¿Podrías decirme algunos nombres de inventores? «Benjamin Franklin», «Leonardo Da Vinci», «Thomas Edison», «Albert Einstein», «Nicola Tesla», «Alexander Graham Bell», responden unas niñas. ¿Podrías nombrar alguna inventora? «Mmm, no», «¡Qué difícil!», «Ehh», «En la escuela siempre estudiábamos sobre inventores. Me acabo de dar cuenta», reconocen.
In the run-up to International Women's Day 2016, Microsoft made a video asking girls about inventors. All of them answered male names and none of them knew any female inventors. They were not even aware that they were only studying profiles of male referents. But there are female references; and many of them. Tabitha Babbitt invented the circular saw; Patricia Bath invented laser surgery for cataracts; Sarah Mather created the underwater telescope; Ada Lovelace invented the first computer algorithm. Like them, many others are part of the history of science and technology.
However, most of the people related to university careers or technological jobs are men. According to the 2016 Academic Training report of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI), in 2015, 219 students entered technological secondary education; only 46 of these were women. Of the students of information technology technologists, telecommunications technologists and computer technologists across the country in 2016, 83% of the entries were men, while 17% were women.
The same was true for undergraduate degrees, both public and private. In 2014, the proportion of female students corresponded to 22% of those enrolled. Likewise, in terms of postgraduate students, in 2015 there was an enrolment of 75 men and 20 women in the country.
La diferencia de género abismal que se observa en la educación uruguaya no se debe a un tema de capacidad o falta de talento femenino para cumplir estos roles. Pablo Correa, coordinador educativo de ÁNIMA, declaró a Cromo que detrás de la tecnología hay «una cuestión social que dice que los varones son los que deben dedicarse a las computadoras». Sin embargo, dijo que algunos estudios neurocientíficos hablan de que las mujeres tienen mejores potenciales para ciertos aspectos tecnológicos. «La tecnología cada vez tiene más peso en cuestiones sociales y es importante que también haya mujeres», indicó.
Pablo Macedo, docente de historia e informática y encargado del taller de robótica del Liceo nº 6 de la ciudad de Rivera, opinó que el problema parte de cuando muchos años atrás no todos llegaban a la universidad. Los planes para los hijos no solían ser los mismos que para las hijas. «El futuro de muchas chicas no pasaba por estudiar y eso forja una matriz cultural que con el tiempo crea categorías que son irreales de cosas que ‘son para chicos’ y cosas que ‘son para chicas’. Esa matriz cultural de la sociedad continúa siendo muy fuerte», explicó a Cromo.
At the same time, the cultural aspect is at work when adolescents opt for subjects in secondary education. Many times, the teacher said, there are families that don't give their daughters the opportunity.
Entry is not prohibited
Some kids are born knowing what their vocation is. That's what happened to Dana Castroman, who always liked to surf the internet and research technology. So she entered UTU, where she had a subject called technology, and learned how to build electrical circuits. At 15, Castroman realized she wants to go into some branch of engineering. He's leaning toward systems engineering or systems analyst. This year he entered ÁNIMA, a dual technological high school that aims to give young people from vulnerable backgrounds the opportunity to study.
ÁNIMA has two orientations: Computer Science, which they call Tics, and Administration. It lasts three years and the objective is to bring the world of work closer to the world of study. Those who graduate from the Tics orientation graduate as junior web developers.
Although Castroman is only in his first year, he is already working on a project. In a group of six, in which there are three men and three women, he is working on a vest for cyclists. The goal is that, at the moment the person raises his or her arm, a signal will be turned on to indicate that he or she is going to turn.
In the last year of this orientation is Fernanda Mayer, 17, who wants to study web design. She was born in a home that has computer science as a protagonist. Her siblings have always shown interest in the subject and even the eldest one repairs computers. She understood that her education should also go that way.
Now ÁNIMA is working on a project to control the lights and sockets of the houses. That is to say, the user could have a better control of his house and the energy he spends.
Al igual que el equipo de Castroman, el de ella es equitativo con dos hombres y dos mujeres. Sin embargo, en su clase son 20 alumnos, y solo cuatro son mujeres. Mayer cree que esto se impone desde chicos. «No se prohíbe la entrada de mujeres, es un tema más social», señaló.
The educational coordinator said that of the 98 students at ANIMA, 69 are boys and 29 are girls. As an institution, we want more girls to attend.
«Desde niños es como que la electricidad y esas cosas son más para los niños. Mientras que las muñecas y la cocina son más para las mujeres», concluyó Castroman.
The only
At the high school in Canelón Chico, a teenager's attention was caught by a call on a billboard. It was an invitation to do a project with social objectives. He called two classmates and a classmate and together they created an application to reduce communication time between the family and the school. The girl in the group, Nahiara Chavasco, was the one who was most outside the topic. They entered the Solutions for the Future contest, from Samsung and Socialab, and were among the six best and traveled to the final in Argentina.
Para Chavasco, el viaje fue realmente particular. Al llegar la anunciaron como la única mujer de la competencia, lo que ella creyó que era una broma. A pesar de ser la única chica, nunca sintió un trato diferente. «Era otra carga, pero las organizadoras me mimaron de otra forma», agregó.
Si bien decidió estudiar medicina, esta oportunidad le despertó el interés en la tecnología. «El proyecto abrió esa ventanita de pensar que puedo seguir emprendiendo», comentó a Cromo. Al igual que el resto de las adolescentes nombradas, ella considera que es la sociedad la que impone que una actividad «sea» para hombre o para mujer.
In this line, Ana Nobile, a former student of the Tomás Berreta high school in Canelones, always knew that she liked technology but did not dare to approach the Robotics Workshop of the institution. In 2017 he studied 6th grade engineering and a math teacher decided to dedicate an hour of class to teach programming. Seeing that Nobile loved it, he suggested that he go to the extracurricular workshop. He decided to try it out and participated with a group in a contest at the School of Engineering, where he won second place. First prize went to a classmate who won the opportunity to go to Robocup, a worldwide robotics competition held in Canada. Then the teachers formed a group of six students to travel: five boys and one girl, Ana Nobile.
En Canadá, de donde regresaron esta semana, fueron a presentar un robot autónomo que es capaz de seguir una línea y clasificar pelotas «vivas» o «muertas», es decir, que tenían electricidad o no, para simular un rescate espacial.
Según ella, si el profesor de matemática no le hubiese dado la oportunidad de aprender programación, es probable que no estuviera en primer año de Ingeniería Eléctrica. «Hay muy poca participación de mujeres en la tecnología, no por falta de interés y mucho menos por falta de capacidad», señaló.
«Hay ciertas actitudes muy machistas en la sociedad al pensar que la educación o actividades dentro de la educación pertenecen a los hombres», sumó Chavasco.
Proud
Robotics workshops are not only found in the capital and nearby departments, but in high schools all over the country. Fernanda Bueno, 15, has been participating for four years at Liceo No. 6 in the department of Rivera. She is currently studying at Ifsul, a bi-national institute, where she is taking a degree in Electrical and Electronic Technology. In the future she wants to study at the Faculty of Engineering.
Bueno participated in the Robotics Programming Olympics and won first place in the 2015 Science Club. Then, in 2017, he created a submarine with the aim of cleaning the Cuñapirú stream. The idea is that it moves through the water and cleans solid waste. With the project he obtained a special mention.
Bueno dijo que la tecnología solía ser una profesión muy masculina, pero actualmente está cambiando. Incluso, en este taller son más chicas que varones. «Estoy muy orgullosa de decir que somos mayoría mujeres», precisó.
Of the same age and in the same workshop, Agustina Martínez also played an important role in robotics. She is currently studying at Liceo nº 1 in Rivera and this is the third year she is attending Robotics. Some of her projects received mentions in national competitions. In the second year he developed a robot that generated hydroelectric energy and was recognized with a special mention as a Sustainable Development Project.
Initially, Martinez was part of a team of four women; one of them left and now there are three women and one man. With this conformation they are preparing for other international competitions.
Pablo Macedo, quien está a cargo de dicho taller, sostuvo que la institución hace todo por integrar a más mujeres. El desempeño de ellas «es muy positivo por su capacidad de liderazgo y de organización», opinó.
Source: Cromo - The Observer
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