Since 2017, the project “Engenheiras Por Um Dia” continues its mission to attract more young girls into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic). This Thursday, April 23, the project joined the celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day. Several ICT female professionals shared their work. Catarina Botelho, INESC-ID researcher, and Rute Luz, ISR researcher, shared their passion for technology and inspired young girls.
“The online session went well, it was a kind of very informal and relaxed conversation between professionals and students”, says the ISR researcher. Carina Andrade, representing IEEE Women in Engineering, and professor Carla Silva from Universidade Atlântica, also participated in the session. “We shared a little bit of our academic and professional path, we gave some advice to students who like science, mathematics and technology, but who are still undecided about their career choice, and we talked about the importance of skills acquired during university and that will be essential for professional life”, recalls the researcher. “Robotics always arouses students’ curiosity. Unfortunately, I was unable to show the robots, so the students’ excitement was not as big as it is often, but I invited the teacher and the class to visit Técnico and ISR to see the robots”, she says.
“I think the session was a success. Engineers Manuela Coutinho from Altice and Marisa Fernandes from IBM also participated in the session and we had the opportunity to share our experiences with secondary school female students in Pombal and Évora”, says Catarina Botelho. The professional careers, the professional achievements and the impact of technology on society were some topics addressed during the session. “One of the important things we talked about today was that a career should be something you enjoy, without preconceived notion that men and women are suited only for certain kinds of jobs”, says the INESC-ID researcher. “We also talked about the positive impact of engineering on society, and how can we contribute to a better world – we concluded that there are many ways”, recalls Catarina Botelho.
Currently, and according to Eurostat, women represent less than 2 in 10 ICT professionals in Portugal, and only about 0.2% of Portuguese female teenagers aspire to work in these areas, according to data from the European Institute for Gender Equality. Increasing these percentages, reversing gender gap in STEM, is one of the goals of the Gender Balance group at Técnico. “We have two main goals that are aligned with this purpose: to promote gender equality in recruiting among Higher Education candidates and in teaching, research and administrative careers”, shares the group coordinator, pofessor Alexandre Bernardino, .
According to professor Beatriz Silva, also coordinator of the Gender Balance @ Técnico, these celebrations are very important to “raise awareness that the ICT area is for everyone”. “We must give voice to happy and successful women in the ICT. The evolution and development of this area depends on this”, says professor Alexandre Bernardino. “Women and men have different perspectives on life, experiences, skills and ways of judging. Diversity enhances creativity, which is essential for development and innovation. Humans depend on ICT and in order to evolve as a whole, we must all be involved”, adds the professor.
Catarina Botelho never felt discriminated or unwelcomed in STEM. “It is true that I have found myself in situations where women were outnumbered, but in no situation I felt uncomfortable. I also have some concerns about wage inequality or inequality in job access, but I think this is changing ”, points out the INESC-ID researcher.
“I have always worked with very professional groups/teams that never created any difficulty”, shares Rute Luz. I think it’s a matter of habit, unfortunately I had to get used to work with male colleagues and male professors, who belong to groups and research institutes led by men, which are part of universities also led by men. Having a greater equality between men and women would be great and would enrich the academic and social community ”, adds the ISR researcher.
“I remember perfectly not knowing exactly what I wanted, but I knew that I liked maths, physics, and the human body. I ended up choosing Biomedical Engineering”, shares Catarina Botelho. Nowadays she is a junior researcher at INESC-ID, at the Human Language Technology (HLT) Lab and works in the field of speech processing and machine learning on healthcare.
Catarina Botelho cannot understand what keeps so many young girls away from STEM. “Maybe this is due to preconceived ideas from an early age, boys playing with cars and legos and girls playing with dolls, maybe it’s because of the example of older people” she says. Catarina Botelho played with cars, legos and dolls and she met very succesful women and men in STEM.
When Rute Luz decided to study Aerospace Engineering, she felt some of these gender labels. “Fortunately, I knew exactly what I wanted and I did not let the‘ fact that aerospace engineering is just for boys ’prevent me from studying what I liked” she recalls. Today, she is part of ISR’s Intelligent Robots and Systems Group (IRSg) and one of the researchers working in an interface to operate robots on missions to Mars.
According to Rute Luz “it is important to attract young girls into engineering and show its magic. However, I also think it is important that this magic is demonstrated by women in STEM”. Sharing success stories of of women in STEM is, perhaps, a good way to eliminate the fear that often keeps young girls away from these areas. “If a girl chooses to study engineering and pursue a career in STEM, this should not be seen as an act of rebellion, but rather something common without the need of make it public. Because if it is made public, it means that we still have a long way to go”, she says. “
