26/10/2018

Fátima Bernardes showcases outstanding women in science.

In Tuesday’s edition (23), the program “ Encontro com Fátima Bernardes ”, on TV Globo, talked about women who are breaking barriers and standing out in scientific areas that were dominated by men.

Reporter Lair Rennó visited the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) to show that the landscape is changing, but women are still a minority in research centers. Watch the video here.

Check out the program transcript:

Data from INEP (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira), linked to the Ministry of Education, shows that the number of women producing science in the country has increased, but in the field of exact sciences, 75% of scientific publications are still by men.

This is the headquarters of IMPA, in Rio de Janeiro, an international reference in the study and research of mathematics. One characteristic in the classroom stands out: for every ten students, only two are women.

Why do you think this is a predominantly male universe, with 80% of the students being men?

"I think it's cultural. Until a long time ago, women were forbidden from studying mathematics, and I think we feel that," comments Cynthia Bortolotto.

– The way parents raise their children, encouraging girls to play more with toy kitchens, to explore the more human side, to want to cook and explore the artistic side, sometimes you label math and science as a man's thing, and that's completely wrong, highlights Tainara Gobetti Borges.

Of the 47 teachers, only one is a woman, Carolina. What is it like for you to teach in front of so many men as colleagues?

"I, personally, am bothered by this situation. I understand that this discrepancy is very bad for science and it's something we need to change," says Carolina Araujo.

Imagine you've just started college, you're 16 or 17, and you're interested in a particular research area. You arrive at the seminar and everyone is male. You walk into the room and think: I clearly don't belong here, says Julia Domingues Lemos.

"This has to stop. People should be doing what they enjoy, and an environment needs to be created where they feel comfortable doing what they enjoy," comments student Ricardo Carlos Freire.

"We end up having few role models for our female students to look up to, to see that they belong in that environment, that it's not just for men, and that women are also there and need to occupy that space," reports Professor Jaqueline Godoy Mesquita, from UnB.

"Over the past few years, I haven't noticed an increase in the number of female students in undergraduate courses. I think this is something we should work more actively to bring about change. I hope that in future generations we can improve these statistics," concludes Carolina.