You may be all you want

Of women and stem

Not long ago a statement that would not have out of tune during the medieval darkness found space in the first pages of Italian newspapers: "It is natural that males are more brought to technical disciplines" ... "while females have a greater propensity for care ". For many years now neuroscience have denied this absurd stereotype and the girls have been tightening to make room in the STEM disciplines (English acronym that indicates science, technology, engineering and mathematics). 

However, the way to go is still very long: according to the UNESCO data referring to 2017 less than 30% of the Researcorə in the world is a woman. In Italy, scientists or engineers men are 68% against 32% of women. If we enter Italian universities in the last 40 years, the number of girls registered has increased exponentially, but in the stem courses female representation is still quite low and if you ask Italian teenagers only 5% of them claim to want to pursue a career in the world Stem, against 20% of male peers.
Being able to make room in the scientific world was a real battle for many women, who had to face countless obstacles, humiliations and missed awards. In 1993 the historic of science Margaret W. Rossiter described the sad "Matilda effect": the phenomenon for which women's contributions to scientific research are diminished, attributing them in part or in full to men. An example above all is the story of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist who together with Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and James Dewey Watson discovered the DNA structure. Franklin, however, unlike colleagues who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, did not get any recognition.
This gender disparity in the so -called hard sciences also has an important impact in society. For example, in artificial intelligence in which the major research centers are located in the western world and populated by men we are witnessing the creation of artificial intelligence suitable for white male, in short, machines who think how the men who created them. 

 

But, as we said before, something is moving pushed by the strength and determination of many women and girls who are struggling to make room in the Stem world. One of the goals of the UN Agenda 2030 is the achievement of gender equality and self -determination of all women and girls. Numerous initiatives are bringing examples of women engaged in the STEM disciplines to schools of all levels. The workshops are being multiplied to bring girls closer to coding, engineering and sciences. In this way, by expanding the horizons and creating reference models all the girls will feel free to choose what they want to do as big and nobody will have to afford to tell them that it is a job as men. In the same way, any child will be able to embark on any career it wants: it will be free to teach, dance, look after, travel in space, because even from this other side of the medal it is right to accept that in a boy the stem just don't interest them!

Beatrice equal