Gender and ICT is organising a seminar on July 7th oriented to explore the variety of factors involved in the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields and its ethical implications.

The unequal access of women to science and technology-related careers and of men to care-provision and education-related careers continues to be a challenge for current societies. There are several forms of sexism present in the academic setting, such as considering women less competent in mathematics than their male counterparts or considering men lower than their female counterparts in languages. These stereotypes condition adolescent boys’ and girls’ academic and occupational choices, their performance and their evaluation of their own competences, as well as the importance they give to the different options for what they would like to do in the future.

This seminar aims at discussing the complex combination of individual and socio-cultural factors that undermine the sense of belonging and, therefore, the participation of women in STEM. In addition to raising awareness of the ethical implications of the underrepresentation of women in the fields of engineering and technology, we will review some strategies for reducing sexism and fostering women’s belonging in STEM.

Programme:

Opening speeches. Marta Aymerich, Vicerector for Strategic Planning & Research at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and Ana Puy, director of the Women and Science Unit of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

STEM Belonging for Girls and Young Women: Overcoming Obstacles. Campbell Leaper. Professor and Department Chair of Psychology. University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ethical Implications of the Lack of Participation of Women in Technological Fields. Montse Serra, professor of Computer Science at the Open University of Catalunya (UOC), and  Mireia Farrús, researcher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).

Chaired by: Milagros Sáinz, director at the Gender & ICT research group, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3).

Venue: “La cuina”. Espai Francesca Bonnemaison (c/ Sant Pere Més Baix, 7, 08003 Barcelona)

Thursday, 7 July 2016, 16.00 h – 19.00 h

This is an open event. Please register here.

This seminar is organized by the Gender and ICT research group with the support of the project “Challenges to the persistence of gender roles and stereotypes in the choice of higher education studies from a longitudinal approach. The role of families and teachers” (FEM2014-55096-R, Principal Investigator: Milagros Sáinz) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.