Machismo has influenced women and girls not to get involved in the scientific field – Diario de Xalapa

Machismo has influenced women and girls not to get involved in the scientific field, He says Luz Miranda Atilano Herrera, a student at the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla (UPAEP) who, At 21, she is the youngest Mexican analog astronaut to participate in research areas astrobotany as part of the HECATE mission.

He considers that having limited visibility of the opportunities that exist in this field, such as the spatial one, means that they cannot fully know how many opportunities there are within it and when choosing their career, it is not among their options because they do not know it. .

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“It is necessary that more events of this type be held, that the work of women is sought to be made more visible because I have seen that women have no problem wanting to get involved in this field, but many times they do not do it because they do not know it”.

During the presentation of the Virtual Program for the Promotion of Scientific Vocations in Women to combat gender inequality in science, technology and innovation promoted by the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), gave the conference “Cultivating dreams that take us to the stars.”

“Unfortunately, there is still a lot of machismo here in Mexico and there are many situations where the parents unfortunately do not allow girls to study engineering because they believe that it is still a job for men and I am specifically glad that there are such events to make women’s work visible and that these kinds of things are not specifically for men ”.

He emphasizes that investigations like the one he participated in They seek to simulate a mission on the moon or Mars for which different experiments were carried out They were looking to be tested on the international space station, but first they were being tested on the ground which is the purpose of analog emissions.

“In that mission I went to, I was the only Latin American, in the same way I was the smallest at that time and the results I obtained were very satisfactory, in fact, we received congratulations, both my partner Sara Aparicio and I, this type of Research collaborates with scientific research and future projects that seek to innovate in the space field ”.

Furthermore, it points out that Mexico is not a country that allocates a large budget to science, so whoever decides to do it, man or woman, has to emigrate to other countries to receive better opportunities or grow as expected.

Luz Miranda Atilano Herrera recently represented Mexico in the position of “Biolab Officer, in charge of growing plants, hydroponics and testing different types of water solutions; Its results will be used for an experiment to be carried out by the European Space Agency at the end of the year and is expected to be used in future missions in space. The research was conducted at LunAres Research Station in Pila, Poland in collaboration with Polish scientific institutions such as the Pomeranian Medical University.

Only 35% of women work in Science areas

Xalapa, Ver.- The researcher of the Higher Technological Institute of Xalapa (ITSX) Omar Romero Sandoval reveals that only 35 percent of women work in areas of Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering.

It refers that girls from the age of 6 begin to look less talented compared to men according to a 2017 study Because of gender stereotypes, they cultivate the idea that intelligence is more common in men and that affects their ability to choose science-related careers.

“Women in those areas cannot be elected; they cannot choose those careers because of all the prejudices that exist and only 35 percent of women are in these types of areas ”.

During the G-Tech (Gender, Technology, Science and Humanities) event, a virtual program to promote scientific vocations in women as strategy to combat inequality, points out that creativity and innovation are wasted for not including women in those areas.

“We can see that it is not a national issue, it is an issue that affects the National Development Plan to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and I am pleased to know that we have more than 1,258 districts in 12 conferences, reaching more than 13,000. attendees for all the conferences ”.

Regarding the program, he refers that it is not just a series of conferences since an investigation is even being carried out in the state to know the motivations and the barriers that women have to be able to study engineering and be in the area of ​​science or mathematics.

“For this there is a group of researchers who have validated a document of all young people who are in higher education who are already working in areas of Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering.”