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In Concepción, dialogue and dissemination activities were carried out on possible measures to overcome these gaps.
The Director of Transfer and Innovation and Education of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the University of Chile, Salomé Martínez, together with the president of the Gender and Equity Committee of CMM, Darinka Radovic, completed a relevant agenda in the Biobío region that sought to inspire their peers to “move towards a culture of gender equality in STEM”.
First, at the facilities of the Center for Engineering Research (CI²MA), both authorities met with academics and researchers associated with the CMM at the universities of Concepción, Bío-Bío and Católica de la Santísima Concepción. Later, in the Alamiro Robledo auditorium of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the UdeC, Dr. Radovic gave a talk on ‘What it means to move towards a culture of gender equality in STEM’.
“We tried to talk about how cultures can be more or less inclusive for diverse people, particularly for women, and especially cultures related to science, to STEM. Then we reviewed the main challenges of representation, the challenges in the ideas we have about what it means to do science, math or mathematics, in particular”, she explained.
“We also reviewed proposals on how to advance, for example, in affirmative measures and others such as educational interventions aimed at changing the images we have and with which we operate, as if it were obvious that to be a mathematician you have to be brilliant. It was a very diverse conversation and, in summary, we agreed that the challenge is gigantic, but that it is very urgent to address it“, said the researcher.
Regarding the reception of the attendees, Dr. Radovic emphasized that “there was a lot of participation and with their questions and comments, we realize that these are issues that genuinely concern them and know that they are difficult to solve”.
Dr. Martinez emphasized that “it was a very positive visit, we spent the morning talking with the people from CI²MA about ways to increase the participation of women in research centers, which is something we are looking at in the CMM -which already has a gender plan-, and in the context of society, the partnership that we have with Concepción, it would be very good to address everything in a much more integrated way”.
“No one has all these issues solved, a lot of knowledge needs to be generated and, therefore, the successes of the methodologies need to be shared, because they are long-term challenges that institutions have to take on“, she emphasized.
The principal researcher of the CMM, subdirector of the CI²MA and academic of the UdeC, Dr. Raimund Bürger, assured that “it has been a very pleasant experience to share points of view with Salomé and Darinka. They were very open discussions, although we all have the best will to increase the participation of women in research centers and give them our support, particularly in applied mathematics, the path to achieve this goal is not obvious. In particular, we know few women in our area of expertise”.
“I believe that gender equality in the allocation of ANID scholarships is an opportunity that women should take advantage of, and certainly also we as a program to increase the presence of women”, said the also director of the Doctoral Program in Applied Sciences with mention in Mathematical Engineering of the UdeC.
Meanwhile, the academic of the Faculty of Engineering of the U. Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC) and principal researcher of the CMM, Dr. Jessika Camaño Valenzuela, emphasized that “it seemed to me a very positive instance to be able to know the experience that they have had addressing the challenges of gender in scientific disciplines at the University of Chile and, in particular, in the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the CMM“.
“Both the meeting and the talk were useful to understand the vision of women in the area and also to know the policies that are currently being used at the University of Chile to have the entry of more women in the mathematical area, both in the academy and at the student level”, emphasized the also researcher of CI²MA and DSALT Group Project.
By Iván R. Tobar Bocaz, CMM journalist.
Posted on Sep 29, 2023 in News
