The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated on February 11. Its proposal was made by the UN in 2015, in which it is recognized that full and equal access and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls are essential to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
If female scientists were already at a disadvantage before the pandemic as a result of the cuts made by the government of Mariano Rajoy in both education and research, which meant that budgets in those areas fell by almost 9,000 million euros and the dismissal of almost 30,000 teachers from public schools, now with this health emergency they have become more invisible.
They have had to combine teleworking with the care of their daughters and sons, their elders and household chores. This may mean that the gender gap in science continues to widen.
Throughout history it has been found that the relationship between women and science and technology has never been easy.
Although barriers have been removed, the road ahead to achieve real equality is still long. Equality can only be achieved when education is based on equality, which is why one of the hallmarks of the PSOE is equality between men and women.
Women are the majority among university students and, however, there are certain areas of knowledge such as engineering, physics, mathematics or technology that are the least demanded by women, while certain reports indicate that the presence of women in the scientific field decreases as they rise in the professional scale.
There are many factors that would explain this disaffection of female students to the scientific world. Some of them are gender stereotypes and the lack of female role models that make girls have role models to look at. Even today, in science textbooks, references to female scientists are minimal.
The media also contribute to this, since if we analyze news and images related to the scientific world we see that most of them are related to men. And on the other hand, the family when they support certain stereotypes when commenting, for example, that boys are better in science or mathematics.
All these causes are reflected in the PISA reports in such a way that girls perform better in reading and boys in mathematics and science.
Educational centers play a fundamental role in promoting greater participation of women in science, giving greater prominence to female teachers to serve as role models and thus awaken scientific vocations.
If women abandon these areas, the most immediate consequence is that the wage gap will increase and a social gap will also appear, affecting the overall economic performance of the Canary Islands.
That is why the effort of the PSOE and the rest of the parties and institutions is to promote all the measures to achieve the objectives set by the UN to reduce the gender gap in the scientific field.
Pedro Viera Espinosa, PSOE deputy in the Parliament of the Canary Islands
