The aim is to reduce the gender gap in the area of ICT and basic sciences by demystifying that these are areas of knowledge for men.
The Inter-institutional Roundtable of Women in Science and Technology was created in 2016 under the Office of Planning and Budget (OPP) through the Gender and Social Policy Advisory Office and includes the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Agency for Research and Innovation, the National Institute of Women, the Institute of Biological Research "Clemente Estable", Plan Ceibal, the University of the Republic, the National Administration of Public Education and the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology.
Its coordinator, Mariana González Pírez, reported that this working space analyses gender gaps in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. A study was carried out on the different stages from entry into the education system, the performance and development of women at higher levels.
González explained that these are careers that traditionally and in the imagination are more related to the male world and that, even in careers that during the 1980s had a high enrolment of women, such as computer engineering, in Uruguay there is a perceived setback. "What we are trying to do is to reverse this gap so that there is greater equity in the distribution of these profiles in the development of a country model," she said.
The main findings of the work carried out by this roundtable reveal that although there is an institutional discourse on the importance of addressing gender issues, they are not rooted in policies and remain linked to the people and boards that are in place at the time. On the other hand, it was identified that the policies that are most represented are those linked to women and maternity, although at the same time it is recognised that they are still insufficient.
The Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), Carolina Cosse, stressed the importance of promoting a public policy focused on the participation of girls, young women and adult women in science and technology. "Uruguay cannot afford the luxury of half of its population not being included in the future of production," she emphasised.
The participation of girls in the robotics and mathematics Olympiads is, in many cases, greater than the participation of boys, which shows an interest in learning in these areas of knowledge. "Let's not allow these girls to lose their enthusiasm and let's not put obstacles in the way of their development," he stressed. She pointed out that it is necessary to have this issue as a priority on the government's agenda and to have the support of mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers so that girls are not afraid to study careers traditionally associated with men.
The MIEM promotes various gender actions through the annual Girls in ICTs Day, the awarding of prizes to women entrepreneurs, and on a daily basis, gender aspects are scored in the evaluation of projects.
On this occasion, Minister Cosse presented a proposal to work on the creation of a portal that brings together information on all the tools that the State has for the promotion of women and girls in science and technology. This proposal is based on the lessons learned from the recently created Entrepreneur Portal, which managed to coordinate all the support programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises, provided by 70 institutions.
Source: Presidency
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