This program aims to promote scientific and technological vocations in order to reduce the gender gap in STEAM studies.
La Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE) has closed the 6th edition of the Science and Technology program for women, whose objective is promote scientific and technological vocations for the purpose of reduce the gender gap in STEAM studies. In this sense, the results reflect that 7% of the girls state that they change their mind and want to dedicate themselves to a profession related to STEAM disciplines after participating in the program.
The day began with a welcome from the vice-rector of Sustainable Development, Cooperation and Healthy Campuses of the UC3M; Beatriz López-Boada, the managing director of APTE; Soledad Diaz, and the director of the Women and Science Unit of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; Silvia Rueda.
Beatriz López-Boada has highlighted the crucial role of universities in promoting the increase of women in the business and/or STEAM field, as centers of learning, research and dissemination of knowledge. Likewise, she has expressed the commitment of the Carlos III University of Madrid with initiatives such as 'Science and Technology for Women' or 'STEM for Girls' to promote STEAM vocations among girls and young people, highlighting the path towards greater female entrepreneurship.
For her part, Soledad Díaz has stressed the importance of making these studies visible among the younger female public due to the low participation of this group in these subjects, especially in technological studies, and has highlighted the capacity of science and technology parks. to promote STEAM vocations and thus contribute to creating a more competitive innovation system.
Silvia Rueda has emphasized the importance of providing close references to young women to inspire their interest in STEM and address the barriers they face, such as stereotypes and lack of visibility through initiatives such as 'Science and Technology in Women'. She has also pointed out that “despite the fact that women occupy a significant proportion of jobs in STEM and represent more than 34% of the population in science and technology, their presence continues to be made invisible.”
In addition, it has emphasized the need to guarantee dignified and stable professions for young people, and advocates a change in the structure of society towards collaborative leadership. He highlights the crucial role of collaboration between administration, institutions, companies, researchers and teachers to build an inclusive and equitable future in science and technology.
Key data
After the institutional welcome, the person responsible for the project, Lole Franco, announced the main results of this edition in which 17 scientific and technological parks members of the APTE participated and a total of of 46 days in which nearly 4.000 secondary school students and the last years of primary school from 63 educational centers throughout Spain participated.
Likewise, the surveys carried out with participating students show that 34,6% of the girls surveyed opt for a profession related to the STEAM branches, but only 10% do so for purely technological professions.
On the other hand, 7% of the girls say they change their mind and want to dedicate themselves to a profession related to STEAM disciplines after participating in the program. Within this percentage, 20% of girls say they change to opt for a profession in the scientific branch, while 4% do so for a technological profession, among which engineering stands out.
If we add this percentage to the change of opinion that has occurred in previous editions, 8% of the nearly 10.000 participating girls have changed their minds and have opted for a STEAM discipline thanks to the more than 250 days held that began in 2018 with the collaboration of twenty scientific and technological parks that are members of APTE.
Roundtable
The session continued with a round table moderated by the managing director of APTE, in which leadership, empowerment, entrepreneurship and STEAM vocations were discussed with the participation of: María Marced; corporate director, former president of TSMC Europe and former general director of INTEL EMEA, Emma Fernández; independent director of Axway, Digital Consumer Bank, Iskaypet and Metrovacesa, and Ana Ye Zhang; CEO and founder of Ownmed Innovation.
During the discussion, María Marced's motivation to study Telecommunications Engineering was investigated, highlighting her path in a sector with little female participation, as well as her experience leading TSMC in Europe, the world's largest semiconductor and chip manufacturing company.
Emma Fernández has shared the keys to her experience as general director of Indra and her contribution to transforming a medium-sized company into a multinational that currently has more than 38.000 professionals.
Ana Ye has reflected on her decision to start a business and the balance at the head of Ownmed Innovation, entrepreneur and spinoff UC3M, and creator of a medical device to help sick people.
Finally, all of them have offered advice to those girls who were undecided about pursuing STEAM careers, sharing why it was a clear decision for them.
Competition
The session has ended with the communication of the winner of the contest “Innovative proposals to the challenges for sustainable development”, that has ended up in the group of students of the IES Borriol, for your proposal “REMIBOT” in collaboration with Espaitec. The winners received a recognition trophy, a robotics kit and a book for each member of the group. In second position, the Mas Camarena School has been recognized, for “The canine collector” in collaboration with the València Parc Tencològic de Paterna. The third position has fallen to the CEIP Ibarburu for its proposal “RETODS” which has participated together with the Cartuja Scientific and Technological Park. Both groups were also awarded with a book and a diploma.
