored again in history, so that never again will the contribution of a woman or girl in science remain "anonymous".

The stereotype is often perpetuated that girls are not smart enough to perform in STEM or that boys have a greater affinity for it. What do you think can be done to reverse this?

I'm a firm believer in leading by example, children don't always listen: they imitate. You could tell a child to read, over and over again, but if she/he doesn't see you reading, they will hardly do it. With stereotypes it is the same, girls are not born feeling less capable in scientific-technological areas, it is a social context that perpetuates that idea.

If we want girls to be confident that they are equally capable of excelling in STEM areas, we must show those girls who did excel in STEM. We must show those women and girls who tried, who failed, who were told to quit, and who, in the end, succeeded.

If you want to learn more about the barriers that lead to gender gaps in STEM in the region, we offer you the study Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. The document presents an analysis of national policies and plans/programs designed to reduce disparities between men and women, giving visibility to successful initiatives implemented to attract more girls and young women to the STEM field and analyzes the pending challenges in the perspective of a greater representation of women in the jobs of the future and in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.