On the eve of International Women's Day, 65 young people gathered at Unicamp for the start of the second edition of the Meninas SuperCientistas event. Excited, they listened attentively to the presentation of the itinerary of the days they will spend at the University. There will be five Saturdays of activities, with lectures and workshops that will provide an immersion in the world of science, boosting female protagonism in research.
The opening of Meninas SuperCientistas, held at the Computing Institute (IC), was led by the event's creator, Marcela Medicina, a student of Applied and Computational Mathematics at Unicamp. Marcela pointed out the objectives of the activity, the main point of which is to encourage girls to pursue a career in the sciences.
"Second United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], despite all the notable achievements made by women, only a quarter of researchers in the world are women. Underrepresentation is even lower in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Furthermore, the lack of recognition of female achievements contributed to the outdated idea that women cannot work in these areas, which we know is a big lie. It is because we do not want talents to be lost that you are here today”, she stated, addressing the participants.
The student, who is one of the few women in her class, says that the idea of holding the event came from something she experienced at Astrolab, a project she created with the aim of carrying out periodic observations of stars at the Unicamp Science Museum. “I was at the museum one day and a little girl came to ask for help working with the telescope. I explained things and then her father came to me to say that she wanted to be a scientist, to study the planets. I kept thinking I would like to do this with more girls.”
At the same time, Marcela discovered that there was a project called “Girls With Science” and got in touch with the organizers, who readily supported the idea of disseminating initiatives like that. So, after drafting activities that would be interesting and seeking support from friends, teachers and sponsors, the project was born. SuperScientist Girls, whose first edition took place in 2019.
In the edition that began this Saturday (7), there was an increase in the number of places, from 50 to 65, and the inclusion of another Saturday in the schedule, totaling five meetings. On the last day, parents or guardians will be invited to participate in the activities. “We recognize the importance of them encouraging girls to pursue careers. I am a person who has always been privileged to have a father and mother who encouraged me in everything. Sometimes you don't have the chance to study at such a good school and it's important to have someone at home to encourage you”, points out Marcela.
The organization of this edition, which had almost 3 thousand registrations, in addition to Marcela, it was composed by students Julian Furtado and Juliane Baiochi and by teachers from IC Sandra Ávila and Esther Colombini. The teachers were invited to join the project because they have, in their areas, actions to encourage female participation. Sandra, for example, was one of those responsible for the special call to undergraduates to participate in the summer school Unicamp programming. Esther has been working to increase the presence of young women at robotics events.
Representation matters
In Brazil, women make up 40% of PhD researchers in the five areas of knowledge (linguistics, letters and arts; engineering; applied social sciences; exact and earth sciences; and health sciences), according to data from the Science Open Box. However, there is an even lower occupation when looking at the top of careers and spaces of power, such as in management positions, in addition to underrepresentation in the areas of technology, engineering and mathematics, as Marcela recalled.
The choice of profession, generally culturally biased by roles attributed to women, has one of the milestones in Elementary School 2, when there is segmentation of subjects and it is not so common for female teachers to be in charge of chemistry, physics and mathematics subjects, as per search developed by Microsoft. Therefore, it is for young women at this school stage that Meninas Super Cientistas was created. By being presented with references and examples of successful researchers, the idea is to reinforce the understanding that the skills necessary for a scientific career can be developed regardless of gender.
The importance of seeing so many female references was soon realized by the student at Escola Municipal Virginia Mendes Antunes de Vasconcellos, Mariana Cristina Vasconcelos Camargo, aged 13. “It’s incredible, I’m going to try to be inspired by them”, she says. She says that the subjects she likes most, physics and chemistry, are taught by male teachers at her school. “I see a Portuguese teacher, an arts teacher, but not physics and chemistry”. However, Mariana, who intends to graduate from Unicamp, shares one certainty: “women can reach any level. We need to stop patriarchy, make sure there is less violence against women in Brazil and stop thinking that they are weak.”
Ágata Giovana dos Santos Silva, 14 years old, also couldn't hide her enthusiasm. A resident of São Paulo, she says she is excited to learn about the trajectories and work carried out by the researchers. “The event shows an empowered force of women in the fight for equality. Women are still few and far between, but they are focused,” she notes. Interested in pursuing a career in Astronomy, Ágata participates annually in the Brazilian Astronomy Olympiad (OBA) and believes that the event will help her choose the direction she should follow in her studies. “As I’m going to specialize in this area, I need to know what it’s like, what I should study.”
Activities
On the first Saturday of Meninas SuperCientistas, the opening of the event was welcomed by the director of the Computing Institute and the associate director of the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing, professors Anderson Rocha and Ricardo Miranda, and the presentation of the activities by the organizers. Afterwards, lectures were held on topics such as technologies. In the afternoon, there was a visit to the Ifood office in Campinas.
In the other meetings, there will be a workshop with researcher Luisa Pinto, from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, on the operation of photobioreactors and the growth of microalgae; short course from the Robotics Study Group (GER) on robotics and technology; visit to the Open Astronomy Museum (MAAS) and visit to the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), guided by professor Ana Zeri, who will show laboratories and Sirius, the particle accelerator considered the largest and most complex scientific structure ever built in Brazil.
